San Francisco No Sanctuary For Teenage Illegals
10/21/2009
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This is a good sign:
No sanctuary for supes' immigrant youth law

By Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle

October 21, 2009

(10-20) 21:37 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed legislation requiring that undocumented youth be turned over to federal immigration officials for possible deportation only after they're convicted of a felony - not upon their arrest.

The 8-2 vote, enough to override an expected veto from Mayor Gavin Newsom, prompted loud cheers from scores of immigrant rights advocates, clergy and high school students who packed the board meeting - but the jubilation may not last long.

Newsom will give no credence to Supervisor David Campos' legislation, according to the mayor's spokesman, Nathan Ballard. Instead, the mayor will continue to direct law enforcement officials to turn youth over to federal officials as soon as they're arrested on felony charges.

"The Campos bill isn't worth the paper it's written on - it's unenforceable and he knows that," Ballard said. "We are not going to put our law enforcement officers in legal jeopardy just because the Board of Supervisors wants to make a statement."[more]

The point of the "legal jeopardy" quote is that the supervisors are trying to make it illegal to enforce the law, almost as if Chicago or Trenton, New Jersey were to try to pass an anti-snitching law. This is legally dicey even when the President does it by executive order. When a municipality tries to do it to the federal government, they're setting themselves up for deep trouble.
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