City leaders negate a citizens rights while championing a foreign squatter/caption
A threatened lawsuit from illegal Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno 33 for wrongful arrest" has compelled local officials to pay him $190000! This appalling decision gives the words of acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas D. Homan deeper resonance:
Sanctuary cities in my opinion are un-American. … Theyre a sanctuary city theyre proud of it."
Ah San Francisco represented by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Recall her stomping grounds were made infamous by the July 1 2015 slaying of 32-year-old Kate Steinle. Walking along Pier 14 with her father Ms. Steinle was struck in the back by a ricocheting bullet from a stolen gun in the hands of an illegal Juan Francisco Lpez-Snchez: a felon with 7 convictions and 5 deportations. Lpez-Snchez had been in the custody of the San Francisco Sheriff on drug charges when ICE issued a detainer for him. Instead of turning him over as federal law demanded this convicted criminal was set freeand an innocent lost her life.
Over two years later things have evolved from the tragic to the farcical.
Today San Francisco is apparently so proud" of their ongoing sanctuary status theyre paying Seor Figueroa-Zarceno six figures for not living up to their federal law-violating principles"! For context back in December 2015 Figueroa-Zarceno informed police about his stolen vehicle. That caused them to become aware of his DUI conviction and an order for deportation to his home country of El Salvador. Reporting the theft of his vehicle ironically led to his arrest and two month incarceration. Yet given San Franciscos sanctuary policies this outcome was illegal. Per the 1989 City and County of Refuge" Ordinance (also known as the Sanctuary Ordinance):
City employees are prohibited from using City funds or resources to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the enforcement of Federal immigration law."
Hence for complying with federal lawthat importantly supersedes local statutesSan Francisco obliged itself to pay Figueroa-Zarceno from the taxpayer till. Whats more absurd: that this two-faced victim" claims what happened to him was very unfair and it was an injustice" or cutting him a large government check for his inconvenience"? Indeed this outrageous settlement illustrates the schizophrenic nature of sanctuary policies for law enforcement. Which do they honor? The conflicting city policy or the federal mandate? Siding with the former means releasing often violent offenders or risking similar payouts.
Hypocritical Democrats falsely justify sanctuary cities by advocating the straw man argument of tolerance and multiculturalism". In truth Democrats promote these lawless enclavespopulated by illegals and criminalsprecisely because these same illegitimate groups overwhelmingly support them politically! As a case and point is California Political Reviews Poll: 13 of Illegal Aliens ADMIT They Vote". Tellingly 80 of noncitizens back Democrats. Therefore progressives shield these lawbreaking foreigners because their political prospects are tied to them.
For this safely ensconced ruling elite what do they care about perpetuating a dangerous environment? Another Democratic-run urban junglelike Americas murder capital Chicagoleaps to mind. Former Obama flunky Rahm Emanuel parrots We want you to come to Chicago if you believe in the American dream." What of the unrealized dreams of the 423 fatalitiesrecorded there in 2017 so farMister Mayor? What of this unending nightmare Democrats universally condone and encourage? Undocumented aliens hide in plain sight while citizens cower from shadowy un-American threats to life and limb.
This discrepancy is most clearly seen in San Franciscos disbursement of money to injured" parties. While illegal Figueroa-Zarceno will be quickly paid for his trouble last January U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero dismissed the wrongful death suit filed against San Francisco and then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi by Kate Steinles family. (The lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Managementthe source of the Lpez-Snchezs stolen firearm from an agents caris proceeding.) In essence city leaders have negated a citizens constitutional rights Kates while championing the rights" of a foreign squatter? What an Orwellian result! In the final analysis which group demonstrates more contempt for America? Liberals who run San Francisco or illegals who inhabit it?
David L. Hunter is an Associate Editor at Capitol Hill Outsider. Hes on Twitter and blogs at davidlhunter.blogspot.com. He is published in The Washington Post The Washington Times FrontPage Mag and extensively in Patriot Post Canada Free Press and American Thinker.