Free Republic

<p>Behind every move out of San Francisco City Hall, there's a healthy dose of personality and politics - and the call for a boycott of Arizona in protest of the state's new law aimed at illegal immigrants is no exception.</p>

<p>Ask Barry Broome, chief executive of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, what he thinks of our Board of Supervisors' move to boycott Arizona, and he won't hesitate to tell you.</p> <p>"It's a really poor strategy," he says, adding words like "hypocritical," "grandstanding" and "cheap shot" to the mix.</p>

San Francisco's city attorney today called for a boycott of the state of Arizona over newly signed legislation that outlaws illegal immigrants under state law. City Attorney Dennis Herrera issued a statement this morning calling for a "sweeping boycott of Arizona and Arizona-based businesses until this unjust law is repealed or invalidated." The Arizona law, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday, makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.

Count our own George Gascon among the nation's police chiefs speaking out against a controversial Arizona immigration bill that would require police officers in that state to arrest anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. Gascon, who was the top cop in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa before being tapped for the San Francisco job last year, said the Arizona legislation "will have a catastrophic effect on policing and set back community policing efforts for decades." Some cops are warning the law would impede their efforts to fight violent crime because witnesses and victims will be reluctant to...

San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón has been on an apology tour this week after making controversial remarks about terrorism and Middle Easterners - and the dustup is likely to lead to changes in the Police Department and at City Hall. Gascón reportedly said last week the Hall of Justice is susceptible to a terrorist attack by members of the city's Middle Eastern community parking a van in front of it and blowing it up.Despite reports to the contrary from people in attendance, Gascón said he never lumped all Middle Easterners or Arab Americans together, but instead referred to people...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The family of a father and two sons who were shot dead on a San Francisco street in 2008 can't hold the city responsible for failing to turn their alleged killer over to immigration authorities after earlier arrests, a judge has ruled. The city isn't legally to blame for any crimes Edwin Ramos, a suspected illegal immigrant from El Salvador, committed after his release for the offenses he committed as a juvenile, Judge Charlotte Woolard of San Francisco Superior Court said Monday. Cities "generally are not liable for failing to protect individuals against crime," Woolard said. She...

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors' new sanctuary law - intended to block the city from alerting the feds to young illegal immigrant criminal suspects who haven't been convicted - has come into focus again with the arrest of an undocumented 15-year-old in a double slaying at a Mission District pizzeria.The youth - a native of Mexico who attends John O'Connell High School - is one of three suspects in the Sept. 20 killings at Papa Potrero's Pizza on 24th Street. Police say the boy helped hold the victims down while they were shot in an apparent act of revenge...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday was successful in overriding Mayor Gavin Newsom's veto of legislation changing the sanctuary city ordinance. Newsom, who said the ordinance conflicts with federal law, said through his spokesman that he would ignore the legislation - prompting the legislation's author to threaten a legal challenge to the mayor. The new law takes effect in 30 days, and Supervisor David Campos said the board may fight the mayor in court if no compromise can be struck. Campos' ordinance - which garnered eight votes Tuesday - requires that undocumented juveniles be turned...

San Francisco supervisors' effort to shield immigrant youths from deportation when they're arrested on felony charges comes to a head today when the board votes on an override of Mayor Gavin Newsom's veto - a vote Newsom says he'll disregard because the ordinance would violate federal law. Supervisor David Campos' legislation has enough votes to pass. At that point, San Francisco will be at the center of a simmering nationwide legal debate over state and local government authority to depart from federal immigration policy, said Jayashri Srikantiah, a Stanford law professor and director of the school's Immigrants' Rights Clinic. At...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday vetoed the Board of Supervisors' legislation changing the city's sanctuary city policy. The letter is a formality on two counts: the supervisors have the votes to override Newsom's veto, and the mayor has said he'll ignore the legislation anyway. At issue is legislation, written by Supervisor David Campos, requiring that undocumented youth be reported to federal immigration officials for possible deportation after they're convicted of a felony, not when they're first arrested, as is the current policy. Newsom, has said the legislation must be ignored because it violates federal law.

San Francisco (AP) -- This famously liberal city, known for tackling thorny issues from gay marriage to universal health care, is wrestling with another divisive issue. The Board of Supervisors gave final approval Tuesday to a measure that would keep law enforcement from turning over minors to immigration authorities unless they have been found guilty of a felony. The move pits the panel against Mayor Gavin Newsom and law enforcement by reversing his policy of turning over youths to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after their arrest. Newsom took the stance in 2008 after the city was accused of protecting young...

