San Fran Sheriff: Sanctuary City Laws ‘Important’ in Building Trust with Immigrants

MIRKARIMI: “Well, I think I ingestured this earlier by saying that absent of a federal comprehensive immigration policy, and especially as it intersects with the criminal justice system, really local governments and state governments are -- it's defaulting to us. And we have a large immigrant population in San Francisco, as it's well known, I think, in California, and in many cities throughout the United States. And our sanctuary city laws, I think, are important to us and law enforcement because we're trying to build trust and build a level of continuity with our immigrant non-English speaking population. And it's true that some will be undocumented. But before that those laws came into place, it was only exacerbating and making public safety worse by the lack of reporting, by the under reporting, by communities that are venerable being preyed upon. We needed to do something to bound (ph) that, and I think our sanctuary city laws do work. And as heinous and as senseless as this tragedy is, what it really does is spotlights I think an impasse and a natural tension that exists between local, state, and federal government, because what is and more importantly what is not working, as it relates to ICE and its practices comporting with local government needs.”