“It’s just not an adequate deterrent” – federal judge is latest to reject lenient ‘fast track’ sentence for illegal alien drug dealer

June 24, 2024

A federal judge today rejected prosecutors’ bid to have him impose a time served sentence on an illegal alien drug dealer – becoming the latest to express misgivings over a so-called ‘fast track’ scheme devised by authorities to combat the large number of foreign nationals peddling drugs in San Francisco.

U.S. District Judge James Donato handed a term of 10 months-plus-one-day to Marco Vasquez-Midenze. The 29-year-old Honduran had earlier pleaded guilty to ‘possession with intent to distribute’ fentanyl after being caught selling narcotics a block away from the city’s federal courthouse.

“I do not agree with the policy or practice of this current U.S. Attorney with respect to fast track…it’s just not an adequate deterrent or an adequate way of protecting the public,” said the judge.

“The idea that your only sentence is a couple of months in jail and a ticket home certainly does not protect the public.”

“My strong intuition and expectation is that, if word gets out – and it’s mainly central American defendants that I see – that the worst thing that is going to happen to you is sixty to ninety days in jail plus a flight home, that is not a disincentive to coming back.”

The fast track program, which most federal judges in the district have gone along with, encourages dealers to plead guilty in exchange for a time served sentence, of perhaps eight weeks, and the likelihood of deportation. This rapidly removes dealers from the Tenderloin, say prosecutors, which then allows them to focus on more serious cases.

Donato joins a small number of other federal judges in Northern California who have expressed misgivings over the unduly lenient sentences they were being asked to impose. Earlier this year federal public defenders tried to boot another such judge – U.S. District Judge William Alsup – from hearing fentanyl cases entirely owing to his refusal to participate in lenient fast track dispositions.

The court was told that, nearly one year into federal prosecutors’ drive to rid San Francisco of illegal alien drug dealers, more than 50 had so far been deported.

As of May 2024, 67 ‘fast track’ cases have been put before the court and resolved. Almost all of these defendants were illegal aliens (64), most of whom have been deported (52) or are presently in ICE custody in immigration proceedings (9).

Three other illegal aliens otherwise remain in custody in California, including one who was released to authorities in Alameda to answer a state case there.

The court was told today that Alameda county’s ‘sanctuary city’ policies, that forbid employees from cooperating with immigration authorities, had frustrated the handover of two sentenced fast track prisoners for deportation from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin where local federal prisoners are usually held.

An incredulous Judge Donato this morning took pains to craft a sentencing mechanism that would help ensure the defendant is transferred to U.S. Marshals custody before release – who, unencumbered by sanctuary ordinances, will then hand over Vasquez-Midenze to ICE officials.

Vasquez-Midenze’s case also raises the troubling question of whether Hondurans from elsewhere in the country are arriving in the Bay Area to replace their deported brethren.

The two-time deportee arrived returned to the USA in 2021 and settled in Minnesota before traveling to the Bay Area in early January this year and started to deal drugs almost immediately.

At least two of those previously deported under the fast track program had already returned, the court heard. This raises suspicions that Hondurans may simply be being ‘reshuffled’ around the country in response to law enforcement efforts.