AP
July 7, 2015
San
Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has defended his office's decision to
release a Mexican man who was in the U.S. illegally and who is now
suspected in the killing
of a woman at a sightseeing pier.
Mirkarimi
said that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency should
earlier have issued an arrest warrant for Francisco Sanchez.
"ICE
knew that he had been deported five times," Mirkarimi said. "You would
have thought he met a threshold that he required a court order or a
warrant. They did not do
that."
Prosecutors
on Monday charged Sanchez with murder in the death of Kathryn Steinle,
who was shot and killed last Wednesday as she and her father took a walk
on the popular
Pier 14.
Steinle's
killing has brought criticism down on this liberal city because Sanchez
had been deported repeatedly and was out on the streets after San
Francisco officials
disregarded a request from immigration authorities to keep him locked
up.
San
Francisco is one of dozens of cities and counties across the country
that do not fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The
city goes so far as to promote
itself as a "sanctuary" for people in the country illegally.
In
a jailhouse interview with a TV station, Sanchez, a 45-year-old repeat
drug offender, appeared to confirm that he came to the city because of
its status as a sanctuary.
The
case has prompted a flurry of criticism from ICE officials, politicians
and commenters on social media, all of whom portrayed the slaying as a
preventable tragedy.
"Most
of the blame should fall squarely on the shoulders of the San Francisco
sheriff, because his department had custody of him and made the choice
to let him go without
notifying ICE," said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the
Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which wants tougher
immigration enforcement.
Rep.
Bob Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who chairs the House Judiciary
Committee, blamed sanctuary practices and the Obama administration,
saying: "The tragic murder
of Kate Steinle once again underscores the need to end these reckless
policies."
Mayor
Ed Lee issued a statement saying city policy was never intended to
protect "repeat, serious and violent felons." He asked for federal and
local agencies to review
what happened.
California
Attorney General Kamala Harris, a former San Francisco district
attorney who is running for U.S. Senate, cautioned that when it comes to
immigration, "our policy
should not be informed by our collective outrage about one man's
conduct."
Many
other San Francisco politicians stayed quiet as mourners held a vigil
at Pier 14 on the downtown waterfront, where the 32-year-old Steinle was
gunned down, seemingly
at random. She had recently moved to San Francisco.
While many cities have scaled back cooperation with ICE, few have gone as far as San Francisco.
For more than two decades, San Francisco has been considered a sanctuary for people in the U.S. illegally.
The
city's sanctuary law prohibits city employees from helping federal
authorities with immigration investigations or arrests unless required
by law or warrant. That said,
the ordinance does not prohibit local law enforcement from informing
ICE that they've arrested someone in the country illegally for a felony
offense or who has prior felony convictions.
From
jail, Sanchez told a KGO-TV reporter in a mix of Spanish and English
that he found the gun wrapped in a T-shirt while sitting on a bench at
the pier.
"So I picked it up and ... it started to fire on its own," Sanchez said, adding that he heard three shots go off.
Asked if he came to San Francisco because of its sanctuary status, he said yes.
"I
only want to say that if the court wants to find me guilty, I wouldn't
get mad," Sanchez said during the interview, in which he appeared
confused and spoke incoherently
at times.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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