Thread: CA-D.A.: Illegal immigrants were playing by rules

D.A.: Illegal immigrants were playing by rules
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 24, 2009



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(06-23) 18:51 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said Tuesday that half a dozen illegal immigrants whose drug convictions were expunged as part of a job training program that she oversaw were "following the rules" and deserved to be exonerated even after prosecutors learned of their status.

Prosecutors tightened guidelines, the district attorney said, after learning last summer that a man enrolled in Harris' Back on Track program was an illegal immigrant who allegedly robbed and assaulted a woman in Pacific Heights.

The suspect in that case, Alexander Izaguirre, was the only one of the seven enrollees who turned out to be illegal immigrants who did anything wrong while in the program, Harris said.

"This is an innovative program that has actually been proven to work, except with this one issue, which we corrected when we learned about it," Harris said.

"Once Izaguirre happened, bright lights flashed," she said. "It was crystal clear when that happened, and we fixed it."

Harris made her remarks in her first comments since news broke that prosecutors who run the 4-year-old Back on Track program had allowed the other illegal immigrants to graduate early from the program even after learning of the Izaguirre case.

Under the program, people between ages 18 and 30 convicted of their first drug offense undergo job training, education and counseling for one year, after which their convictions are wiped from their record. The district attorney's office says 113 offenders have successfully completed the program, while 99 have failed and been sent back into the court system.

Harris said that although it was implicit that people in the program need to be able to obtain and hold jobs legally, her office had not made that explicit until after she learned about the Izaguirre case. "We needed to make it explicit," she said.

Then she faced the question of what to do with the six other offenders her staff learned were already in the program but could not legally hold jobs - presumably because they were in the United States illegally.

"When the issue was presented to us, a group of knowledgeable people - good legal minds - made a decision that I agreed with, to go ahead and (let the six) graduate," Harris said.

"The reasoning as presented to me was very sound," Harris said. "They were following the rules of the program, following and abiding by the arrangement, the contract.

"I'm responsible - I take full responsibility for that," she said.

Sharon Woo, a prosecutor who oversees the program, said Monday that the offenders had entered into an agreement that amounted to a contract when they signed up for Back on Track, and that prosecutors were duty-bound to fulfill their end of the bargain.

"A few people got in who should not have," Harris said Tuesday. "We graduated them out and we reformed the criteria."

Prosecutors did not tell federal immigration authorities about the undocumented offenders. The city attorney has said "custodial agencies," in this case the Sheriff's Department, have that responsibility, Harris said.

The Sheriff's Department did not report Izaguirre and the other illegal immigrants to federal authorities when they were in county jail. Sheriff's officials say that in some cases the offenders may have been released or posted bail before deputies could learn their immigration status.

Izaguirre, however, was deemed to fit the department's criteria for notifying the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency when he was arrested on cocaine-dealing charges in December 2007, sheriff's spokeswoman Eileen Hirst said. There is no record that the department ever alerted federal authorities; Hirst said it has since improved its record keeping.

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

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Breaking into our country without proper documentation is not playing by the rules.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said Tuesday that half a dozen illegal immigrants whose drug convictions were expunged as part of a job training program that she oversaw were "following the rules" and deserved to be exonerated even after prosecutors learned of their status.

SHE must have been smoke'n crack right along with the "students"!

"The reasoning as presented to me was very sound," Harris said. "They were following the rules of the program, following and abiding by the arrangement, the contract.

"I'm responsible - I take full responsibility for that," she said.

So, this makes you a great Candidate for "higher" office I presume? And yes the pun was intended...LOL!

She is trying very hard to exonerate herself. BULL CRAP...

"When the issue was presented to us, a group of knowledgeable people - good legal minds - made a decision that I agreed with, to go ahead and (let the six) graduate," Harris said.

What? You mean there are several more idiots like you Harris? Illegal aliens should not be able to participate in any programs intended to help citizens and then GRADUATE for pete sakes. Where are they going to go then? Back on our streets? What a moron.

after which their convictions are wiped from their record. The district attorney's office says 113 offenders have successfully completed the program, while 99 have failed and been sent back into the court system.

How many conpleted the program, re-offended but appeared in court as first time offenders because their records had been scrubbed? Seriously, this program ain't all that... Little over 50% completion rate. Not so good.

Dixie

If our laws only apply to certain segments of our population, our laws and legal system, become null and void. Either we are a country of respect for the law or we are not.

God Bless and Help America!

"The reasoning as presented to me was very sound," Harris said. "They were following the rules of the program, following and abiding by the arrangement, the contract.

Yeah, but they weren't supposed to be in the program in the first place! This is the sort of mentality that has brought us to the point we're at now on the illegal alien issue.

District Attorney Kamala Harris did it ever cross the your Elitist lawyer mind that if the ILLEGALS were not in the United States there would NOT had been this crime and your time would have been better served focusing on problems of United States Citizens.

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