The False Framing of Kathryn Steinle’s Killing

The last few days have been very stressful, agonizingly so in bearing witness to the terribly tragic murder of Kate Steinle and the anguish of her family; and frustratingly stressful to see how sound public policy that makes all of us safer is under attack and blamed for Ms. Steinle's murder.

The actions of one single individual do not represent a community and should not be used to stereotype a community and undermine public safety efforts.

Our Sanctuary City and Due Process for All Ordinances recognize the great contributions immigrants make in San Francisco. They were crafted to foster trust between immigrants and law enforcement so that immigrants won't fear deportation when they come forward as witnesses to help law enforcement officials do their jobs. Domestic violence victims including children benefit with this legislation and are protected because of it.

The Due Process for All Ordinance is founded on Constitutional Rights guaranteeing that law enforcement show probable cause when investigating and prosecuting the laws and that all suspects are afforded due process in our justice system.

In March of 2014, the Federal District Court in Oregon with Judge Janice Stewart presiding ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests to county law enforcement officials to hold people past their release dates for ICE to pick up are unconstitutional. Subsequentlly, counties across the country limited their honoring of ICE detainer letters lest they get sued by former detainees for having their constitutional rights taken away. Clearly, San Francisco is not isolated in our Sanctuary City policies.