Just When You Thought This City Couldn't Possibly Get Any Stupider...

Jaxon Van Derbeken writes a follow-up article in the SFGate on the criminal activities of the SF Juvenile Probation Dept.

Shielded by S.F., illegal immigrant crack dealers escape

by Jaxon Van Derbeken in SFGate

An effort by San Francisco to shield eight young Honduran crack dealers from federal immigration officials backfired when the youths escaped from Southern California group homes within days of their arrival, officials said Monday.

The walkaways are the latest in a string of embarrassments for city officials who are protecting illegal-alien 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, a practice that drew national attention when The Chronicle reported it Sunday.

When federal law enforcement 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 of those centers are run by a not-for-profit outfit called Silverlake Youth Services in mountain towns southeast of San Bernardino.

Eight Honduran juveniles who had been 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 - an expense borne by San Francisco taxpayers.

Within 10 days of being sent to the unlocked group homes, however, all 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 the city is trying to come up with an approach for how to handle the juveniles that does not involve giving them to federal immigration authorities.

San Bernardino County sheriff's Capt. Bart Gray said Silverlake had reported the Honduran youths as runaways - not as juvenile offenders. Three of the youths were listed as missing from Silverlake's Douglas House in the town of Yucaipa, 16 miles southeast of San Bernardino, on June 20 and two more on June 22, Gray said.

Juvenile probation officials say three other Honduran youths who had been convicted as juveniles in San Francisco disappeared from another Silverlake-run group home, but it was not immediately known which one.

Silverlake officials confirmed that the youths had vanished but would say nothing further, referring inquiries to San Francisco officials. Silverlake's operations officer, Jeff Boyd, said he was barred by law from commenting.

Fruit trees and farm animals

Silverlake's Web site says the company maintains 10 group homes that "exist for the sole purpose of providing a home environment and psychological health care for troubled youth. The focus of the program is to provide residents with the opportunity to gain effective control over their lives through the acquisition of rethinking skills and positive character growth."

The site adds that many of the group homes "have large lots and offer the opportunity for the residents to garden, tend to fruit trees and raise farm animals."

San Francisco sent the youths to the Southern California group homes after federal authorities demanded that they stop the practice of flying illegal alien juvenile offenders to their homelands without alerting immigration officials.

Turning over the youths to federal authorities for deportation could have resulted in their being legally barred from ever returning to the United States. Federal officials said the city's practice of returning the youths to their homelands to be reunited with their families did nothing to prevent drug-dealing juveniles from coming right back to the United States.

They also noted that it is a crime to help an illegal immigrant cross the border, even if it is to leave the country.

San Francisco officials countered that many of the youths were victims of drug dealers and that it wasn't fair to bar them from ever becoming citizens.

Not eligible for CYA

The eight youths who escaped from the San Bernardino County group homes were scheduled to be flown back to Honduras before city juvenile probation authorities halted the flights in May. They were not convicted of violent crimes, so they were ineligible to be sent to the California Youth Authority. San Francisco did not send them to the county's Log Cabin Ranch on the Peninsula for the same reason.

The eight were among dozens of young Honduran illegal immigrants who have been arrested in San Francisco in recent years for dealing drugs. Police said many of the Hondurans - some of whom they believe are actually adults - live communally in other local cities at the behest of drug lords, who finance their travel here and threaten to kill their families if they cooperate with law enforcement.

Officials say there are at least 22 illegal immigrants being held at the city's juvenile hall.

San Francisco sent four illegal immigrant juvenile offenders from El Salvador and elsewhere to the Silverlake home in Yucaipa last year. All four escaped within three weeks, San Bernardino County authorities said.

County resentful

Undersheriff Richard Beemer said the practice of "dumping" youths in his county "is a huge concern."

"These are not youth placement facilities," Beemer said. "They are homes. They are not locked down."

The youths sent there are hundreds of miles from their probation officers in San Francisco, so "they end up being a problem in the community," Beemer said.

"This is in no way rehabilitating them," he said. "They are coming in and engaging in the same kind of conduct that got them sent down here."

