Thomas Elias: Time for sanity in sanctuary city policies - The Union of Grass Valley
There is no need — at least not yet — for total abandonment of the humane aspects of the immigration “sanctuary” laws now on the books in 276 American cities, counties and states. But in the wake of the seemingly random murder of a 32-year-old woman on San Francisco’s touristy Pier 14, not far from the landmark Ferry Building, there is surely a need for new sanity in sanctuary policies. Dianne Feinstein, who as mayor of San Francisco for most of the 1980s accepted her city’s charitably-intended sanctuary law. Its intent is to prevent dividing families via deportations and to allow otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants to live without fear. “I strongly believe that an undocumented individual convicted of multiple felonies and with a detainer request from ICE (U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) should not have been released,” Feinstein wrote to Mayor Ed Lee, her successor four... could have been avoided if the Sheriff’s Department had notified ICE prior to the release of (the immigrant), which would have allowed ICE to remove him from the country. Had that happened, of course, there is every likelihood the immigrant, seven-time felon Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, would have returned to this country, and soon. Feinstein’s eminently sane solution: San Francisco and other sanctuary cities like Miami. Doing this, Feinstein said, would see the sanctuary cities “provide notice to ICE before releasing aliens with long criminal records. Source: www.theunion.com
