SAN FRANCISCO, CA — An arrest of a nine-month-pregnant woman as she arrived for a scheduled hearing at the San Francisco Hall of Justice last week led the San Francisco Public Defender Office to charge law enforcement and the District Attorney are “targeting young immigrant mothers…and turning them over to the U.S. Marshals for federal prosecution and then deportation.”
As stated in a statement by the defenders, the woman was held overnight, and “suffers from pregnancy-related medical conditions,” enduring “a sleepless night on a cold metal bench” with U.S. marshals telling her that the soon-to-be-born baby “would be taken away from her.”
The statement from the SFPD revealed the victim had previously been in the courthouse in August, suffering from health setbacks due to her pregnancy.
“Her public defender successfully argued for her release so she could tend to her health and return to court for her scheduled hearings,” said the PD officer, noting officers “should have known that she was close to giving birth.”
San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju commented, “The cruelty of this troubling practice has hit a new low.”
SFPD has been working to “expose the fact that the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has a designated staff member who is given a unique federal title—Special Assistant U.S. Attorney—and who refers San Francisco court cases to the federal court.”
Raju explained frequently targeting immigrants, the cases brought against them are often dismissed locally and followed by a federal charge that is more penalizing.
The work from San Francisco and the Federal Public Defenders offices have advocated against these arrests, and aided in the release from the woman seized last week, said the public defenders.
Arrests like these have reached into the hundreds within the past year and are “circumventing people’s Constitutional due process right,” according to the SF PD Office.
Said SFPD, “Once in federal custody, individuals are often offered coercive “fast-track” deals where they can either go to trial and face decades in prison or plead guilty and be handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which transfers them to inhumane detention centers.”
Following federal involvement, deportation is likely, added SFPD, maintaining these practices circumvent San Francisco’s Sanctuary Ordinance and California State Law, “which strictly prohibits local law enforcement from assisting ICE with funneling people into deportation.”
In a letter signed by “32 immigrant and civil rights organizations to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins,” the FREE SF Coalition demanded a stop to collusion with federal prosecutors, charging it “makes it harder for people to show up to their local hearings for fear of immigration enforcement” and “singles out and scapegoats the immigrant community for the tragic fentanyl overdose crisis, and evades our historic Sanctuary law, which is crucial to building strong, safe communities.”
Deputy Public Defender Elizabeth Camacho, a felony manager with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, stated, “I commend our public defenders who have worked tirelessly to protect this client’s rights amidst a clear campaign to scapegoat immigrants for our city’s public health crisis.”
