Taxpayer-funded lawfare latest front in battle to prevent foreign drug dealer deportations in San Francisco

October 16, 2024

A concerted drive by public defenders not only to free a Honduran fentanyl dealer who plied his trade in San Francisco but also secure him a prized visa that will put him on a path to citizenship illustrates the uphill struggle faced by those seeking to combat drug trafficking by foreigners.

The case of Delver Sandrez-Cruz offers another example of ways in which a 14-month-effort by federal authorities to combat illegal aliens peddling illegal narcotics is frustrated.

The 18-year-old was arrested by SFPD on May 30 2024 with methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl, after selling drugs to an undercover officer.

Brought before a federal judge the Honduran national sought pretrial release and offered his uncle as a ‘custodian’ – someone who would supervise his behavior and guard against further lawbreaking.

Doubtful prosecutors pointed out that the uncle himself appeared to be a thrice-deported illegal alien whose plentiful rap sheet spanned three states.

The uncle submitted an asylum application and, while it is being processed, has apparently been granted permission to remain and given work authorization. The court was told that he “works in construction” which is presumably a polite euphemism for “works in drug trafficking”.

(This had been less of a concern to San Francisco authorities who, after his first arrest for drug trafficking six months earlier, were happy to release Sandrez-Cruz into the uncle’s custody.)

This time, though, Sandrez-Cruz had a stroke of bad luck. His case was assigned to one of the least sentimental judges on the federal bench in the Northern District of California. U.S. District Judge James Donato is one of a handful of judicial officers who refuse to countenance ‘fast track’ deportation sentences for drug dealers that he sees as unduly lenient.

It was against this unpromising backdrop that Sandrez-Cruz’ federal defense attorneys cast around for additional support – support that was provided by San Francisco Public Defender’s Office which put its shoulder to the wheel to develop creative solutions to keep him in the U.S.

He is represented by the office’s immigration unit which says that he is eligible to claim asylum, and to apply for a T visa, and to be a ‘special immigrant juvenile’ and, if none of that works, to have his deportation stayed as he is at risk of being tortured in Honduras.

He is represented by the office’s immigration unit which says that he is eligible to claim asylum, and to apply for a T visa, and to be a ‘special immigrant juvenile’ and, if none of that works, to have his deportation stayed as he is at risk of being tortured in Honduras.

Sandrez-Cruz’ attorneys claim their client fled to the U.S. after a “powerful man” in Honduras threatened to kill him. He then “fell victim to human trafficking” and owes money to another man who has also threatened to kill him. If deported, they add, he will be abused by the police or gangs “or both”.

The battery of claims envisaged by Sandrez-Cruz – which might charitably be described as questionable – herald lengthy processes and interminable delay regardless of the outcome of his criminal cases.

If he ever graces an immigration detention center at all, it may not be for years.

Tactics to stave off deportation

T Visa. Bona fide victims of human trafficking may apply for a T visa. Recipients and family members are allowed to stay in the U.S. for up to four years and can apply to adjust their status to become lawful permanent residents. 80% of T visa applications are processed within 17.5 months.

Special Immigrant Juvenile status. Those under 21 may apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile status if a state juvenile court finds they have been abused or neglected by their parents and can’t go back to their home country. Recipients can apply for lawful permanent residency and, while waiting for a decision, can apply for an employment authorization document allowing them to legally work in the U.S.

Asylum. Aliens with a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country can apply for asylum which, if granted, allows recipients to stay in the U.S. and later apply for lawful permanent residency. Recipients receive a variety of cash benefits and medical coverage.

Convention Against Torture. Those able to prove that it is more likely than not that they will be tortured if returned to their home country can have their removal stayed and may be eligible for a work permit.

The Public Defender’s Immigration Unit was set up in 2017, it says, “in response to the Trump Administration’s threats of mass deportation of undocumented San Franciscans.”

This principled commitment to immigrants’ rights is sometimes honored more in the breach than in the observance. If the illegal alien in question happens to have witnessed a crime committed by a client of a public defender, for instance, then they won’t think twice about threatening them with immigration consequences if they turn up to court to testify.

Describing Sandrez-Cruz as a San Franciscan would be a stretch: he is a foreign drug dealer, from a family of foreign drug dealers, whose only connection to the city is selling its most vulnerable residents the fentanyl that kills them.

Regardless, describing Sandrez-Cruz as a San Franciscan would be a stretch: he is a foreign drug dealer, from a family of foreign drug dealers, whose only connection to the city is selling its most vulnerable residents the fentanyl that kills them. But that didn’t stop his attorney proudly ballyhooing his “strong ties to the community.”

This immigration lawfare is just one thread in a tapestry of laws, regulations, rules and practices that protect illegal alien criminals in San Francisco.

Local authorities’ sanctuary laws still serve to frustrate removals by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Last month a convicted fentanyl dealer, Jose Moises Hernandez-Mendoza, was arrested dealing fentanyl again in San Francisco after officials at the Alameda jail used by federal authorities foiled his handover to ICE, and then let him go, after the federal judge who sentenced him told him to expect deportation.

And other illegal alien drug dealers have been in the U.S. long enough to have had children born in the country – so-called ‘anchor babies’ – which further complicates efforts to remove them.

Of those who have been deported some have already been rearrested after quickly traveling back to the border and reentering the U.S. Franklin Hernandez-Cruz was arrested in Arizona earlier this year just four months after being deported to Honduras following his conviction for fentanyl distribution in San Francisco. He had received a ‘time served’ sentence as part of federal prosecutors’ ‘fast track’ program designed to rapidly deport criminal aliens.

Unlike Sanchez-Cruz, other foreign national criminals have firmly embedded themselves in the city. This morning Luis Flores Chirino appeared before U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley at San Francisco federal courthouse and became the latest Honduran to be handed a time served sentence with the expectation that he would be immediately deported.

Chirino, an illegal alien, was arrested in 2012 and 2013 for driving under the influence and other traffic offenses. The 37-year-old was arrested in San Francisco in 2016, 2017 and 2022 for drug trafficking. His latest arrest, in the city’s Tenderloin district, came in July this year when he was caught selling drugs to an undercover police officer.

Today Chirino pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and was handed a time served sentence. Corley told him that he was likely to be immediately handed over to immigration officials although, she wryly acknowledged, in Hernandez-Mendoza’s case that did not happen and he went straight back to dealing drugs in San Francisco.

Perhaps betraying a lack of complete confidence in Alameda officials’ willingness to ensure he entered ICE custody, and not simply let him go, the judge spelled out to Chirino what he should do if he inexplicably found himself freed from jail and left to his own devices.

“Under no circumstances can you come back to San Francisco,” said the judge. “Call your lawyer if you are not given to immigration.”

With relatively few Hondurans actually being deported and others arriving from elsewhere in the country to replace them, it may be that a limit has been reached as to what law enforcement can accomplish while being hamstrung by ‘sanctuary’ protections given to major criminals by local authorities.