Beemer added that "no community likes to have ex-felons. The same is true for juveniles who have committed felonies, who were engaged in criminal activity. We don't want them dumped in our community - they are not our responsibility."

Gray, the sheriff's captain, said his community is besieged by "imported" offenders who take up an inordinate amount of his department's resources.

Lidia Stiglich, president of the San Francisco commission that oversees the Juvenile Probation Department, said she was working with the mayor's office and the probation department to decide what to do with offenders the city refuses to turn over to federal immigration authorities.

"Everyone is looking at the current policies," she said. She would not comment on the San Bernardino County escapes.

With flights home and cooperation with federal authorities ruled out and the Southern California group homes off the table, Siffermann said, "We're running out of options."

Here's an option you flaming incompetent asshole... Turn them over to the Feds!

These people should - at the very very least - be fired, and preferably jailed, for illegally evading the Federal Authorities and allowing illegal alien drug dealers to escape to do harm to American citizens - all with taxpayer money.

If there is a better definition of "treason" I haven't heard it in a long long time.

A Quick Thought On The Supreme Court's 2nd Amendment Decision

Here's a quick thought about the Supreme Court's decision affirming the right of Americans to bear arms in their homes...

Liberals constantly use the "well-regulated militia" argument to try to deny law abiding individuals the rights afforded to them by the 2nd Amendment. So, it's reasonable to ask... why did the framers of the constitution choose not to explicitly affirm an individual's right to keep arms for self-defense???

The answer is easy... and it is just as true today as it was over 230 years ago...

The reason why the framers of the constitution did not explicitly affirm an individual's right to keep arms for self-defense was because they felt there was absolutely no need to.

They felt that the right to defend yourself was a God given one... one that certainly could not be legislated by any government that wouldn't call itself tyrannical... and that the only people who could possibly have a problem with someone keeping personal firearms were either...

a). insane,
b). criminals themselves who didn't want to get shot, or,
c). future despots wanting a docile populace to boss around.

So Mr. Liberal... which are you?

Perhaps it's d). all of the above!

San Francisco Systematically Circumventing US Immigration Law: Giving Honduran Drug Dealers Flights Home At Taxpayer Expense

I just had to reprint this whole story from the SFGate because it is just too unbelievable to let go. If you are not convinced yet that San Francisco is run by the criminally insane, then read this...

Feds probe S.F.'s migrant-offender shield

by Jaxon Van Derbeken
in SFGate

San Francisco juvenile probation officials - citing the city's immigrant sanctuary status - are protecting Honduran youths caught dealing crack cocaine from possible federal deportation and have given some offenders a city-paid flight home with carte blanche to return.

The city's practices recently prompted a federal criminal investigation into whether San Francisco has been systematically circumventing U.S. immigration law, according to officials with knowledge of the matter.

City officials say they are trying to balance their obligations under federal and state law with local court orders and San Francisco's policies aimed at protecting the rights of the young immigrants, who they say are often victims of exploitation.

Federal authorities counter that drug kingpins are indeed exploiting the immigrants, but that the city's stance allows them to get away with "gaming the system."

San Francisco juvenile authorities have been grappling for several years with an influx of young Honduran immigrants dealing crack in the Mission District and Tenderloin.

Those who are arrested routinely say they are minors, but police suspect that many are actually adults, living communally in Oakland and other cities at the behest of drug traffickers who claim to be their relatives.

Nonetheless, city authorities have typically accepted the suspects' stories and handled the cases in Juvenile Court, where proceedings are often shielded from public scrutiny.

Unorthodox strategy

Barred by state law from sending drug offenders to the California Youth Authority and bound by a 1989 city law defining San Francisco as a sanctuary city for immigrants - meaning officials do not cooperate with federal immigration investigations - juvenile officials settled on an unorthodox strategy.

Rather than have the drug offenders deported, they have recommended that Juvenile Court judges and commissioners approve city-paid flights home to Honduras for the offenders with the aim of reuniting them with their families.

