A San Francisco policy punishes already vulnerable immigrant students for life.

September 23, 2009

Pedro C.* is not the kind of teen adults would call a trouble maker. The soft-spoken 16-year-old, a junior at a San Francisco public high school, enjoys soccer and basketball, plays video games, and loves cars. He’s also a talented artist and often draws mythical Aztec figures. He has never been involved with crime or gangs, and before February, had never been arrested. But now, under a new police policy, the city may punish him for a minor offense by forcing him out of the country.

The policy that could lead to Pedro's deportation may soon be amended by local lawmakers, in response to public outcry. But for now, Pedro is in limbo, still trying to make sense of what happened.

Pedro’s crime was tagging a school wall with the words, “CALM.” He had no reason for doing it and admits it was an impulsive act. The police found him with a marker in his pocket and told him they had seen him write on the building. They arrested him and took him to the Youth Guidance Center. While Pedro waited for his father to pick him up, police asked him where he was born. He answered truthfully and police officials reported him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities. Later, even though his felony charges were dismissed to informal probation, immigration officials nevertheless detained him and placed him at an Orange County detention facility.

“I was very nervous and scared,” recalls Pedro, who came to the United States with his father when he was seven. “I mostly kept to myself.” After his release, he had even more to worry about. After being held by ICE for two months, he learned that, because he is undocumented, immigration officials had placed him in deportation proceedings. Police notified ICE about Pedro's immigration status, in accordance with a controversial new city policy.    

Prior to August of 2008, undocumented youths arrested for felonies were subject to juvenile court but, as a matter of policy, were not reported to ICE. Though a local law mandated that police report undocumented adult felony suspects to ICE, the provision had never applied to minors. Last summer, Mayor Gavin Newsom signed a Juvenile Probation Department policy requiring the reporting of immigrant youth who had been arrested for felonies. 

The new policy affected the police department’s enforcement of the so-called City of Refuge Ordinance. The law forbids the city to use its funds to enforce immigration law and prohibits government workers from reporting undocumented people to immigration officials.

Under the new measure, however, officers must notify ICE if they suspect that a juvenile who has been booked on felony charges is undocumented. The rules lay out guidelines for assessing youths' immigration status, including self-reporting or inconsistent reporting of their status, identification they are carrying, or even the mere presence of undocumented people near the site of arrest. But police are technically not allowed to base their assessments solely on an individual’s national origin or English ability.

In 1989, in response to raging civil wars in Central America, San Francisco became one of the first cities to enact a police non-cooperation law. Immigrant advocates, many of them religious leaders, sought to offer solace and protection to refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries. In the early 1990s, the city made an exception for felony arrests. Such charges automatically trigger reporting to ICE.  

The ordinance is silent on treatment of minors, who typically receive different, more lenient treatment in the criminal justice system, compared to adults.

San Francisco's new reporting requirement deals severe penalties to undocumented youth who are arrested: the measure could lead to deportation, separation from their families, and a ten-year ban on reentering the United States. Immigrant youth may attempt to challenge deportation orders in immigration court, but rigid immigration laws make it difficult to win permission to stay in the country.

ICE Spokesperson Virginia Kice says that since the new policy was instituted last year, San Francisco police has reported 160 immigrant youth to federal authorities, but no data is available on the types of criminal charges they faced.