Committee forwards stronger sanctuary ordinance to Board after hearing on Pedro Figueroa case

San Francisco’s Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee voted without objection to forward to the full Board an update to the city’s sanctuary and Due Process for All ordinances that would remove an older exception allowing local law enforcement to coordinate with federal immigration officials when someone was booked on a felony and extend due-process protections to ICE notification requests under the federal Priority Enforcement Program.

The vote followed more than two hours of testimony and a joint discussion of two items: an ordinance to prohibit use of city funds or resources to assist in federal immigration enforcement except in narrowly defined circumstances, and a hearing to review the police and sheriff’s departments’ policies and responses in the case of Pedro Figueroa, who says he was turned over to federal immigration authorities after visiting a police station to retrieve a stolen car.

The committee’s chair, Supervisor John Avalos, framed the changes as an effort to update obsolete language in the sanctuary ordinance (originally adopted in 1989 and amended in 1993) and to preserve community trust with law enforcement. Avalos said the 1993…