The practice, federal authorities say, does nothing to prevent offenders from coming back, while federal deportation legally bars them from ever returning. Federal officials also say U.S. law prohibits helping an illegal immigrant to cross the border, even if it is to return home.

Federal officials recently detained a San Francisco juvenile probation officer at the Houston airport, where he was accompanying two Honduran juvenile drug offenders about to board a flight to Tegucigalpa.

They questioned him for several hours before letting him go, and seized the youths and deported them.

"Our job is to uphold the nation's immigration laws," said Greg Palmore, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "Although San Francisco is a sanctuary city, it's a problem whenever someone attempts to evade the law. ... Our law does not allow us to turn a blind eye to any individual who has come into this country illegally."

Feds 'flabbergasted'

Joseph Russoniello, the U.S. attorney in charge of the San Francisco area, said he was "flabbergasted that the taxpayers' money was being spent for the purpose of ferrying detainees home. You have to have a perfect storm of dumb moves to have it happen."

William Siffermann, chief of San Francisco's Juvenile Probation Department, said federal agents have never specifically told his office not to send immigrants back to their home countries, but that he has stopped the practice until differences between the city and immigration authorities are resolved.

He said the city's stance is that it does not have to report illegal immigrant minors to the federal government, even if they are found in Juvenile Court to have committed a crime.

"We are not obligated to," he said. "We are abiding by the sanctuary city ordinance."

Siffermann added, "I don't believe we've done anything wrong." But he stressed that his office wants to make sure it is fulfilling its duties "in all arenas, with federal statutes, state statutes and the sanctuary city law."

Juveniles with beards

San Francisco police doubt that many of the young Hondurans they arrest on drug charges are even juveniles.

Police can report suspected adult illegal immigrants to federal authorities if they commit a crime, said Capt. Tim Hettrich, until recently the head of the narcotics unit.

So immigrant drug dealers "pass themselves off as juveniles, with a three-day growth of beard and everything else. It's frustrating," he said.

"Some of them have been arrested four or five times," Hettrich said. "That is one of the big problems with being a city of sanctuary."

He scoffed at San Francisco's strategy of returning the offenders to their home country. "They probably get the round trip and the next day, they will be right back here," Hettrich said.

Patricia Lee, head of the San Francisco public defender's juvenile branch, would not comment on pending cases. But, she said, "a lot of the young people have suffered a lot of abuse, abandonment and neglect in their native country and have been used as (drug-running) mules. There is lot of victimization and trafficking of these young people."

'Gaming the system'

Russoniello said the drug dealers are being sent here as part of an effort that takes advantage of San Francisco's leniency.

"What we're facing is a number of people gaming the system," he said. "Sooner or later the city will realize the advantage to cooperating (with federal authorities), whether it's the threat of criminal prosecution ... or some other method."

Russoniello would not confirm or deny the existence of a federal investigation, but juvenile probation officers connected to the case have been interviewed by federal agents about the flights.

City officials will not say how many juvenile drug offenders have been flown out of the country in recent years or how much the city has spent on the effort.

Federal immigration authorities stumbled on to the effort when they caught several illegal immigrants in December at the airport in Houston, along with a San Francisco juvenile probation officer.

The officer was on hand to make sure the immigrants boarded a plane to Tegucigalpa.

Federal authorities say they met with Siffermann and told him that any juvenile offender had to be handed over to immigration officials after completing his sentence.

The Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency sent a letter to Siffermann on Dec. 17 stressing that it would soon "like to begin receiving referrals" about immigrant juveniles in custody in the city.

"The red flag was flown," Russoniello said.

City saw it differently

Siffermann, however, said federal authorities were not exactly clear about what the city could and could not do related to the flights or the status of immigrants held in juvenile cases.

"They did a little friendly stop-by," Siffermann said. "They said, 'This is something we would like you to cooperate on.' ... They said, 'Hey, look, this could be contrary to federal law, you might be in violation.' "

Meanwhile, the flights continued.

