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San Francisco, long celebrated as a sanctuary city for immigrants, is now deporting migrants arrested in drug busts as it struggles to fight its
fentanyl crisis killing hundreds every year, according to a new report.

Since last year, when fentanyl killed a record-breaking 656 people, more
than 100 individuals have been charged as part of a federal sweep in San Francisco aimed at illegal drug sales � with most of the felons identified
as undocumented migrants who get handed over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Bloomberg reported.

�For people who are willing to sell poison that is killing people, there�s
no protection for you. There�s no sanctuary for you,� Mayor London Breed
told the outlet.

�Fentanyl is such a deadly drug. It requires that we take more extreme measures,� she added.

The crackdown on migrant felons was kicked off by Ismail Ramsey, the Biden administration�s top prosecutor in Northern California.

When he took over in 2023, Ramsey directed his office to focus on low-
level dealers and put an end to the �revolving door� system that allowed criminals back out on the streets after being arrested.

The key to his strategy lies in taking up low-level fentanyl or meth
cases, offering the migrant defendants� plea deals with a one-day extended sentence, and using that final day in custody to hand the felons over to
ICE for deportation proceedings, according to Bloomberg.

Since the program�s implementation, many migrants have been caught and are
set to be deported, including a 50-year-old Honduran man arrested in July
for selling $5 worth of meth, according to records from Ramsey�s office.

Critics of the program have accused San Francisco�s top prosecutor of
using immigrants as a scapegoat, with his office allegedly more concerned
about seeing the deportations go through than actually prosecuting the
crimes.

Ramsey, however, insists the strategy is more about deterrence rather than deportations.

�It is not immigration consequences, but the threat of a potentially long federal sentence,� he told Bloomberg. �This is a real consequence to drug dealers that changes the calculus regarding whether they want to return.�

San Francisco officials appear to be committed to the strategy to tackle
the opioid pandemic after last year�s record-breaking 656 deaths, a 43% increase from 2022, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The strategy may be working as the medical examiner�s latest report, filed
in July, found that 293 people died of a fentanyl overdose since January,
a drop from the previous year.

The city�s total accidental overdose deaths remains high, with the
officials estimating 412 deaths between January and July.

https://nypost.com/2024/09/05/us-news/sanctuary-city-san-francisco- deporting-migrants-tied-to-drug-busts-report/

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