Thread: Local man arrested by immigration officials after SFPD detention, possibly in violati

Local man arrested by immigration officials after SFPD detention, possibly in violation of city law

by Jonah Owen Lamb on January 20, 2016 4:57 pm

Lawyers for a Salvadoran man living in San Francisco say he was detained by federal immigration officials after reporting a stolen car to police, which is a violation of The City sanctuary laws meant to prevent city officials from enforcing federal immigration laws.

“When Mission District resident Pedro Figueroa asked police to help find his stolen car, the last thing he and his family expected was arrest, extended detention, and deportation,” noted his lawyers in a statement about the case. “Yet Pedro has been trapped in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention for 45 days and counting, at risk of deportation to danger and even death in El Salvador.”

Police say they did not violate any city laws meant to encourage all to come forward and report crimes no matter their immigration status, although an ICE agent was waiting outside of the station after the department called the agency when researching a warrant.

“We do not cooperate on immigration matters,” said Sgt. Michael Andraychak.

On Dec. 2, 2015 Figueroa, a undocumented immigrant with an eight-year-old daughter who remains with his American wife, went to the Southern Police Station in Mission Bay to report a stolen car.

Andraychak said officers asked for his license to verify he could drive, and then asked for proof of ownership, both of which are normal steps in such cases.

Police also ran his name, to check for warrants. They found a failure to appear warrant in the system from Homeland Security, but couldn’t figure out whether it warranted an arrest. Figueroa was detained as they looked into the case, according to the police. As part of that research the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department’s warrant bureau called ICE, but could not find out details on the warrant so Figueroa was released.

“A local ICE agent did show up at Southern police station,” said Andraychak. “Unfortunately the ICE agent was parked outside.”

How the agent came to be outside of the station where Figueroa had been detained is not clear. “SFPD didn’t call ICE,” said James Schwab, a spokesman for the agency.

ICE did have this statement on the case. “Pedro Zarceno-Figueroa was taken into custody Dec. 2 by officers assigned to one of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Fugitive Operations Teams,” said the statement. “The Fugitive Operations officers targeted Mr. Zarceno-Figueroa for arrest based upon his conviction for DUI and an outstanding order of removal issued by an immigration judge in 2005. Mr.Zarceno-Figueroa’s case is now being reviewed by the immigration courts to determine whether he has a legal basis to remain in the U.S.”

Supervisor John Avalos called the detention of Figueroa is troubling.

“I am very concerned about this case and have joined the community’s call for transparency and accountability from SFPD and ICE,” Avalos said. “When local law enforcement is entangled with deportation, our families, our civil rights, and our public safety all suffer. We need to make sure our police aren’t acting as deportation agents.”

The case comes months after the very political fallout from the death of Kate Steinle, who was killed by a ricochet bullet after an undocumented man fired a pistol on Pier 14. That man had been in County Jail, but was released after charges related to an old warrant were dropped.

Newly elected Sheriff Vicki Hennessy said she would rescind a department memo sent out by former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi baring communication with ICE in all but a few cases.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local-man-...n-of-city-law/

by WARNER TODD HUSTON
27 Jan 2016
San Francisco, CA

An illegal migrant who was detained and now marked for deportation by federal immigration officials in San Francisco is charging that police broke the law by detaining him in violation of the city’s “sanctuary city laws.”

Pedro Zarceno-Figueroa, a Salvadoran national living in the city’s Mission District, called police to report a stolen car. But when he went to the police station to file the report, police asked for his license and proof of registration and ownership of the vehicle. Police then learned Figueroa was not a legal resident.

But that isn’t what caused Figueroa to end up in the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. As police ran Figueroa’s name, they discovered an outstanding failure to appear warrant issued by Homeland Security. While researching the warrant, police contacted ICE to explain what the warrant was for and an agent was dispatched to the station afterward.

It was then ICE took Figueroa into custody.

Police officials say they did nothing to violate the city’s “sanctuary city laws” because they were simply doing due diligence on the warrant. They say they never told ICE to pick the man up, but only needed to clear up what the warrant was about.

Figueroa’s lawyer, though, claims his client was acting in good faith and assumed that the city’s laws shielding illegals from detection by ICE would be upheld if he reported the initial crime bringing him to the station.

“When Mission District resident Pedro Figueroa asked police to help find his stolen car, the last thing he and his family expected was arrest, extended detention, and deportation,” Figueroa’s lawyer said in a statement. “Yet Pedro has been trapped in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention for 45 days and counting, at risk of deportation to danger and even death in El Salvador.”

ICE officials released their own statement on the case.

“Pedro Zarceno-Figueroa was taken into custody Dec. 2 by officers assigned to one of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Fugitive Operations Teams,” said the statement. “The Fugitive Operations officers targeted Mr. Zarceno-Figueroa for arrest based upon his conviction for DUI and an outstanding order of removal issued by an immigration judge in 2005. Mr.Zarceno-Figueroa’s case is now being reviewed by the immigration courts to determine whether he has a legal basis to remain in the U.S.”

At a press conference about the case, Jeff Adachi, the city’s public defender, said, “Pedro Figueroa was the victim of a crime, and today he’s the victim of a broken immigration system. San Francisco is a sanctuary city. We welcome immigrants, we have a law and a policy that should protect them, and yet Pedro Figueroa was not protected.”

Two Hispanic women holding signs that read “FreePedro” and “ICE Out of California” were also present in a display staged by Adachi.

Still, a San Francisco police spokesman said the department did not coordinate with ICE agents to have Figueroa picked up. Police insisted they followed procedure but released Figueroa after ICE officials refused to divulge details on a judge’s warrant for the illegal’s arrest that was already in the national system. “We’re going to confirm a warrant and if it’s not confirmed we’ll release the individual, which is what we did in this case. I think it was out of the norm for an ICE agent to have showed up at the station. I don’t think anyone expected that to happen,” SF Police Department Capt. Jerry Difilippo told the media.

Meanwhile, crime rates have skyrocketed in so-called sanctuary cities all across the country. According to Judicial Watch, homicide arrests are up 55 percent and rape arrests are up a whopping 370 percent, and San Francisco is one of the worst cases.

“Citizens understand that when San Francisco and other sanctuary cities release illegal alien criminals onto the streets, crime is going to increase,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These new crime statistics suggest that there are more murders and an epidemic of rape linked to San Francisco’s releasing illegal alien criminals in violation of law.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ary-city-laws/

Get out of our country illegals -we DO have laws & they will be enforced...finally. Call the police in YOUR country, they are NOT hired and paid to serve the likes of you SNEAKERS trying to reside here.