On May 15, two more illegal immigrants from Honduras were arrested in Houston, again accompanied by a San Francisco juvenile probation officer. Federal immigration authorities held the officer for more than three hours before releasing him.

Six days later, there was another meeting, Siffermann said. This time it was with a representative of Russoniello's office.

After that, Siffermann put the flights on hold. "We will look for other (approaches) for them," he said.

Siffermann stressed that the city ships out juvenile offenders to their home countries only after all other rehabilitative efforts have failed, including probation, foster care and juvenile detention.

The strategy is appropriate, Siffermann said, because deporting young offenders would doom them from ever becoming productive residents of the United States.

"It might prevent them from obtaining citizenship," he said, denying them a chance to "take a different course."

In a statement released by the city attorney's office, which is advising the city on the issue, spokesman Matt Dorsey said, "We've been in ongoing contact with the U.S. attorney's office on this, and we've informed them of our intention to address these issues in court proceedings.

"We're looking at the legal issues carefully and methodically," Dorsey's statement said, "and we're in the process of advising our client, the Juvenile Probation Department."

He said his office was not aware of the practice of flying juveniles back to Honduras.

Stranded juveniles

A recent count showed 22 of the 125 minors in custody at juvenile hall were immigrants and had no legal guardians in the United States, Siffermann said. He said his office is trying to figure out what to do with them now that flights are no longer an option.

Russoniello said the city has no choice but to comply with U.S. law and turn the youths over to federal authorities. "The alternative, now that they are all on notice, is a period of prolonged darkness," he said.

Judge Donna Hitchens, who oversees the city's Juvenile Court, said the original idea for flying youths home came from juvenile probation officials, and that it is up to them, not judges, to work out their differences with the federal government.

"We are only the judicial branch," she said. "The issue is between the city and ICE."

E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.

San Francisco's Illegal Alien-Loving Criminal Enabling System Starting To Unravel

Several events have happened in recent weeks to shed light on the criminal enterprise that is the San Francisco City Government.

1. The Department of Justice announced they were seeking the return of $5.4 million that Kamala Harris' office received from the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative, claiming that not one of the 2,241 cases they received grant money for was deserving.

Feds Want $5.4 Mil Back From SF

2. 3 San Franciscans - a father and two sons - were murdered by a member of the notoriously violent Salvadoran gang MS-13 in a drive-by shooting with no apparent motive.

No Bail For Suspect In Killings Of Man, 2 Sons

3. The US Attorney's Office is launching a federal criminal investigation into San Francisco's unbelievably lenient treatment of illegal alien drug dealers from Honduras who happen to be minors.

Feds probe SF migrant offender shield

Election Endorsements: Keep Judge Mellon

The SF Public Defender's office hates Judge Thomas Mellon. I mean really hates him. Which, in my book, is a good reason to support him.

Mellon's slogan is "Keep Politics Out of the Courtroom." Clearly, that is not acceptable to the idiot progressives of San Francisco, who want very much to politicize the bench, further cementing San Francisco as a one-party town. Mellon is a Pete Wilson appointee - which right there is enough to give your average God-hatin' progressive hives!

The Bar Association of San Francisco lists Mellon as the only one of the three candidates to be "qualified" for the job.

Mellon has managed to piss off the PD's office on a number of occasions, but judicial reviews of him have never substantiated any claims of bias (SFGate story).

I don't know too much about Mary Mallen. However, I know all too well the politics of Gerardo Sandoval - a termed out member of SF's Board of Marxists - a race-baiting idiot whose gaffes and stupidity are legendary. Sandoval being given a judicial seat would guarantee a highly politicized courtroom doing what progressives love - letting criminals off the hook, punishing those who are successful, and basically standing as a road block to any idea which wouldn't validate the prog's view of the world as a racist, classist, uncaring place.

This dangerous asshole must not win.

The BASF said of Sandoval: "Following the Judiciary Committee's investigation, interview of the candidate, and deliberations, the Committee finds this candidate to be “Not Qualified.”" 'Nuff Said.

