Thread: San Francisco: Offering free rides for Honduran crack dealer

San Francisco: Offering free rides for Honduran crack dealers
Posted on June 30, 2008

Ah, San Francisco: the perfect little microcosm of liberalism in action. If you want to know what America would look like if liberals took over, then all you need to do is look to San Francisco, the place Nancy Pelosi calls home.

The newest example is the free ride service for illegal Honduran crack dealers, funded by city taxpayers.

[quote]San Francisco juvenile probation officials - citing the city’s immigrant sanctuary status - are protecting Honduran youths caught dealing crack cocaine from possible federal deportation and have given some offenders a city-paid flight home with carte blanche to return.

The city’s practices recently prompted a federal criminal investigation into whether San Francisco has been systematically circumventing U.S. immigration law, according to officials with knowledge of the matter.

City officials say they are trying to balance their obligations under federal and state law with local court orders and San Francisco’s policies aimed at protecting the rights of the young immigrants, who they say are often victims of exploitation.

Federal authorities counter that drug kingpins are indeed exploiting the immigrants, but that the city’s stance allows them to get away with “gaming the system.â€

San Fran offers some illegal immigrants a free trip home, sans deportation
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The federal government is investigating whether San Francisco "has been systematically circumventing U.S. immigration law" by paying to fly young illegal immigrants out of the country instead of turning them over for deportation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"City officials say they are trying to balance their obligations under federal and state law with local court orders and San Francisco's policies aimed at protecting the rights of the young immigrants, who they say are often victims of exploitation," the paper says. "Federal authorities counter that drug kingpins are indeed exploiting the immigrants, but that the city's stance allows them to get away with 'gaming the system.'"

The Chronicle says it's not clear how many juvenile offenders received taxpayer-financed flights home.

On at least two occasions, the paper says federal agents have detained Juvenile Probation Department officers and young Hondurans at an airport in Houston. The probation officers were eventually released. The juveniles, all convicted drug offenders, were deported.

"Although San Francisco is a sanctuary city, it's a problem whenever someone attempts to evade the law. ... Our law does not allow us to turn a blind eye to any individual who has come into this country illegally," Greg Palmore, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, tells the Chronicle.
Posted by Mike Carney at 08:33 AM/ET, June 30, 2008 in Crime, immigration, Local news | Permalink
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/20 ... ffers.html