'Sanctuary cities' not changing policies after San Francisco shooting

Alan Gomez | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption San Francisco sheriff defends immigrant release San Francisco's sheriff is defending the release of a Mexican immigrant who later was accused of randomly killing a young woman, saying federal authorities failed to provide legal basis to continue to hold him. (July 10)

A woman's murder in San Francisco that police say was committed by an undocumented immigrant released from jail has not prompted other "sanctuary cities" to change their immigrant detention polices.

Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez​ is charged with murder for allegedly shooting 32-year-old Kathryn "Kate" Steinle in the back on July 1 as she was walking with her father along San Francisco's scenic Embarcadero waterfront. Federal immigration authorities have lashed out at local police for having ignored a request to hold Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented Mexican felon, so that he could be deported.

More than 200 cities around the country have passed laws in recent years prohibiti

ng law enforcement officers from detaining suspects based solely on requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. While many examined their policies in the wake of the July 1 San Francisco shooting, none has reported a decision to make a change.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Sally Heyman said the shooting was a tragic "breakdown of the system" that allowed an undocumented immigrant with an extensive criminal history to be set free. But she warned about a "knee-jerk reaction" of using local police as de-facto immigration agents.

"I don't see that we would make a change. I would fight it," she said. "If the only reason someone is in custody is an ICE hold, we're not doing it."

People arrested by local law enforcement already have their fingerprints sent to the FBI to check if they are wanted for crimes in other jurisdictions. At the heart of the debate in many sanctuary cities is a federal program that also forwards those fingerprints to the Department of Homeland Security to check for immigration violations.

If a person is found to have immigration violations on their record, ICE agents can request the local agency to hold onto that person for up to 48 hours after they're cleared of local charges. But in recent years, local agencies have fought back.

Some, like Miami-Dade County, were upset over the cost of the program. Holding immigrants for ICE after they paid their bond or completed their jail sentences cost the county more than $1 million in 2011, according to Heyman's office.

In a resolution passed last year by Cambridge, Mass., the city said the program was being abused by ICE to round up undocumented immigrants with little to no criminal record, undermining their relationship with the local community. According to the resolution, 75% of ICE detainers issued from 2008 to 2011 were placed on undocumented immigrants with no criminal history.

ICE says it has worked to address the concerns of local law enforcement agencies in the past few years by focusing more heavily on undocumented immigrants with extensive criminal histories, and those who are members of criminal gangs or pose a threat to national security. In 2008, 38% of people deported from the country had a criminal conviction on their record, according to ICE. By 2014, that figure had risen to 85%.

"The agency remains committed to working collaboratively with its law enforcement partners to ensure the public's safety," ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in a statement.

Some local law enforcement offices also say the federal program is simply illegal. Johnson County (Kansas) Sheriff Frank Denning points to a U.S. District Court decision out of Oregon last year that ruled in favor of a woman who was incarcerated for 15 days solely on a request from ICE. There was no judicial order or warrant. That, according to U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart, violated the woman's Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure.

Denning said that ruling cemented in his mind that holding onto suspects solely on an ICE order was a violation of federal law.

Based partly on that ruling, ICE is currently transitioning to a system where they simply ask to be notified when certain immigrants are set to be released from local jails.

Denning said he believes the federal government needs to do a better job controlling illegal immigration and keeping dangerous undocumented immigrants out of the U.S. But since politicians in Washington have proven incapable of fixing the nation's broken immigration system, he said local law enforcement officials like him are the ones getting blamed.

"When elephants fight, the grass suffers," he said. "We've become the grass that is being trampled."

Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriffs' Association, said there's plenty of criticism to go around. He said sanctuary cities have gone too far in letting undocumented immigrants walk out of their jails. But he also said ICE agents need to change their practices to ensure they are constitutional.

Currently, ICE asks local agencies to hold people without any explanation of the charges they face or why they're investigating them. Thompson said they should instead make their requests armed with judicial orders or warrants.

"I think both sides need to take a thorough re-evaluation of how they're protecting their respective citizenry," Thompson said. "In the case of the sanctuary cities, that policy is flawed from concept to execution. From the (ICE) perspective, they need to share the who, what, when, where and why with local authorities.

"We know there are thousands of people who are here illegally who are very dangerous people, so both sides have an equal part in this play."