Thread: Immigrant Law Loopholes Threaten SF Mayor's Bid

Jun 27, 1:52 PM EDT

Immigrant law loopholes threaten SF mayor's bid

By JULIANA BARBASSA
Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Recent uproar over San Francisco's liberal-leaning policies toward illegal immigrants is threatening to derail two top city officials' bids for statewide office as they work to appeal to more conservative voters.

One month after Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his candidacy for governor, he came under fire for a loophole in the city's long-standing sanctuary policy that allowed undocumented immigrant minors charged with crimes to not be deported. Instead, they were flown home or housed in the state at the city's expense.

The loophole became known after Edwin Ramos, of El Salvador, was accused of shooting a man and his two sons during a June 2008 traffic incident. Ramos, now 22, was charged as a minor with felonies, including a gang-related assault and an attempted robbery, but was never deported.

Now District Attorney Kamala Harris, who is running for attorney general, faces scrutiny over a program she instituted that allowed a half-dozen illegal immigrants to be among a group of young drug offenders to undergo counseling and job training, thereby wiping their records clean.

One program participant, Alexander Izaguirre, was accused of robbing a woman in July and running into her with an SUV, fracturing her skull. The Honduran immigrant's robbery and assault trial was scheduled for the fall.

Most Californians - 71 percent - believe illegal immigrants should be given a chance to keep their jobs and apply for legal status, according to an August 2008 survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. But voters who are sympathetic to the plight of hardworking immigrants may have very different views of those who commit crimes, said Tony Quinn, a California political analyst.

"These are embarrassing incidents that tend to feed the impression that Newsom and Harris are outside the mainstream," Quinn said. "It's very hard to defend giving amnesty or sanctuary to people who are committing crimes."

Newsom, who said he hadn't been aware of the loophole, moved quickly to change the city's approach. San Francisco now turns over all undocumented minors arrested for a felony or misdemeanor to federal immigration authorities. He also ordered city officials to review all city policies affecting illegal immigrants.

"Let me be clear: I will not allow our Sanctuary City status to be used to shield criminal behavior by anyone," the mayor said in a statement this week.

Garry South, a senior adviser in Newsom's campaign, said the issue has seldom been brought up, but Kevin Spillane, a senior adviser to Poizner, said it would certainly come up for Newsom during the primary and the general election.

Newsom and Attorney General Jerry Brown are vying for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, while former Rep. Tom Campbell, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman are after the Republican spot.

"If either one ends up in the general election in which immigration becomes a major issue, then this becomes a real problem for them," said Dan Schnur, director of the University of Southern California's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. "You can't make an issue like this go away."

For Newsom, being connected in voters' minds to the sanctuary policy might contribute to a perception that "if he doesn't agree with a federal or a state law he doesn't believe he should follow it," Spillane, the Poizner adviser, said.

Newsom faced similar criticism for directing the San Francisco clerk's office in 2004 to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in violation of state law. Those nuptials were later voided by the California Supreme Court.

Harris, who was first elected in 2003 and re-elected in 2007, also might be perceived as a classic San Francisco liberal who is out of step with the mainstream California voter, Spillane said.

Angela Chan, attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, a legal advocacy and civil rights group, cautioned against either candidate reacting too quickly to criticism over immigration policies at the risk of alienating their liberal base.

Newsom and Harris "are also going to need the immigrant vote if they're going to run for statewide office," Chan said. "Just seeking that conservative vote is the wrong strategy in the long run."

Newsom's campaign manager also warned that attacking the sanctuary policies might backfire in a state where most major cities - Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Oakland, among others - have similar ordinances. Dozens of civil rights and immigrant groups have criticized Newsom's revamped policy and are asking officials to allow minors arrested for a crime to have a hearing before being turned over to immigration authorities.

Chan said there was "a lot of concern over youth being turned over to immigration authorities at the booking stage and facing deportation for minor offenses."

Harris has changed the rules of the Back on Track program, which offers job training and counseling to young, first-time drug offenders and clears their records if they graduate, so that only drug offenders can participate with legal work authorization.

Ace Smith, who is managing the district attorney's AG campaign, believes voters would understand Harris' idea is an innovative approach to public safety that combats the recidivism that is overcrowding California jails and prisons.

"These are the kinds of programs California needs, and she's going to stand proudly on her record of innovation," Smith said.

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I would like to see that poll that says that 71% of Californians want amnesty for illegals. I don't believe it. If it is true Ca is doomed forever. There will be no hope.

Most Californians - 71 percent - believe illegal immigrants should be given a chance to keep their jobs and apply for legal status, according to an August 2008 survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. But voters who are sympathetic to the plight of hardworking immigrants may have very different views of those who commit crimes, said Tony Quinn, a California political analyst.

I'm sorry...this is an outright mistruth! There is NO way that 71% of Californians believe illegal immigrants should be given a chance to keep their jobs and apply for legal status!

It's more like 71% of Californians believe illegals should be deported, immigration laws enforced, and the border secured!

I would love to see how these questions were asked, or should I skewed, in order to come up with these numbers!

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http://www.alipac.us/article4337.html

California Soft on Criminal Illegal Aliens

Critics are concerned that Governor Schwarzenegger's proposal to release as many as 19,000 criminal illegal aliens in an effort to reduce the state budget deficit will make the people of California less safe. This proposal comes on the heels of the revelation that San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, a candidate for California Attorney General, is behind a program that helped illegal aliens stay out of jail.

It has recently been revealed that San Francisco's District Attorney Kamala Harris is behind a program which has allowed "illegal immigrants to stay out of prison by training them for jobs they cannot legally hold." (Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2009). After a year of participating in the so-called "Back on Track" program — a jobs program consisting of a mixture of taxpayer funded community service and career education programs — a participant's criminal record is wiped clean. (San Francisco District Attorney's Office — Back on Track).

The intent of the program is to reduce recidivism and help train individuals to enter the workforce. But San Francisco is spending tax dollars to benefit illegal aliens with job training, even though these aliens are illegally present in the United States and cannot legally hold those jobs. Aside from the fiscal impact, placing illegal alien felons back on the street puts citizens and legal immigrants across the United States at risk. The dangers of this policy recently came to light after a resident of San Francisco was left with a fractured skull after being brutally attacked by an illegal alien who was a participant in the Back on Track program. (Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2009).

At the same time, in an attempt to close the $24 billion budget gap, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed releasing as many as 19,000 illegal alien inmates who are serving time in California's prison system. It is unlikely that California will be able to turn its illegal alien inmates over to Federal officials for incarceration. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice, "33,000 federal detention cells across the country [are] already full, and immigration judges could be overloaded if the number of deportation cases balloons." (Associated Press, June 22, 2009).

While incarcerating illegal aliens poses costs to California taxpayers, those costs are not as great as some of the benefits the state provides to illegal aliens. As FAIR has previously reported, the state of California provides services to illegal aliens above and beyond what is required by federal law. (See FAIR's Legislative Update, June 15, 2009 and Cost Study of Illegal Immigration to California, 2004). The governor could save money and still protect the people of California by eliminating benefits for illegal aliens.