I don't know too much about Mary Mallen, other than that in the words of the BASF: "Following the Judiciary Committee's investigation, interview of the candidate, and deliberations, the Committee finds this candidate to be “Not Qualified.”"

I will give her this, though... at least she has Sandoval's number:

MALLEN: With respect to one of my opponents, I believe we have a totally different perspective on what the role of a judge is. One of my opponents gave an interview with, I believe it was the Bay Guardian, and he said he was going to be an activist judge, and that he was going to be a troublemaker on the bench. And I believe that he either has a fundamental misunderstanding about the role of a judge, or he intends to make a fundamental assault on the role of a judge.

RECORDER: Are you talking about Supervisor Sandoval?

MALLEN: I'm talking about Sandoval, that's correct. And it's also on his Web page, he says other things with respect to sunshine laws being applied to this branch of the government. And I think you go back to the Federalist Papers, Marbury v. Madison, and you understand that that's just simply not the role of a judge.

(from Mary Mallen: In her own words - CAL LAW)



Keep Judge Mellon.com

Election Endorsements: YES ON C, G - NO ON ALL THE REST

Very quickly, here are your election endorsements for June 3rd...

Letter Propositions:

YES ON C, G - NO ON ALL THE REST

A: NO - School Parcel Tax with unfair burden on homeowners. The problem is that SF Public Schools are treated as a social engineering experiment rather than schools. Lack of money is not the reason why SF Schools suck.

B: UNDECIDED - B contains some much needed reforms of San Francisco's ultra-generous retiree health care plan. However, the opponents have a point when they say the real problem is that this is a relatively minor point which should not come before the voters anyway, and that the City Charter should be changed so that we don't have to spend tons of money on elections for relatively minor stuff.

C: YES - The "moral turpitude" penalty. After a string of embarrassing scandals, someone had the idea that it might be nice to have at least some level of morality in San Francisco government. Gay advocates whine that "moral turpitude" laws traditionally have been used against homosexuals. In a town where half the government is openly gay, I don't see that as a problem. Chris Daly is against it. That right there is a good reason to vote YES.

D: NO NO NO - More affirmative-action bullshit. As the no on D campaign's argument says: "Good political appointees for City boards and commissions come from all ethnic, religious, and sexual communities... but never in the exact mathematical order demanded by City Hall 'bean counters.'" This is simply reverse racism - the usual "progressive" PC mindfuck that is driving this City into the ground.

E: NO - Another Mayor Newsom vs. Board of Supervisors bitchfight makes it to the ballot. Behind this is - as always - the usual Marxist crap from the Board; they want the power to put "acceptable" candidates on the PUC. Why? Because sewer and water bills are paid by LANDLORDS - evil, stinky landlords - and the Marxist scum on the Board are always up for any way to stick it to them.

F: NO NO NO - Anytime a good idea is proposed in San Francisco, the "progressives" will swoop right in to screw it up. Behind this proposal - which states any development in the Hunter's Point ghetto must include 50% "affordable housing" - is the usual white arrogance of the liberal goon squads. The argument in favor of it is one of the most patronizing things you will ever read - it literally treats the Afro-American community an endangered "tribe" which must be saved and preserved for future generations of guilty white liberals to wring their hands over.

This is so fucked up. One of the main reasons why blacks are leaving the ghettos of HP and Sunnydale is because they are SUCCEEDING! They are getting ahead in life and don't want to live in a mother-fucking GHETTO!

I find the Sierra Club's endorsement of this measure disturbing. If there is any more evidence needed that the Sierra Club is going the way of the Green Party, I don't know what it is. Just like the Greens, the Sierra Club has sold out the Earth in favor of Leftism. And they will soon be every bit as irrelevant.

G: YES - Prop. F was put on the ballot as a reactionary monkey-wrench to this one. This is a relatively good deal that much of Hunter's Point is behind. The poverty pimps don't agree - they feel the area MUST be preserved - as a GHETTO.

H: NO - A possibly unconstitutional attempt to eliminate the ability of some "special interest" groups to contribute to candidates... but not others.


Next up: The available seats and the butts that want to fill them...