Conservative Immigration Think Tank Wants To Kill San Francisco's Federal Dollars

By Lauren Smiley, Fri., Nov. 19 2010 @ 5:59PM

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​San Francisco jails should lose roughly $750,000 in Department of Justice dollars. That's the gist of a memo released this month by the Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank Center for Immigration Studies, which accuses San Francisco of being a sanctuary city that obstructs immigration law enforcement and "encourages illegal settlement."

San Francisco was on the hit list of the report called "Subsidizing Sanctuaries," which found that $62.6 million was allocated in the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) to cities that have sanctuary policies nationwide. The money helps cover the costs of jailing illegal immigrants that are wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- commonly known as a "ICE hold."

The Center says San Francisco is trying to "have its cake and eat it, too" by receiving the money while being a sanctuary city and attempting to opt out of the federal fingerprint identification program known as Secure Communities, says memo author Jessica Vaughan.

She cites San Francisco giving illegal immigrants public benefits (such as Healthy SF) and and municipal ID cards: "I would argue those policies attract illegal immigrants to a location, so that's increasing the fiscal burden that SCAAP is trying to alleviate," says Vaughan, the center's director of policy studies. "That's not logical in my view."

Yet the San Francisco Sheriff's Department argues that the report is bunk. San Francisco is abiding by all the federal laws -- including participating in Secure Communities since this summer. In fact, in a meeting with federal authorities just last week, city officials were told there is no way to opt out.


​"We're still housing the people that money was intended to support," says Eileen Hirst, sheriff's department spokeswoman.

Under the Secure Communities program, all fingerprints taken by the police or sheriff's department in San Francisco are checked against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in an attempt to determine whether they're in the country legally. That means a misdemeanor arrest can now lead to an ICE hold and eventual deportation, a situation that immigrant activists have denounced.

When told San Francisco is actively participating in the program by SF Weekly, Vaughan seemed to backtrack on the memo's recommendation. She said that San Francisco should get the federal SCAAP bucks "as long as the county is still participating in S-Comm in good faith." Whatever that means.

The SCAAP money is meant to alleviate the costs of housing illegal immigrants in county jail. Judges will not grant bail to defendants with ICE holds, Hirst says, so they must await their court date in jail, draining from the county's coffers.

But Hirst says the SCAAP money isn't a full reimbursement, and the county still ends up losing money by housing the immigrants.

While San Francisco is participating in "good faith" with S-Comm for now, the sheriff's department is currently re-considering cooperating with federal immigration officials on another front. At the meeting with federal officials last week, Secure Communities Director David Venturella surprised Sheriff Mike Hennessey by saying that honoring ICE holds (the jail holding onto an illegal immigrant so that they can be picked up by immigration authorities after their case is done with) is voluntary.

"It's been our belief we are required by federal law to honor the detainer," Hirst says. "Now we have Mr. Venturella's assertion that no, no it's not required ... So we are taking a look at that issue. If they are not mandatory, should we be honoring them?"

If San Francisco decides to stop cooperating with ICE on this front, the city will face much greater than a think tank memo.

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