City Jail: Negligence Claim and July Slaying

city jail: Steinle's shooting death thrust San Francisco into the national debate over immigration The man charged with murder in the July 2015 slaying, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, was a repeat drug offender who was transferred to the city jail to face a marijuana sales charge after he completed a federal prison sentence for illegally reentering the country, according to Metro News. The district attorney dropped charges, and the sheriff's department released Lopez-Sanchez three months before Steinle's death, ignoring a request by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep him behind bars. The judge, however, allowed a negligence claim against the federal government to move forward. San Francisco's so-called sanctuary policy bars city employees from co-operating with federal immigration officials in deportation efforts. In their lawsuit, Steinle's family cited a statement by immigration authorities that Lopez-Sanchez would have been deported and Steinle's death prevented if sheriff's officials had notified them about his pending release. Mirkarimi cited the law in a 2015 memo to deputies that prohibited them from providing certain information to federal immigration authorities, including the date an inmate is released, according to Spero's ruling. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.