San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi sought Friday to explain his department's actions in the April release from jail of a five-time deportee now charged with murder in the shooting death a 32-year-old woman as she strolled the tourist-friendly Embarcadero with her father.
The San Francisco Sheriff's Department, like nearly all local jurisdictions and many nationwide, has stopped complying with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests that immigrant inmates be held beyond their release dates for pickup and potential deportation.
Such a request from ICE was denied in the case of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, 52, who had been transported here on order of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department from a Victorville federal prison where he was completing his sentence for his most recent illegal entry into the United States.