S.F. gives teen drug suspect to immigration (San Francisco Chronicle)

S.F. gives teen drug suspect to immigration

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, August 28, 2008

(08-27) 17:57 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco court's ruling that a 14-year-old drug suspect from Honduras should be considered an abandoned youth - entitled to shelter rather than deportation - was thwarted Wednesday when the city turned him over to federal immigration authorities.

Juvenile Court Commissioner Abby Abinanti concluded Monday that the youth, in custody accused of dealing crack in the Tenderloin, should be treated within the social welfare system and not as a criminal offender.

In doing so, she sided with defense attorneys who argued that the boy had no family in Honduras, fled to this country to escape gang beatings, turned to drug dealing to survive and deserved a chance to seek asylum while in foster care.

The ruling set up a conflict with Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration, which has begun turning over juvenile illegal immigrants held on felony charges to federal authorities.

The city's Juvenile Probation Department had long resisted such handovers under its interpretation of San Francisco's sanctuary city law barring cooperation with federal authorities in rounding up illegal immigrants.

However, Newsom announced he had changed course last month after The Chronicle reported that the city was flying offenders to their homelands to avoid formal deportation, in possible violation of federal law, and housing some juveniles in unlocked group homes from which several escaped.

Had probation authorities obeyed Abinanti's order, the Honduran youth would have gone into a group home rather than face possible deportation and would have been given a chance to seek asylum as a victim of abuse or neglect. Juvenile Probation Department officials had told the mayor that they feared he would walk away from a group home.

City held boy till ICE arrived

Rather than put the boy in a group home immediately after Abinanti's ruling, probation officials honored a 48-hour hold placed on the youth by federal immigration authorities. Agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency picked up the boy at Juvenile Hall on Wednesday morning, agency officials said.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the boy will undergo deportation proceedings but will not be in ICE custody. He will be the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The mayor's office said the case had been resolved appropriately.

"It appears our new policy is working the right way," said Nathan Ballard, spokesman for Newsom.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi, whose office represented the boy in court, had no comment.

Abinanti issued her ruling after a social services official and a city attorney's representative on an advisory panel concluded that the youth, identified only as Francisco G., should be entitled to receive social welfare services and should be dealt with outside the criminal system.

Prosecutors and the Juvenile Probation Department's representative on the panel objected, citing the youth's immigration status.

The Honduran youth was arrested July 17 on suspicion of dealing crack cocaine, a felony.
Officers saw him spit out a rock of crack and then hand it to a dealer, who sold to undercover officers, police reports say.

Boy's harrowing story

Deputy Public Defender Lisa Katz said Francisco G. had no criminal history and had come to the United States this year after the boy's mother left him behind when she moved to Spain.

The youth was repeatedly beaten in Honduras by gang members who stole money that his mother sent back to him, Katz said. The attacks, sometimes pistol-whippings, left him with scars.

Francisco's journey to the United States included river crossings and was capped by a five-night walk across the Arizona desert with the aid of a smuggler hired by a friend in Los Angeles, Katz said.

When the friend was arrested for selling movies in the street without a license, Francisco moved to San Francisco, Katz said.

He earned some money as a roofer, but his youth and small stature made it hard for him to find work. In desperation, he turned to dealing drugs, Katz said.

Francisco has had no contact with his mother for three months and is "afraid to return to Honduras," Katz said in a court filing. "He feels that he will be pursued by the gang members who robbed and assaulted him in the past."

Story called typical

Francisco's history of abuse and neglect is typical of many Latin American youths who have come to this country illegally, advocates for immigrants say.

San Francisco Police Commissioner David Campos, who himself came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala at age 14, said many juveniles such as Francisco deal drugs only out of necessity.

"This story is reflective of a lot of cases," said Campos, who is now a U.S. citizen. "That is why, from my perspective, juveniles should be treated differently."

He added, "You have a lot of situations where kids are being forced to do these things - it's a way to survive. I don't think turning them over to ICE is the answer."

Campos said San Francisco's sanctuary city law has been an effective crime-fighting tool because it allows immigrants to serve as witnesses to crimes without fear that police or prosecutors will turn them over to the federal government to be deported.

Joseph Russoniello, the U.S. attorney for Northern California, who has been critical of the city's shielding of juvenile offenders, said federal immigration officials have shown themselves capable of making distinctions in deportation proceedings, based on the circumstances of the youths involved.

He said he was encouraged by how Francisco G.'s case had been resolved.

"The process seems to be working," Russoniello said. "It's something we continue to monitor."