San Francisco taxpayers have filed a lawsuit (Cynthia Cerietti v. Ross Mirkarimi) to end the sanctuary ordinance that prohibits the Sheriff’s Department in San Francisco County from notifying the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the immigration status of any inmate in the Sheriff Department’s custody.
The sanctuary ordinance is called “Immigration & Customs Enforcement Procedures (ICE) Contact and Communications,” and mandates that “absent a court issued warrant, a signed court order, or other legal requirement authorizing ICE access . . . SFSD staff shall not provide the following information or access to ICE representatives: Citizenship/immigration status of any inmate.”
The new policy directive violates federal law which states, “[A] Federal, State, or local government entity or officials may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from [ICE] information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”
This new ordinance was put into place on March 12, 2015 by San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who lost the bid for reelection in November to Sheriff-Elect Vicki Hennessey. The sanctuary policy gained attention after the murder of Kate Steinle by an illegal criminal alien made national news. During her campaign Vicki Hennessy promised to make changes to Mirkarimi’s sanctuary ordinance.
Read more on this story at Standard Newswire.
