Halt drug dealer exports, S.B. County says
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday demanding that San Francisco stop sending illegal immigrant drug dealers to halfway houses in the county.
The supervisors also said they wanted reimbursement for any expense incurred by police or probation departments in handling the offenders.
Supervisor Gary Ovitt said the county would sue if necessary to get its money for the illegal “dumping.”
“The citizens of San Bernardino County should not have to pay for or be burdened with the fallout from this flawed and potentially dangerous policy,” he said.
The move comes after eight Honduran illegal immigrant drug dealers, said to be juveniles, were sent from San Francisco to group homes in Yucaipa, from which they later escaped. One has been recaptured.
A year earlier, four El Salvadoran drug dealers from San Francisco escaped from the same facilities. Neither probation nor law enforcement were informed before the offenders were sent to the county.
Last week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom reversed his city’s long-standing policy of sending juvenile illegal immigrant offenders to San Bernardino County and other areas rather than deporting them. They will now be referred to immigration authorities.
When Ovitt warned last week that he would introduce the resolution, Nathan Ballard, Newsom’s communication director, said the policy had already been rescinded.
Ballard could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
