The murder of a young woman in San Francisco allegedly at the hands
of an illegal immigrant has brought renewed scrutiny on the sheriff who released the defendant before the attack and has ardently
backed policies making the city a “sanctuary” for undocumented immigrants. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in March handed over defendant Francisco Sanchez on a drug-related
warrant to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department.
However,
the department released him several weeks later, after the charges were dropped, following a policy of not complying with
federal requests to detain illegal immigrants for deportation.
"My long-held belief is that local law enforcement should not be in the civil immigration detainer business,"
San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said last year, after the policy was adopted.
Mirkarimi, a Democrat and former Green Party member, has argued since Sanchez allegedly shot to death 32-year-old
Kate Steinle on July 1 that federal authorities should have issued a warrant or court order to hold Sanchez, who has seven
prior convictions and has already been deported five times.
