A year after the brutal killing of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Matthew, 20, and Michael, 16, on the streets of sanctuary city San Francisco, the illegal alien suspect and possible MS-13 gang member Edwin Ramos appeared in court.
As an illegal alien, Ramos could have been deported years earlier, particularly after having committed two felonies: assaulting a young man on public transit and attempted robbery of a pregnant woman. But San Francisco’s sanctuary policy shielded Ramos from deportation. The lethal fallout from the City by the Bay’s dangerous policy was covered in a series of stunning articles authored by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jaxon Van Derbeken, winner of the Center for Immigration Studies’ 2009 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration.
While San Francisco claims to have tweaked their illegal-alien protecting policy, it’s clear city officials still don’t get it.
In what amounts to a slap in the face to the Bologna family, less than 24 hours after Ramos’ hearing, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his appointment of Cuban immigrant George Gascon to the position of police chief, a man who has made a name for himself by pushing sanctuary-policies first as a police chief in Los Angeles and most recently as a police chief in Maricopa County, Ariz. As explained by the Associated Press:
Gascon is a supporter of sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants, which San Francisco has followed for years. He has described the use of officers to enforce immigration laws as a waste of resources, and he has clashed with a county sheriff in Arizona over the sheriff's efforts to arrest illegal immigrants.
"He shares the mayor's support for the sanctuary city policy and he has tackled some of the toughest immigration related law enforcement issues as a police chief in Arizona," said Nathan Ballard, a spokesman for the mayor.
On immigration, Mr. Gascon believes that “demagoguery and misinformation are shaping public opinion” and that cities are “enacting draconian and constitutionally questionable laws.” He also believes that police departments are “wasting limited resources to appease the public’s thirst for action against illegal immigration” and that 287(g) programs should be limited to only address “serious criminal behavior by non-citizens here without authority.” It also appears he supports illegal alien amnesty.
This doesn’t bode well for anyone other than San Francisco’s illegal alien gang members.