Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris said in a written statement: "Every city agency needs to work together to balance our obligations under federal law and the sanctuary ordinance to solve crimes and put the offenders behind bars."
But Joseph Russoniello, United States attorney for California's northern district, took San Francisco officials to task for their long-term policy of not turning over the young people to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities.
Russoniello said in an interview that "the phenomenon of Hondurans being trucked into the Bay Area, housed in Oakland and sent out to sell crack cocaine" has been going on for years and that dealers claim to be under 18 so they can avoid harsher treatment by federal authorities.
He complained that San Francisco authorities do not verify that the accused are under age and that the dealers and drug traffickers who bring them to this country "know they can game the system by claiming they're juveniles."
"The status can't be confirmed with ICE," Russoniello said. "There's virtually no risk and until recently a fully paid ticket home. . . . This was an open loop."
Newsom insisted Tuesday that the practice of shielding young illegal immigrant offenders from federal officials was not meant to protect lawbreakers.
He said it stemmed in part from the sanctuary city ordinance, enacted in 1989, which requires that the city turn over to ICE adult illegal immigrants with felony records or those who have been accused of felonies but is murkier on the subject of juvenile offenders.
But other factors were at play. In the 1980s, Newsom said, immigration officials stopped taking custody of young illegal immigrant offenders handed over by the city.
In addition, San Francisco officials misinterpreted state law, he said, thinking that the Welfare and Institutions Code prohibited them from sharing juvenile criminal information with federal authorities. The city attorney, he said, has recently "clarified that that is not the case."
Russoniello wasn't buying it Tuesday, calling Newsom's explanation "all contrivance."
"They have said all along that it was the sanctuary policy that mandated they shield these people from ICE," he said. "It's only because it's so preposterous that the sanctuary law would shield drug dealers that they've now come up with this alibi."
