San Francisco sheriff says new federal reporting system will undo city’s sanctuary city policy
By APThursday, May 6, 2010
Sheriff: Program will undo sanctuary policy
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is set to join a federal program next month that will automatically check the immigration status of anyone arrested or booked for a misdeameanor or felony.
Sheriff Michael Hennessey says the system, which enters arrestee fingerprints into a Homeland Security database, will undo San Francisco’s long-standing sanctuary city policy which requires law enforcement to report only those booked for felonies.
He also says he’s concerned it will discourage illegal immigrants from cooperating with police over fears of deportation.
The program, called Secure Communities, so far has been deployed in more than 160 local jurisdictions and is expected to be nationwide by 2013. Hennessey says federal immigration officials recently told him the city is due to go online in June.
