SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Federal investigators are looking into San Francisco's sanctuary policy which sent illegal juvenile offenders back home, or in some cases to Southern California group homes, backed by city funds.
“Very close to it,” says United States Attorney for Northern California Joseph Russoniello when asked if San Francisco is harboring fugitives.
Russoniello's office is looking into whether laws were broken. He says criminal charges are a possibility.
”I wouldn’t want to say at this point who that might be, but there certainly is a statute which is very clear, Title 8, that identifies the different offenses with the harboring context that could be brought,” claims Russoniello.
The city has revised its policy and is now notifying federal authorities when a juvenile is in the country illegally and taken into custody in San Francisco.
Russoniello notes the sanctuary policy has been on record for decades, but the wording has changed over time making it hard to figure out who is responsible.
Public interest in the policy began after documents surfaced that alledged triple homocide assailant, 21-year-old Edwin Ramos, had been previously shielded from prosecution due to protection from San Francisco's sanctuary city policy.
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KCBS' Patti Reising
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