Alleged SF killer had been released from jail despite request for immigration hold

The girlfriend of Abel Enrique Esquivel (who did not wish to be identified) holds up several badges dedicated to Abel that she wears around her neck after the arraignment of the man accused of murdering him on Thursday, September 14, 2017 at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco, Calif. less The girlfriend of Abel Enrique Esquivel (who did not wish to be identified) holds up several badges dedicated to Abel that she wears around her neck after the arraignment of the man accused of murdering him on ... more Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 43 Caption Close Alleged SF killer had been released from jail despite request for immigration hold 1 / 43 Back to Gallery

One of three men accused of using a gun stolen from a San Francisco police officer to kill a man in the Mission District last month had been released from County Jail earlier in the year despite a request from federal immigration agents that he be held and turned over for potential deportation, officials said Friday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials lodged what is known as a detainer request for Jesus Perez-Araujo, 24, after he was arrested three months before the Aug. 15 street killing of 23-year-old Abel Enrique Esquivel Jr., said ICE spokesman James Schwab. The agency asked the city to hold him for up to 48 hours after his release.

But San Francisco, and every other county in the Bay Area, does not honor detainer requests because of concerns that they violate inmates’ constitutional rights. And San Francisco, where leaders have rallied behind sanctuary policies that limit local cooperation in deportation efforts, notifies ICE in advance of an inmate’s release only under strict circumstances.

Perez-Araujo was arrested in May on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale, was charged in court with a single misdemeanor count of possession of brass knuckles and released shortly thereafter, officials said. The charge does not fit the criteria under which the San Francisco jail would notify ICE.

“Despite the detainer, local authorities made the decision to release him back into the community without providing any notification to ICE, resulting in another arrest that may have been averted had the city chosen to cooperate with ICE,” Schwab said.

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail, has said repeatedly that if immigration agents want to ensure they take custody of an inmate before release, they should obtain a warrant.

“If ICE had presented us with a criminal warrant, we would have honored it,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Eileen Hirst said Friday.

The situation is similar to the jail’s controversial 2015 release of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate — also known as Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez — an immigrant who ICE wanted for deportation and who was later accused of killing 32-year-old Kate Steinle on the city’s Pier 14. That slaying also was committed with a gun stolen from a law enforcement officer’s vehicle.

The episode highlights the fraught relationship between federal immigration authorities and leaders of sanctuary cities, who say public safety is enhanced when all city residents, including immigrants lacking documentation, can utilize public services and communicate with police without fear of deportation.

Perez-Araujo’s case is likely to become part of the debate over sanctuary laws that have prompted support from immigration advocates and attacks by the Trump administration, which has sought to increase deportations and has said sanctuary laws needlessly endanger communities.

On Friday, the California Legislature took up a bill that would forbid immigration detainers across the state and spell out when local jails can notify ICE about an inmate’s pending release.

“What makes this so tragic is that it might have been prevented if San Francisco did not have such an egregious sanctuary policy,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for more restrictive enforcement. “How many deaths is it going to take before people realize this is a mistake?”

But Francisco Ugarte, an attorney defending Garcia Zarate against a murder charge, said, “I think people who are trying to shoehorn the immigration question into this case have an ulterior motive. We know that noncitizens commit crimes at a lower rate than their citizen counterparts, and we know there is no correlation between deportation and public safety.”

In an unusual twist in the case, immigration officials said Friday that one of the other men accused in the Mission District killing, 18-year-old Erick Garcia-Pineda, was wearing a GPS-enabled ICE ankle monitor at the time that allowed the agency to track his every move. .

The series of events that led to Esquivel’s death began Aug. 12, when Garcia-Pineda and Perez-Araujo stole a silver .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and ammunition from a private car that was parked in San Francisco and belonged to city police Officer Marvin Cabuntala, according to a court complaint filed Thursday. The police internal affairs division is probing the theft and whether the officer failed to properly safeguard the weapon.

Garcia-Pineda, Perez-Araujo and Daniel Cruz, 18, then went on a robbery spree in the early-morning hours of Aug. 15, authorities said, ending with Garcia-Pineda shooting Esquivel, a city native and supermarket worker, at 26th Street and South Van Ness Avenue. Data from the ankle monitor is now key evidence in the case.

The three men were arraigned Thursday on a slate of charges, including murder, and are being held in jail without bail. Each pleaded not guilty.

Perez-Araujo had never been in ICE custody, officials said. But Garcia-Pineda was the subject of deportation proceedings after he was detained in December by federal authorities, Schwab said.

In April, an immigration judge released Garcia-Pineda while his court case continued, on condition that he “wear a GPS monitoring bracelet and report to ICE in-person on a regular basis,” Schwab said. He said Garcia-Pineda complied until August, when he missed a mandatory appointment with ICE.

Later, after the killing but before Garcia-Pineda had been linked to it, he was booked into jail twice in San Francisco in unrelated cases, officials said. He was arrested Aug. 18 on suspicion of shooting at an inhabited dwelling and assault with a firearm, and arrested Sept. 3 on suspicion of misdemeanor battery. He was not charged by prosecutors in either case, and was freed.

Sheriff’s deputies at the jail appear to have removed Garcia-Pineda’s ankle monitor before releasing him the first time, again underscoring the frayed relationship between ICE and local officials. ICE said the GPS tracker was removed Aug. 19, when an agency contractor responsible for monitoring individuals received a “tamper alert.”

It’s not clear why ICE did not immediately respond to the location of the alert, but officials said the agency later could not track down Garcia-Pineda.

Though the Sheriff’s Department would not comment on Garcia-Pineda’s case specifically, officials said deputies would remove any inmate’s ankle monitor during booking. The disconnection typically alerts the monitoring agency, Hirst said, and that agency would know via GPS that the person was in San Francisco jail.

“It’s then up to the issuing agency to be tracking this person and following up with us if they want us to do anything in particular with them,” Hirst said.

ICE officials said they lodged a detainer request when Garcia-Pineda was arrested Sept. 3, hoping to take custody of him and continue deportation proceedings. But the case did not fit San Francisco’s criteria for notifying ICE, and Garcia-Pineda was released. Around this time, city investigators were piecing together the Mission District killing, and they arrested all three men early this week.

Angela Chan, an immigration lawyer and policy director at the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, said counties were right to ignore ICE detainers, because courts have ruled they violate the constitutional ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.

“It sounds like it was a terrible tragedy that occurred, but we need to stop stereotyping and scapegoating immigrants,” she said. “There is violent crime committed by both immigrants and nonimmigrants.”

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo