San Francisco government continues infighting over its sanctuary city policy

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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted in October to revise the sanctuary city law so that local law enforcement may contact the federal immigration authorities only if an illegal immigrant is convicted of a felon. Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed it in late october. The Board overturned Newsom's veto of the revision on November 10. In the 30 days between the last vote and the day the law was to take effect, the Mayor and Board have been battling it out with legal threats. Newsom will disobey the Board's vote because he feels it violates federal law, specifically the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. There also might be challenges to the Board's vote in court.

Yesterday, City Attorney Dennis Herrera stated in a memo:

We have advised and will continue to advise the Department that it may not take any adverse employment action against an employee who provides information to immigration authorities about a juvenile, until federal authorities change their position or the courts clarify federal law.

San Francisco has been struggling with the issue of illegal immigration and crime. In 2008, an illegal immigrant protected under the sanctuary law, Edwin Ramos, was arrested for the triple murder of Tony Bologna and his two sons. That sparked outrage over the policy...even worse due to the fact that although Ramos was convicted of felonies before, he wasn't deported. In October, the SFPD announced it'd http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/26/BA381A9A9N.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea">drop automatic impounding for illegals caught driving without a license.

Given all this hullaballoo, what should San Francisco do to keep the citizens safe? Of course, I believe in "innocent until proven guilty" for ALL Americans, regardless of citizenship. You can't just kick a noncitizen out of the country just because he's accused of doing something bad. I think that the courts should help clarify the IIRIRA for San Francisco so that this drama will halt and the facts get straightened.