San Francisco District Attorney’s Office Demands DA Brooke Jenkins Stop Cooperating With ICE

IImmigrant rights advocates and public defenders have protested outside the San Francisco courthouse, asking District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to stop working with federal agencies to prosecute undocumented immigrants accused of drug trafficking.

San Francisco’s sanctuary city law is designed to limit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, specifically U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The goal is to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Amid a drug overdose crisis in the city, largely fueled by fentanyl, a joint effort by local, state and federal law enforcement has cracked down on arrests of people accused of dealing drugs. Some of the suspected dealers are undocumented migrants from Honduras, a small Latin American country with high poverty rates, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

However, immigrant rights groups say some of the accused dealers may be acting under duress and against their will.

“We demand that the District Attorney’s Office stop colluding with the federal government to prevent state court juries from hearing our clients’ stories, hearing their truth, and adhering to our local and state laws,” said San Francisco Public Defender-elect Mano Raju. “We demand that the District Attorney’s Office actually do its job of protecting victims and stop offering coercive plea deals that put our clients at risk of ICE, detention, and deportation.”

Last month, a jury acquitted a 27-year-old Honduran man of drug trafficking in the Tenderloin. The man, whose identity is being protected, turned out to be a victim of human trafficking and was forced to sell drugs.

“This young man’s defense team has raised an ‘affirmative defense’ under California law,” Raju said. “It holds that if someone is a victim of human trafficking and commits a crime while being coerced and subjected to force and violence, they should be found ‘not guilty’ of those crimes.”

The Free SF coalition of immigrant rights organizations gathered on the steps of the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street with public defenders to celebrate the not guilty verdict, while also asking Jenkins to sign visa certificates for trafficking victims so they can work legally.

“Jenkins needs to accept that this is human trafficking and that her community is a victim,” said Elizabeth Camacho, a public defender who leads the human trafficking defense in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. “She needs to come out and protect them, rather than charging them with crimes, keeping them in jail and victimizing them.”

Jenkins did not immediately respond to the Free SF coalition’s specific demands, but she did say she supports San Francisco’s safe-city policies. But she also wants to ensure that suspected drug dealers are held accountable, regardless of their immigration status.

“To successfully partner with the federal government, my team worked diligently to ensure we were 100 percent consistent with both the spirit and letter of our sanctuary city policy,” she said in a statement. “Cases are charged based on the facts and law, regardless of the person’s immigration status.”

She said cooperation with the federal government is sometimes necessary because local courts in San Francisco are often lenient with drug trafficking suspects.

“Federal prosecution provides a critical deterrent to drug trafficking because if someone is tried in federal court and convicted, they will face a prison sentence,” Jenkins said. “In contrast, the majority of judges in San Francisco Superior Court do not treat drug trafficking as a serious crime, despite repeat offenses, and drug dealers therefore do not fear jail time or other significant consequences.”

The Free SF coalition and public defenders want illegal immigrants accused of drug trafficking in San Francisco to receive a fair trial if they are victims of human trafficking.

“Federal agencies have shown up at this courthouse over the past year to arrest our clients and put them on a fast track to deportation, depriving them of a fair trial,” Raju said.

Several jurors who acquitted the 27-year-old Honduran national came to the meeting Tuesday to support him and their decision, agreeing that the man was trafficked by drug cartels to sell drugs in the Tenderloin.

“My vote of not guilty was based on a feeling that developed during the trial … that ‘a job’ where your bosses carry guns and have threatened to kill your family is not a job you can just give up,” juror Al McKee said. “I am confident that our verdict provides justice for my client, who I firmly believe was a victim.”