Thread: 30% of S.F. Juvenile Offienders Actually Adults

30% of S.F. juvenile offenders actually adults

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Mayor Gavin Newsom announced in July that the city no lon... (The Chronicle)

(09-16) 23:44 PDT San Francisco --

Nearly 30 percent of the felony offenders San Francisco juvenile justice officials have reported to federal immigration authorities since the city stopped shielding youths from deportation have turned out to be adults, authorities say.

The city's Juvenile Probation Department has referred 58 offenders to federal authorities since Mayor Gavin Newsom announced July 2 that the city no longer would protect youths from deportation under San Francisco's sanctuary law. The mayor took the step after The Chronicle revealed that the city was paying for flights home and $7,000-a-month group homes for underage, undocumented offenders, who as adults could face prison and automatic deportation.

<<M&R: Hundreds of adult illegals also got sanctuary>>

Of those 58 offenders, authorities have concluded that 17 - or 29.3 percent - were adults, based on immigration records and the statements of offenders themselves, federal immigration officials say. Most of the 58 were being held on drug-dealing charges.

"It confirms our early suspicion that adults were taking advantage of the sanctuary policy in order to evade detection, responsibility and prosecution for criminal behavior," said Joseph Russoniello, the U.S. attorney for Northern California.

Russoniello said adult illegal immigrants convicted of felonies face almost certain deportation, but San Francisco's previous policy of not reporting juveniles who had committed similar offenses to federal officials encouraged offenders to "game the system" and say they were underage.
Advocates denounce change

Advocates for the immigrant youths say that just because some offenders turn out to be adults does not mean the city should report all juvenile immigrant offenders to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

"We believe all youth in the juvenile justice system in San Francisco should be treated the same," said Renee Saucedo of La Raza Centro Legal, a Mission District law center for the immigrant community.

"Adults are legally required to be turned over to immigration, and that happens," Saucedo said. "But for fear of the system being abused, we are now going to treat minors the same way as adults. We don't buy it; we don't believe that immigrant youths should be treated any differently than other youth. We believe what the mayor is doing, his change in policy, is wrong. We see him caving in to anti-immigrant interests."

Saucedo added that "the benefits (of the sanctuary policy for juveniles) far outweigh the potential for abuse. ... San Francisco values people being able to live peacefully, regardless of whether they are immigrants."

Federal immigration officials say most of the offenders they have determined to be adults either admitted they were over 18 or had previously been caught crossing the border and the birth dates they provided then confirmed they are adults now.
Feds want access to jail

"There are people who are going to take advantage of the system," said Tim Aitken, field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention operations in San Francisco. "The key point is, we need to be able to do our job."

He said federal officials should be allowed access to juvenile hall and adult jail so they can check inmates' immigration status more easily.

Sheriff Michael Hennessey, however, has balked at providing more access in the adult jail. He said that no law requires his agency to allow federal officials to screen inmates, and that the city's sanctuary ordinance requires San Francisco officials to have a legal basis for helping the federal government track down illegal immigrants.

The national head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie Myers, asked Newsom to intervene in the dispute in a July 23 letter. "Absent access to this kind of information, ICE is unable to effectively identify criminal aliens in sheriff's custody and lodge the detainers necessary to prevent the release of these criminal aliens back into the San Francisco community," she wrote.

The mayor's office has yet to reply. Nathan Ballard, a spokesman for Newsom, said the city is drafting a response.
Federal officials still happy

For all the back-and-forth over the issue, Aitken said, the city officials' revised policy of referring juvenile offenders is still an improvement over their former refusal to do so.

In July, City Attorney Dennis Herrera reiterated a 1994 opinion that nothing in the sanctuary city law provided protection for juveniles who commit felonies.

Among the 17 offenders found to be adults was Javier Martinez, who claimed to be 16 when he was arrested for drug dealing. Martinez was one of eight Hondurans the Juvenile Probation Department put in unlocked group homes in San Bernardino County who fled in June. When he was caught last month, he told juvenile authorities that he was really 25 and his true name was Jose Mendoza Cerrato.

He is now in adult jail after pleading guilty to a drug charge and is expected to be transferred to federal authorities when he is sentenced Friday.

Juvenile probation officials have said they are often forced to trust offenders when they say they are underage. They say that while courts can order dental examinations in an attempt to determine an offender's age, the findings are inexact.
Juvenile Hall less crowded

Probation officials feared that the Juvenile Hall population would spike after Newsom changed the city's policy and barred offenders from being put in group homes. In fact, the opposite has happened. The average population at Juvenile Hall this month has been 114, a 13.6 percent drop from the 132 in May.

William Siffermann, the head of the Juvenile Probation Department, said that such fluctuations are not unusual and that "this slight reduction cannot be attributed solely or directly" to the decision to turn over immigrant offenders for deportation.

The Juvenile Hall population had been steadily increasing since 2004, the year Newsom took office. That was also the year Juvenile Probation Department officials expressly prohibited staffers from reporting illegal immigrants to federal officials, a ban that the agency had observed for more than a decade.

Advocates for immigrant youths criticized Newsom and Siffermann last year when the Juvenile Hall population hit a 30-year high of 156. Authorities quickly acted to move offenders out of the lockup, including a youth held in a weapons case who was subsequently accused of murder.

Caring for immigrant youths takes up a disproportionate share of Juvenile Probation Department resources, because often they have no local relatives to whom they can be released. Housing youth offenders costs the city an average of $285 a day.

E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.

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Advocates for the immigrant youths say that just because some offenders turn out to be adults does not mean the city should report all juvenile immigrant offenders to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Does no one understand that these juveniles are criminals from the first footstep they took into this country without permission? Then lying about their age is also fraud. Cut off federal funding to those jurisdictions so we can afford to bail out a few more banks and corporations.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

any younger people remember the song

"Will the Real Slim Shady" "Please Stand Up" "Please Stand Up"