> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
> bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/17/MNQK12R47M.DTL
>
> (09-16) 23:44 PDT San Francisco --
>
> Nearly 30 percent of the felony offenders San Francisco juvenile
> justice officials have reported to federal immigration
> authorities since the city stopped shielding youths from
> deportation have turned out to be adults, authorities say.
>
> The city's Juvenile Probation Department has referred 58
> offenders to federal authorities since Mayor Gavin Newsom
> announced July 2 that the city no longer would protect youths
> from deportation under San Francisco's sanctuary law. The mayor
> took the step after The Chronicle revealed that the city was
> paying for flights home and $7,000-a-month group homes for
> underage, undocumented offenders, who as adults could face
> prison and automatic deportation.
>
> <>
>
> Of those 58 offenders, authorities have concluded that 17 - or
> 29.3 percent - were adults, based on immigration records and the
> statements of offenders themselves, federal immigration
> officials say. Most of the 58 were being held on drug-dealing
> charges.
>
> "It confirms our early suspicion that adults were taking
> advantage of the sanctuary policy in order to evade detection,
> responsibility and prosecution for criminal behavior," said
> Joseph Russoniello, the U.S. attorney for Northern California.
>
> Russoniello said adult illegal immigrants convicted of felonies
> face almost certain deportation, but San Francisco's previous
> policy of not reporting juveniles who had committed similar
> offenses to federal officials encouraged offenders to "game the
> system" and say they were underage.
>
> Advocates denounce change
> Advocates for the immigrant youths say that just because some
> offenders turn out to be adults does not mean the city should
> report all juvenile immigrant offenders to the federal
> Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
>
> "We believe all youth in the juvenile justice system in San
> Francisco should be treated the same," said Renee Saucedo of La
> Raza Centro Legal, a Mission District law center for the
> immigrant community.
>
> "Adults are legally required to be turned over to immigration,
> and that happens," Saucedo said. "But for fear of the system
> being abused, we are now going to treat minors the same way as
> adults. We don't buy it; we don't believe that immigrant youths
> should be treated any differently than other youth. We believe
> what the mayor is doing, his change in policy, is wrong. We see
> him caving in to anti-immigrant interests."
>
> Saucedo added that "the benefits (of the sanctuary policy for
> juveniles) far outweigh the potential for abuse. ... San
> Francisco values people being able to live peacefully,
> regardless of whether they are immigrants."
>
> Federal immigration officials say most of the offenders they
> have determined to be adults either admitted they were over 18
> or had previously been caught crossing the border and the birth
> dates they provided then confirmed they are adults now.
>
> Feds want access to jail
> "There are people who are going to take advantage of the
> system," said Tim Aitken, field office director for Immigration
> and Customs Enforcement's detention operations in San Francisco.
> "The key point is, we need to be able to do our job."
>
> He said federal officials should be allowed access to juvenile
> hall and adult jail so they can check inmates' immigration
> status more easily.
>
> Sheriff Michael Hennessey, however, has balked at providing more
> access in the adult jail. He said that no law requires his
> agency to allow federal officials to screen inmates, and that
> the city's sanctuary ordinance requires San Francisco officials
> to have a legal basis for helping the federal government track
> down illegal immigrants.
>
> The national head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie
> Myers, asked Newsom to intervene in the dispute in a July 23
> letter. "Absent access to this kind of information, ICE is
> unable to effectively identify criminal aliens in sheriff's
> custody and lodge the detainers necessary to prevent the release
> of these criminal aliens back into the San Francisco community,"
> she wrote.
>
> The mayor's office has yet to reply. Nathan Ballard, a spokesman
> for Newsom, said the city is drafting a response.
>
> Federal officials still happy
> For all the back-and-forth over the issue, Aitken said, the city
> officials' revised policy of referring juvenile offenders is
> still an improvement over their former refusal to do so.
>
> In July, City Attorney Dennis Herrera reiterated a 1994 opinion
> that nothing in the sanctuary city law provided protection for
> juveniles who commit felonies.
>
> Among the 17 offenders found to be adults was Javier Martinez,
> who claimed to be 16 when he was arrested for drug dealing.
> Martinez was one of eight Hondurans the Juvenile Probation
> Department put in unlocked group homes in San Bernardino County
> who fled in June. When he was caught last month, he told
> juvenile authorities that he was really 25 and his true name was
> Jose Mendoza Cerrato.
>
> He is now in adult jail after pleading guilty to a drug charge
> and is expected to be transferred to federal authorities when he
> is sentenced Friday.
>
> Juvenile probation officials have said they are often forced to
> trust offenders when they say they are underage. They say that
> while courts can order dental examinations in an attempt to
> determine an offender's age, the findings are inexact.
>
> Juvenile Hall less crowded
> Probation officials feared that the Juvenile Hall population
> would spike after Newsom changed the city's policy and barred
> offenders from being put in group homes. In fact, the opposite
> has happened. The average population at Juvenile Hall this month
> has been 114, a 13.6 percent drop from the 132 in May.
>
> William Siffermann, the head of the Juvenile Probation
> Department, said that such fluctuations are not unusual and that
> "this slight reduction cannot be attributed solely or directly"
> to the decision to turn over immigrant offenders for deportation.
>
> The Juvenile Hall population had been steadily increasing since
> 2004, the year Newsom took office. That was also the year
> Juvenile Probation Department officials expressly prohibited
> staffers from reporting illegal immigrants to federal officials,
> a ban that the agency had observed for more than a decade.
>
> Advocates for immigrant youths criticized Newsom and Siffermann
> last year when the Juvenile Hall population hit a 30-year high
> of 156. Authorities quickly acted to move offenders out of the
> lockup, including a youth held in a weapons case who was
> subsequently accused of murder.
>
> Caring for immigrant youths takes up a disproportionate share of
> Juvenile Probation Department resources, because often they have
> no local relatives to whom they can be released. Housing youth
> offenders costs the city an average of $285 a day.