San Francisco Admits To Shielding Immigrant Felons

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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Sitting in for Steve Inskeep, I'm Ari Shapiro.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

And I'm Renee Montagne.

Here in California, San Francisco takes pride in being a sanctuary city. That means it doesn't hand over undocumented immigrants to federal authorities. But this week, that policy became an embarrassment to officials there. The city was forced to admit it's been shielding young immigrants who also happen to be drug felons.

NPR's Richard Gonzales reports.

RICHARD GONZALES: San Francisco first declared itself a sanctuary city back in 1989. And just last April, the city reaffirmed that stand in a series of radio and TV commercials, like this one featuring the chief of police Heather Fong.

Chief HEATHER FONG (Chief of Police, San Francisco): We do not work on enforcing immigration laws, only safe cities to prevent crime.

GONZALES: The sanctuary law does not protect adult felons. However, under a little known policy, illegal immigrant juveniles caught dealing drugs were kept away from immigration officials. In the most recent case to come to light, a city official escorted two juvenile drug offenders back home to their native Honduras at taxpayer expense, and it wasn't the first time.

Mr. JOSEPH RUSSONIELLO (Attorney): This particular instance, though, with these Hondurans, it made me very angry.

GONZALES: Joseph Russoniello was a U.S. attorney in San Francisco. He says Honduran-based drug traffickers have gamed the system by taking advantage of San Francisco's sanctuary policy.

Mr. RUSSONIELLO: They knew even if they were arrested, as long as they claimed to be juveniles, there was no chance they were going to be turned over to ICE. And there was a great probability that the most that they would face is a possible return to Honduras.

GONZALES: But San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi draws a different picture. He says most of the youths were homeless, jobless, first-time offenders who were preyed upon by drug traffickers. And the city made every effort to get them back home to their families.

Mr. JEFF ADACHI (Public Defender, San Francisco): It placed the juvenile probation department in a quandary, because if they turned kids over to the immigration authorities, they would be violating the sanctuary ordinance.

GONZALES: Meanwhile, San Francisco was taking plenty of heat from the feds for carrying out what amounted to its own foreign policy. Last month, instead of sending one group of convicted drug felons back home, the city arranged to house them in a youth shelter in Southern California. Within days, they had all run away.

The revelations forced an embarrassed Mayor Gavin Newsom to hold a hastily arranged news conference in which he said the city's actions were unjustifiable.

Mayor GAVIN NEWSOM (San Francisco): When we found out about it, we ended it.

GONZALES: At first, Newsom said he lacks the authority to order city officials to cooperate with immigration authorities. But after a public outcry, he changed his tune and announced that the city will direct all felony cases, adult and juvenile, to the feds.

Mayor NEWSOM: Make no mistake. Sanctuary city is not a place for people to feel that they can come in with impunity and break the law.

GONZALES: Both he and U.S. attorney Joseph Russoniello say the policy of sending juvenile offenders back home may date back 20 years. No one knows how many illegal immigrants may have gotten a free ticket back home, but for now, Russoniello says he believes that the city has seen the light.

Mr. RUSSONIELLO: Certainly, the practice of transporting these detainees, that practice has stopped. And the practice of their juvenile probation authority now working cooperatively with immigration and customs enforcement department will begin - will begin very, very soon.

GONZALES: Still, the controversy couldn't have come at a worse time for Mayor Newsom. This week, he took initial steps toward a possible run for governor. Now Newsom will be forced to defend his city's sanctuary law to many voters who just don't get it.

Richard Gonzales, NPR News, San Francisco. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.