San Francisco shielding illegal immigrant drug dealers from deportation, feds say
San Francisco juvenile probation officials -- citing the city's immigrant sanctuary status -- are protecting Honduran youths caught dealing crack cocaine from possible federal deportation and have given some offenders a city-paid flight home with carte blanche to return, reports the San Francisco Chronicle today. The paper reports:
Barred by state law from sending drug offenders to the California Youth Authority and bound by a 1989 city law defining San Francisco as a sanctuary city for immigrants -- meaning officials do not cooperate with federal immigration investigations -- juvenile officials settled on an unorthodox strategy.
Rather than have the drug offenders deported, they have recommended that Juvenile Court judges and commissioners approve city-paid flights home to Honduras for the offenders with the aim of reuniting them with their families.
The practice, federal authorities say, does nothing to prevent offenders from coming back, while federal deportation legally bars them from ever returning. Federal officials also say U.S. law prohibits helping an illegal immigrant to cross the border, even if it is to return home.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