There's still no love lost between Supervisor Chris Daly and Mayor Gavin Newsom. Daly, making a guest appearance Monday at the Board of Supervisors' public safety committee to support Supervisor David Campos' amendment to the city's sanctuary ordinance, said Newsom should be "held accountable" for releasing a confidential legal memo that said Campos' amendment violated federal law and would invite a legal challenge to the entire sanctuary policy. Daly downplayed the memo, saying it outlines a worst-case scenario and "exaggerates the legal risk involved." But he also said Newsom had provided a road map to anyone looking to challenge the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The family of a father and two sons who were gunned down on a San Francisco street last year has failed to convince a federal judge that the city violated the victims' constitutional rights by shielding their alleged murderer from deportation. But a lawyer for Tony Bologna's widow and daughter said he'll return to a state court with claims that San Francisco acted negligently by not notifying federal authorities of Edwin Ramos' immigration status when police arrested him in separate incidents in 2003 and 2004. The city's lawyer said he'll seek dismissal of those claims as...

The problem isn't that San Francisco lacks good ideas. It is that it takes them too far. In a period of 20 years, we went from a reasonable sanctuary policy that shielded political exiles who were here illegally to District Attorney Kamala Harris justifying letting first-time drug offenders clear their convictions even though they were illegal immigrants and subject to deportation. But here's the question: Why didn't anyone see this coming? Wasn't the uproar a year ago enough to get everyone's attention? Last year, The Chronicle's Jaxon VanDerbeken revealed that the city had been transporting convicted juvenile crack dealers back...

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said Tuesday that half a dozen illegal immigrants whose drug convictions were expunged as part of a job training program that she oversaw were "following the rules" and deserved to be exonerated even after prosecutors learned of their status. Prosecutors tightened guidelines, the district attorney said, after learning last summer that a man enrolled in Harris' Back on Track program was an illegal immigrant who allegedly robbed and assaulted a woman in Pacific Heights. The suspect in that case, Alexander Izaguirre, was the only one of the seven enrollees who turned out to be...

City officials are finally admitting what others have been saying for years: San Francisco is attracting huge numbers of homeless people from all over. Thousands of transient people, arriving from other counties, states and even countries, are overwhelming the city's homeless system. Facing a crippling budget shortfall, officials at San Francisco's homeless agencies are proposing a radical idea - take care of the city's own first, and require newcomers to show proof of residency for aid."If a homeless family living in San Francisco doesn't get shelter, and somebody just off the bus does, it doesn't seem fair," said Trent Rhorer,...

San Francisco's budget deficit for next year has grown to $575.6 million - equal to nearly half the city's discretionary spending account. It's a financial crisis Mayor Gavin Newsom called one of the worst the city has experienced since the 1930s. Newsom will announce his plan for cutting up to $125 million from this year's $6.6 billion budget today, but gave few details about what it will include. "This is nothing we've seen before," he told The Chronicle. "As difficult as these cuts will be, the real challenge is in the next three, four, six months." Today's announcement is expected...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A teenager accused of stabbing a 14-year-old boy to death in a gang-motivated attack had been given sanctuary from deportation under San Francisco's previous practice of shielding young illegal immigrant felons from federal authorities, records show. Rony Aguilera, 17, known as "Guerrillero," has been charged as an adult in the July 31 sword attack in the Excelsior neighborhood that killed Ivan Miranda, who police say was an innocent victim caught up in an act of gang vengeance. Authorities believe Aguilera is an illegal immigrant from Honduras, but he was never referred to federal officials after being arrested...

It's been said that San Francisco politics is like a dysfunctional family. But that's unfair to dysfunctional families. In the last eight years, the city's leading politicians have seemed more concerned with petty personal grudges than governing. There are supervisors - hello, Chris Daly - who will reflexively oppose anything Mayor Gavin Newsom proposes. Again and again, the mayor's office is quick to rise to the bait but not so eager to reach out and build bridges. And so, as four new members of the Board of Supervisors prepare to take their seats, here's some advice: Knock it off. This...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A state appeals court today reinstated a taxpayer lawsuit that accuses San Francisco officials of violating a state law that requires police who make drug arrests to notify federal authorities if a criminal suspect doesn't appear to be a U.S. citizen.A Superior Court judge dismissed the suit last year, saying the California law on which it was based was an invalid attempt by the state to regulate immigration. The First District Court of Appeal disagreed Wednesday and said the law, though it might affect immigration, is based on the state's legal authority to combat drug trafficking....