Jun 23, 2009 1:27 pm US/Pacific
Illegal Immigrants Trained For Jobs By SF's D.A.
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS)

San Francisco County District Attorney Kamala Harris wants to be the next California Attorney General, but a liberal program which has been a centerpiece of her campaign is now under fire by critics.

Harris' program to rehabilitate non-violent drug offenders and allow them to wipe their criminal records clean is being called a "catch and release" system by an opponent.

The controversy over her "Back On Track" program stems from a Los Angeles Times story on Monday detailing how the program has been providing job training and English classes for illegal immigrant criminals.

Harris' likely opponent for attorney general, state Sen. Tom Harman, said the Times report shows Harris has been putting illegal immigrants back on the streets after training them for jobs that they can't legally hold.

"A great deal of attention has been focused on Ms. Harris's nurturing of convicted illegal alien drug criminals, and rightly so," said Harman in a statement sent to media outlets around the state.

Harris told the newspaper it was a mistake to let illegal immigrants into the program and called it a "flaw in the design" that has been corrected.

The D.A. declined to discuss the matter further with CBS 5 on Monday, but representatives of the district attorney's office insisted it now checks the immigration status of applicants to the program, something it did not previously do.

The change was little to comfort Amanda Kiefer, who suffered multiple skull fractures when one of the "Back on Track" participants, Alexander Izaguirre, tried to snatch her purse.

Kiefer said she moved out of state because of the attack.

"It kind of makes you a little angry," Kiefer said. "How was he allowed to be out and do this to me?"

Izaguirre had pleaded guilty to a drug felony four months before the attack, and avoided prison when he was picked for the Back on Track program.

Kiefer took pains to say the sanctuary city policy itself was not the issue, but insisted the city should be deporting felons.

"If people are living here and they're not creating any problems, it's kind of a waste of our resources to be going after those people. But if they're committing crimes," she said, "they should not be living here."

Harris had already been under fire for refusing to state whether or not she would seek the death penalty for Edwin Ramos, another illegal immigrant who had been arrested and released previously under San Francisco's sanctuary city efforts.

Ramos is currently awaiting trial on a triple-murder charge in the deaths of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, on June 22, 2008, in the city's Excelsior District.

Police have said the Bolognas may have been mistaken for rival gang members, when a car driven by Ramos pulled up alongside their car in the 200 block of Congdon Street, and someone opened fire.

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