The slaying of a San Francisco woman by an illegal immigrant released from jail is aiming fresh scrutiny at communities that don’t fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities, including several counties in the Atlanta area.
Like San Francisco, the sheriff’s departments in Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties don’t comply with requests from the federal government to hold illegal immigrants beyond their scheduled release dates so they can face deportation.
Scores of other jurisdictions across the nation have approved similar measures.
Critics say the policies endanger public safety. The July 1 shooting of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle as she walked along a pier in San Francisco with her father has stoked those fears.
But supporters contend they uphold people’s Fourth Amendment rights requiring probable cause to detain. And they build trust with immigrants who may be fearful of reporting crimes to police or who may be seeking social services. Officials in Fulton and DeKalb said Tuesday they have no plans to alter their policies, though they highlighted how they are cooperating with federal immigration authorities in other ways. The Clayton Sheriff’s Office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
At issue are official requests called detainers that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sends jails to hold inmates for an additional 48 hours — excluding weekends and holidays — after they would otherwise be released. This gives ICE time to take custody of them and attempt to deport them. Federal court rulings issued last year say it is unconstitutional to detain people solely on the basis of such detainers and that police aren’t legally required to comply with them.
Citing those federal court rulings, DeKalb Sheriff Jeffrey Mann announced in December that his jail would not prolong people’s detention based on ICE detainers “without a warrant or other sufficient probable cause.” Mann said Tuesday that he stood by his policy. But he confirmed his staff allows ICE officials to interview detainees in the DeKalb jail and lets them know if someone they want is about to be released, giving them advance notice so they can collect them before they hit the streets.
“If they issue a request for notification,” Mann said, “we are all on board about giving them as much notice as possible with respect to a pending release.”
Fulton County commissioners adopted a similar measure in September.
“Public safety of Fulton County citizens is paramount,” Fulton Sheriff Ted Jackson said Tuesday. “We cooperate fully with ICE in the interest of detaining those in which warrants are issued.”
Col. Mark Adger, Fulton’s chief jailer, said in an email that ICE detainers are “not lawful warrants. A detainer is a request. Warrants are required to incarcerate persons at the Fulton County Jail.” But Adger said his office is seeking to work with ICE.
“Fulton County Jail managers have been meeting with ICE officials to discuss how to move forward,” Adger said. “One proposal is to involve ICE at the beginning of an inmate’s incarceration rather than the end to allow ICE time to secure warrants for individuals. We will continue to work with the agency to make a determination as to what will be the best protocol to handle these matters properly.”
In California, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez had seven felony convictions — four involving narcotics charges — and had been deported five times before he was charged Monday in the killing of Steinle, according to ICE.
Lopez-Sanchez had just finished serving a years-long prison sentence for illegally reentering the United States before federal prison officials transferred him to the San Francisco jail this year. He was sent there based on a local arrest warrant for a felony drug charge. ICE issued a detainer for him with the city Sheriff’s Department on March 27, asking to be notified before he would be released. The Sheriff’s Department did not comply with that request, according to ICE. The jail released him on April 15, after his local charges were dismissed in court.
“Bottom line: If the local authorities had merely notified ICE that they were about to release this individual into the community, ICE could have taken custody of him and had him removed from the country — thus preventing this terrible tragedy,” ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in a prepared statement. “ICE desperately wants local law enforcement agencies to work with us so we can work to stop needless violence like these in our communities.”
The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department issued a statement this week, saying it had complied with a city ordinance that prohibits it from cooperating with ICE detainers.
“When Mr. Lopez-Sanchez was booked into the jail, there was no active Immigration and Customs Enforcement warrant or judicial order of removal for him,” the department said.
San Francisco also has a “sanctuary” ordinance on the books from 1989 that prohibits city officials from assisting in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee referenced that law in a prepared statement he issued Monday.
“Let me be clear: San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy protects residents regardless of immigration status and is not intended to protect repeat, serious and violent felons,” said Lee, the son of immigrants.
Georgia law bans sanctuary policies in the state.
The Republican-run Congress has clashed with the Obama administration repeatedly on immigration policy — including a standoff on Department of Homeland Security funding this year — though this time Republicans want local governments to comply with the feds.
“The root of the problem there is going to be the elected officials in those (Georgia) counties,” said U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Cassville Republican. “They are the ones who are really putting the citizens at risk.”
Loudermilk said Steinle’s killing could build political momentum for immigration bills and prompt congressional inquiries into “sanctuary cities.”
Azadeh Shahshahani, president of the National Lawyers Guild, praised the Georgia counties for their policies.
“Fulton, Clayton, and DeKalb counties,” she said in an email, “did the right thing by protecting themselves from legal liability and putting public safety first.”
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