Illegal immigrant arrested 5 times before feds told
Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross

Sunday, August 3, 2008

If Mayor Gavin Newsom is serious about tightening up San Francisco's sanctuary laws, he might want to take a look at the case of Marco Martinez - a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador who has been arrested by police five times in the past year and a half for allegedly selling crack cocaine but has never wound up in the feds' hands.

According to police records, Martinez first appeared on the radar here Oct. 6, 2006, when he sold crack to an undercover officer in United Nations Plaza. He was booked into jail, but quickly posted $35,000 bail and was released - long before the Sheriff's Department said it could conduct a background check to determine if the federal immigration officials should be notified.

Ten days later, Martinez was picked up again for selling crack to an undercover officer - this time at the corner of Hyde Street and Golden Gate Avenue.

Again, Martinez went to jail, posted $35,000 bail and left without the feds ever being notified.

On Dec. 31, Martinez was arrested a third time at the same corner. He quickly made the $35,000 bail and was released, again without the feds getting a heads up.

Fast forward to April 19, 2007 - when once again, Martinez was busted for allegedly selling crack to an undercover cop at Hyde and Golden Gate. This time he was also charged with carrying a knife.

And again, Martinez made bail and walked.

Then this past July 1, Martinez pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his first three arrests in exchange for prosecutors dismissing the fourth case. Records show that the judge sentenced Martinez to drug court, an alternative treatment program that originally was intended to rehabilitate drug addicts.

The rehab effort was short-lived. Within two weeks, Martinez was arrested a fifth time - once again for allegedly selling crack, at Hyde and Ellis streets, three blocks from his usual haunt.

This time a judge ordered him to stay in jail, and the next day the Sheriff's Department notified U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that Martinez was in their custody.

The cops say each time they took Martinez to jail, his booking card listed his home country as being El Salvador.

Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Eileen Hirst, however, pointed out that being born outside the United States doesn't necessarily make someone illegal. She said Martinez consistently bailed out of jail before deputies had a chance to run a full background check on him.

"It takes hours, and in his case he made bail very quickly after he came into custody," Hirst said.

Anyway, Hirst said, there is nothing to prevent the cops from phoning ICE themselves if they think they've got a felony suspect who is in the country illegally.

And, indeed, there is nothing in either the city's sanctuary city ordinance or the Police Department's general orders that precludes officers from alerting the feds when they've arrested illegal immigrants.

But according to retired police Capt. Tim Hettrich, who until recently headed the narcotics unit, Chief Heather Fong made it clear that she did not want officers to cooperate with ICE and other federal agencies when it came to arresting illegal immigrants for crimes.

Hettrich said it was " common knowledge" throughout the department that "you were not to do anything with ICE or immigration and illegals whether or not they committed a crime - even to arrest them - because there will be the perception we are harassing illegals."

Instead, the job was left to the Sheriff's Department, he said.

Hettrich said he had conversations with the chief about this issue over the years. The most recent, Hettrich said, was about nine months ago when he wanted to work with federal authorities on investigating the MS-13 street gang - one of whose alleged members, Salvadoran immigrant Edwin Ramos, has since been accused of killing a father and two sons on an Excelsior district street in June.

"You are not to work with these (federal) people," Hettrich recalled Fong telling him.

"In her mind, it was always a perception that the Board of Supervisors will be mad at her, the mayor will be mad at her," Hettrich said. "She wanted to keep her job - not do her job."

Fong disputed Hettrich's characterization, telling us it was "absolutely inaccurate" to say her department doesn't cooperate with federal immigration authorities on criminal cases. She acknowledged, however, that the level of cooperation varies from case to case - and that officers are bound by a department bulletin she wrote that bars them from enforcing immigration laws or helping ICE in that process.

Fong said she recalled Hettrich asking about helping the feds investigate a heroin-dealing gang, and said she "made it clear we would only participate where there were criminal violations of the law and in San Francisco."

As for Martinez? Well, ICE officials have now confirmed that he was in the country illegally and have put a hold on him - meaning that before the sheriff can release him again, the feds have 24 hours to take him into custody and to start deportation proceedings.
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