Dave Gibson, Norfolk (Virginia) Examiner, May 31, 2009
On October 22, 2008, the First District Court of Appeal for the State of California ruled that the San Francisco Police must follow state law which requires police officers to contact federal authorities when they arrest anyone for a narcotics violation, when they suspect the person to be either a legal or illegal alien.
The appellate court ruling reversed a lower court decision which claimed that San Francisco police officers were not required to comply with California state law, when arresting someone they suspected to be a foreign national.
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Shortly after the ruling, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said: “This landmark ruling strikes at the heart of the sanctuary movement for illegal aliens. San Francisco and other sanctuary cities are not above the law. This court ruling exposes the lie behind the argument that state and local law enforcement cannot help enforce immigration laws.”
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This ruling now forces San Francisco´s police chief to become compliant with state law and direct her officers to report all suspects whose immigration status is in question, when that suspect is arrested for drug violations. Given the fact that 90 percent of the illegal drugs sold in this country are brought in from Mexico, this ruling promises to be very effective in dealing with Latin American drug gangs, now responsible for a great deal of violence in California and beyond..
In San Francisco, on June 22, 2008, three members of the Bologna family were gunned down by Salvadoran national and gang member Edwin Ramos. Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16 were shot to death by Ramos as they sat in their car on a crowded street, in the city´s Excelsior District.
Ramos who is a member of the notoriously violent drug gang known as MS-13, shot the Bologna family to death because Tony Bologna had temporarily blocked the car in which Ramos was traveling, as the two cars made their way through an intersection. The Bologna men were returning home from a family barbecue.
As a juvenile, Ramos had committed felony attempted robbery and assault.
Shortly after the shooting, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, Juvenile Probation Department officials, did not report Ramos to federal immigration authorities for possible deportation because of San Francisco´s stated sanctuary policy.
The devastated wife and mother Danielle Bologna is now suing the city of San Francisco over the sanctuary policy , which contributed to the death of her family.
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In 1996 the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIR) was passed as a federal law which requires local governments to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (now part of the Department of Homeland Security). The local governments that have been enforcing their own sanctuary policy are actually defying this law. U.S. citizens have a right, according to the Constitution to expect to be protected from violations of federal law by foreign nationals who are not authorized to be in the country, without local police departments aiding and abetting these criminal aliens in their unlawful activities.
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Both Alaska and Oregon have state-wide policies that forbid state agencies from using resources to enforce federal immigration law. Oregon law, however, does provide an exception to allow law enforcement officers to share information on immigration status with federal authorities with those arrested for criminal offenses.
[Editor’s Note: Additional stories on the Bologna family killings are listed here.]
