FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 1, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT: PDR-MediaRelations@sfgov.org
**PRESS RELEASE**
SF Public Defenders Condemn Latest Courthouse Arrest of 9-Months-Pregnant Woman
SF District Attorney & SFPD continue to collude with Feds to target immigrant mothers, circumvent due process, and violate Sanctuary Ordinance
SAN FRANCISCO — On Oct. 24, SFPD officers carried out a surprise arrest of a nine-months-pregnant woman when she arrived for a hearing at the San Francisco Hall of Justice. This latest arrest is part of a disturbing pattern of law enforcement targeting young immigrant mothers who are facing drug sales charges in San Francisco and turning them over to the U.S. Marshals for federal prosecution and then deportation. In this case, the woman, who suffers from pregnancy-related medical conditions, was held in jail overnight where she endured a sleepless night on a cold metal bench. Most alarmingly, she was also threatened and harassed by U.S. marshals, who told her that her baby—due in two weeks—would be taken away from her.
The woman who was arrested in the courthouse last week had previously been in custody in August, where her health suffered due to the poor diet provided by the jail and she was diagnosed with medical complications related to her pregnancy. At that time, her public defender successfully argued for her release so she could tend to her health and return to court for her scheduled hearings. Officers and prosecutors who decided to seize her when she arrived at court, so she could be transferred into federal custody, should have known that she was close to giving birth.
“The cruelty of this troubling practice has hit a new low,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju
“The cruelty of this troubling practice has hit a new low,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju, whose office helped 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. These referrals have frequently targeted immigrant mothers for federal arrest at the San Francisco courthouse, after which a case is filed in federal court and the local case is dismissed. The woman seized last week has since been released from federal custody as a result of advocacy by the San Francisco and Federal Public Defender offices, but she and her family members are deeply upset by the callousness of officers toward a pregnant woman whose health is precarious.
There have been at least 100 people arrested in this manner over the past year, circumventing people’s Constitutional due process rights. 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. At that point, individuals are likely to be deported. This practice skirts both San Francisco’s long-standing Sanctuary Ordinance and California state law (the CA Values Act), which strictly prohibit local law enforcement from assisting ICE with funneling people into deportation.
Today, the FREE SF Coalition sent a letter signed by 32 immigrant and civil rights organizations to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins demanding that her office stop colluding with federal prosecutors to target immigrants for arrest in our local courthouse. The letter states that this practice “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.”
Last month, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office announced an acquittal in a drug sales case where jurors unanimously determined that the young man, now in his 20s, had been trafficked as a minor to sell drugs in San Francisco under threat of harm to him and his family members. Similarly, there is evidence that the pregnant woman who was arrested on Oct. 24 was trapped in debt bondage by traffickers and has suffered gender-based abuse, including by U.S. law enforcement officials.
“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,” said Deputy Public Defender Elizabeth Camacho, a felony manager with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.
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