The San Francisco sheriff who over the
summer became embroiled in a national debate over "sanctuary city"
policies on Tuesday lost his bid for re-election amid a host of local
controversies.
Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, 54, was
defeated by Vicki Hennessy, a former sheriff's official who had the endorsement
of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the sheriff deputies association. As of early
Wednesday morning, Hennessy had received 62 percent of the vote to just 31
percent for Mirkarimi.
Mirkarimi was the subject of national
criticism after Mexican illegal immigrant Francisco Sanchez allegedly shot and
killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle on San Francisco's waterfront July 1. Sanchez
had been released from Mirkarimi's jail in March even though federal
immigration officials had requested he be detained for possible
deportation.
But since then, the sheriff's
oversight of the department has been plagued by other high-profile mishaps and
controversies seen as contributing to his defeat. He had his driver's license
briefly suspended for failing to properly report a minor accident while driving
a department-issued car, and he also flunked a marksmanship test.
Before those two incidents, a drug
gang leader escaped from jail, and guards were accused of staging and gambling
on inmate fights.
In November 2014, Mirkarimi also was
forced to apologize for the bungled search for a San Francisco General Hospital
patient whose body was found in a stairwell weeks after she wandered from her
room. The sheriff is in charge of the hospital's security, but deputies didn't
search the building until nine days after her disappearance. The city paid the
patient's family $3 million to settle a lawsuit.
But Mirkarimi is now known nationally
for his strident defense of sanctuary city policies, taking the practice to a
new level under his leadership.
San Francisco declared itself a
sanctuary city in 1989, passing an ordinance that bans city officials from
enforcing immigration laws or asking about immigration status unless required
by law or court order. A follow-up ordinance in 2013 allows detention only
under a court order targeting violent felons. Last month, San Francisco's board
of supervisors unanimously approved a resolution to maintain the city's
sanctuary status.
San Francisco and other cities and
counties have routinely ignored requests from Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officials to keep people in custody. The jurisdictions say they
can't hold arrestees beyond their scheduled release dates without probable
cause.
Hennessy has previously said the
sheriff's order barring the San Francisco jail from cooperating with
immigration officials is misguided. There are cases, she said, when federal
immigration officials should be notified that the jail is about to release an
inmate who is in the country illegally.
The
Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/04/san-francisco-sheriff-loses-re-election-bid-amid-sanctuary-city-controversy/?intcmp=hpbt1
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