SAN FRANCISCO – An effort by San Francisco to shield eight Honduran crack dealers from federal immigration officials backfired when the youths escaped from Southern California group homes within days of their arrival, law enforcement and city officials said.
The escapees add to a string of embarrassments for San Francisco officials who are protecting illegal-immigrant drug dealers from federal authorities and possible deportation because of San Francisco's 1989 declaration that the city is a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.
Until recently, San Francisco flew juvenile illegal immigrants convicted of drug crimes to their home countries rather than cooperate with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The practice drew national attention when The San Francisco Chronicle reported it Sunday.
When federal authorities demanded that San Francisco halt the flights and began a criminal investigation, the city decided to house some of the dealers in long-term youth rehabilitation centers. Some are run by Silverlake Youth Services, a nonprofit company, in mountain towns southeast of San Bernardino.
Eight Honduran juveniles convicted of dealing drugs in San Francisco were sent within the past few weeks to the company's group homes, where one month's placement costs $7,000 per youth. San Francisco taxpayers paid the costs. Within 10 days of being sent to the unlocked group homes, the eight youths ran away, said Bill Siffermann, head of juvenile probation in San Francisco. He said his agency has issued arrest warrants for them.
Siffermann said the city has stopped sending juvenile offenders to Silverlake because of the escapes. “We have now eliminated that as a prospect,” he said, adding that San Francisco is trying to come up with an approach for handling juveniles that doesn't involve giving them to federal immigration authorities.
Bart Gray of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said Silverlake had reported the Honduran youths as runaways, not as juvenile offenders. Three were listed as missing June 20 and two June 22. It's not clear when the remaining three disappeared.
San Francisco sent the youths to the Southern California group homes after federal authorities demanded that the city stop flying illegal-immigrant juvenile offenders to their homeland without alerting immigration officials.
City officials said turning the youths over to federal authorities for deportation could have resulted in their being legally barred from returning to the United States.
Federal officials said the city's practice of returning the youths to their homeland does nothing to prevent drug-dealing juveniles from coming back to the United States, and noted that it's a crime to help an illegal immigrant cross the border.
Joseph Russoniello, U.S. attorney for the San Francisco area, said he was “flabbergasted the taxpayers' money was being spent” to ferry criminals home.
