National ICE sweep of sanctuary cities nets 27 in Bay Area
Federal immigration officials in the Bay Area arrested 27 people this week, most with past criminal convictions, as part of a national sweep targeting cities that prohibit cooperation between local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency said Thursday.
The arrests in San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale and Morgan Hill — and more than 100 in Los Angeles — were part of a four-day sweep that began Sunday. Overall, ICE officials acting in eight states and Washington, D.C., arrested 498 people from 42 countries who were in the United States illegally.
Of those, 181 had no previous criminal conviction, according to ICE. The remaining 317 had been convicted of crimes ranging from trespassing to rape, with the largest single offense driving under the influence.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions that do not honor (detention requests) or allow us access to jails and prisons are shielding criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and creating a magnet for illegal immigration,” ICE Acting Director Tom Homan said in a statement. “As a result, ICE is forced to dedicate more resources to conduct at-large arrests in these communities.”
The arrests come as California Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign SB54, which would prevent police from arresting people for immigration violations without a warrant, among other prohibitions. But the law would let police notify ICE before releasing people convicted of a serious or violent crime so that felons can be deported.
The expected new state law follows several cases in which people in the country illegally have committed heinous crimes after police let them go, though ICE asked to detain them. In each case, the cities argued that without an arrest warrant, they had no legal grounds to keep the people in custody.
In San Francisco, Jesus Perez-Araujo, 24, is accused of killing Abel Enrique Esquivel Jr. on Aug. 15. Three months earlier, police had charged Perez-Araujo with misdemeanor possession of brass knuckles and released him, though ICE had asked that he be detained.
In Santa Rosa, Nery Israel Estrada Margos is accused of killing Veronica Cabrera Ramirez on Aug. 18. Days earlier, Margos had been arrested on suspicion of abusing Ramirez, and police obtained an order barring him from contacting her. He then was released on bail, though ICE wanted to deport him back to Guatemala.
A third case cited often by opponents of sanctuary laws is that of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, also known as Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who is accused of killing Kate Steinle in 2015 in San Francisco. He, too, was wanted by ICE.
The cities argue that cooperating with ICE would lead to deporting noncriminals — such as Maria Mendoza-Sanchez, an Oakland oncology nurse, and her husband, Eusebio Sanchez, a truck driver, who were deported to Mexico on Aug. 16.
“The federal government continues to harass and target members of our immigrant communities,” Deirdre Hussey, a spokeswoman for San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, said Thursday. “If the federal government believes there is a need to detain a serious offender, they can obtain a criminal warrant, which we will honor, as we always have.”
In San Jose, Zulma Maciel, director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs, said such raids create “tremendous fear in the community,” making people less willing to assist local police.
Bay Area arrests in this week’s raid included four people who had no criminal convictions. The other 23 had previous convictions that included disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, sexual assault, battery and burglary.