Thread: CA-Illegal teen rearrested - faces 2nd deportation

Illegal teen rearrested - faces 2nd deportation
Jaxon Van Derbeken

Tuesday, May 5, 2009



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A Honduran teenager deported last year under San Francisco's new policy of turning over juvenile drug offenders to U.S. immigration authorities has been rearrested for dealing drugs in the city and is likely to be deported again, authorities say.

The case of the 15-year-old boy demonstrates the complexities of the problem that San Francisco officials face in handling an influx of young Honduran immigrants who deal crack cocaine on the city's streets but have no local ties.

The youth, referred to as Francisco G. because he is a juvenile, was first arrested selling crack in the Tenderloin in July, when he was 14. He told his defense attorneys a harrowing story of how he wound up in the city after his mother left him on his own in Honduras, and Juvenile Court Commissioner Abby Abinanti concluded that he should be handled within the social welfare system, not as a criminal offender.

City officials, however, surrendered him to immigration officials rather than release him. When federal authorities took custody of him, they discovered 50 bindles of crack cocaine sewn into his clothes, which Juvenile Hall officials had put in storage after he was arrested.

Francisco G. was deported late last year, but it didn't take him long to return.

According to police reports, he was arrested March 28 with two adults dealing crack at Market and Larkin streets near UN Plaza. On April 21, he went before Abinanti, who sentenced him to a year in custody with the understanding that he would probably be deported, according to authorities familiar with the case.

That sentence was later modified by the court, and juvenile probation officials surrendered the boy to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Majority illegal Hondurans

As an undocumented immigrant and alleged drug dealer, Francisco G. is far from alone in San Francisco. A recent city report showed that from January 2005 through this past February, 252 undocumented youths had cases in the juvenile probation system, nearly 80 percent of whom were from Honduras. Many were drug offenders.

Advocates for youths in the juvenile courts stress that many of the immigrant teenagers accused of drug dealing are victims of abuse, abandonment or human trafficking, and should not be treated like hardened criminals.

They say the youths should be allowed to make a case for asylum rather than being turned over for deportation. They also say that only youths who have already had their cases adjudicated in juvenile court should be surrendered to federal authorities.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, however, announced a policy change last year after a series of articles in The Chronicle revealed that the city was paying for flights home and group-home placements for illegal immigrant youths caught dealing drugs rather than turning them over for deportation.

The Newsom administration made it clear that the city's sanctuary policy for illegal immigrants did not extend to juveniles accused of crimes, and began surrendering such youths to federal authorities.

The case of Francisco G. "shows that even when juvenile suspects are referred to ICE, it doesn't mean that they will never come back and reoffend," said mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard.

Reform needed
"This shows that we need serious immigration reform on the federal level - local governments bear the brunt of a failed immigration policy," Ballard said. "We are doing everything we can to keep criminals away and off our streets, but we can't do it alone."

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the federal immigration service, confirmed that deportation proceedings were under way for Francisco G. but declined further comment.

The boy's attorney, Lisa Katz of the public defender's office, provided Abinanti last year with a statement on behalf of her client. She said he had never known his father and had been left behind in Honduras at age 13 when his mother moved to Spain.

He had a job at a bakery for $3.70 a week and lived on that, along with money his mother sent back from Spain, but left for the United States to escape harassment by Honduran gangs, Katz said.

The boy rode freight trains and walked through the desert at night, then spent five days in a safe house run by smugglers until a friend could provide the $2,500 needed to get him to Los Angeles, Katz said.

Unable to find work there, he came to San Francisco, but could not keep a job as a roofer because of his age and small stature, Katz said.

He turned to drug dealing after 15 days without work, she told Abinanti, and was arrested on July 17, 2008.

"Francisco is abandoned and wishes to stay in the United States in foster care," Katz told the court in a motion.

Katz declined to comment Monday, saying any media coverage of Francisco G.'s case breaches confidentiality rules that apply to juvenile proceedings.


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



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 17AQ12.DTL

He turned to drug dealing after 15 days without work, she told Abinanti, and was arrested on July 17, 2008.

"Francisco is abandoned and wishes to stay in the United States in foster care," Katz told the court in a motion.

Many Americans have been without work for far longer than 15 days, yet they don't turn to illegal activities.

I don't really care what Francisco wishes . . . get him out of here.

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

He turned to drug dealing after 15 days without work, she told Abinanti, and was arrested on July 17, 2008.

"Francisco is abandoned and wishes to stay in the United States in foster care," Katz told the court in a motion.

Many Americans have been without work for far longer than 15 days, yet they don't turn to illegal activities.

I don't really care what Francisco wishes . . . get him out of here.

All he knows is illegal participation; he wouldn't be an ILLEGAL if he had not entered the United States illegally!

It certainly does not sound as if the author is concerned about the familes of United States Citizens!

It doesn’t seem to matter if it is Police Officer in Houston attempting to safe guard his city, a high school student in Los Angeles standing in front of his home while his mother is half way around the world defending her country, or a father and his sons in San Francisco driving home all became targets of ILLEGALS and were murdered because of the greed of "our" Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Contributors in search of "cheap labor" to help their "bottom line"!

I just do not understand how our President and our Congress can send our young men and women half way around the world in defense of the United States and refuse to defend our National Borders and Enforce our Immigration Laws while at the same time warning our military, for their own safety, not to wear their uniforms when traveling to "our" southern borders. Now our military can no longer leave their children at home in a "major United States city" and expect them to be safe or a least as safe as the parents in a "combat zone"!!

Our FAMILIES are at the mercy of ILLEGALS and their Anchors being murdered, raped, infected with disease, or robbed. We can see the results of the ILLEGAL invasion in our courts every day! But NOT to worry the Chamber of Commerce will get their "cheap labor" increasing "their privatized" PROFITS while socializing the "benefits" for their ILLEGALS on the back of United States Citizens, thanks to our past and current Presidents, the Congressional Leadership(?), and local elected and appointed officials!!

P.S. Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are all SANCTUARY cities!

What's NEXT.....have this criminal get a GED so he join the losers from the DREAM ACT crowd!

His lawyer claims he left Honduras because he was being approached by gangs, and he did not like that. He's not a bad boy. He's a good boy who didn't want to join a gang. So he came to the U.S., and started dealing drugs. Sounds like he got over his distaste for gang activity. So why shouldn't he go home? Because he was being approached by Honduran gangs? The gangs in CA are better for him and his future?

Originally Posted by Steph

His lawyer claims he left Honduras because he was being approached by gangs, and he did not like that. He's not a bad boy. He's a good boy who didn't want to join a gang. So he came to the U.S., and started dealing drugs. Sounds like he got over his distaste for gang activity. So why shouldn't he go home? Because he was being approached by Honduran gangs? The gangs in CA are better for him and his future?

Actually he might end up with a fake GED certificate and wait and hope for the DREAM ACT to pass.

They say the youths should be allowed to make a case for asylum rather than being turned over for deportation.

Asylum from what? Turn these monsters over to immigration officials and have them deported. Let Honduras deal with them.