Shielded by San Francisco, Honduran crack dealers walk

SAN FRANCISCO -- An effort by San Francisco to shield eight young Honduran crack dealers from federal immigration officials backfired when the youths escaped from Southern California group homes within days of their arrival, officials said Monday.The escapees add to a string of embarrassments for city officials who are protecting illegal-immigrant drug dealers from federal authorities and possible deportation because of San Francisco's 1989 declaration that the city is a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. Until recently, San Francisco flew juvenile illegal immigrants convicted of drug crimes to their home countries rather than cooperate with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The practice drew national attention when The Chronicle reported it Sunday.When federal law enforcement authorities demanded that San Francisco halt the flights and began a criminal investigation, the city decided to house some of the dealers in long-term youth rehabilitation centers. Some are run by Silverlake Youth Services, a nonprofit company, in mountain towns southeast of San Bernardino.Eight Honduran juveniles who had been convicted of dealing drugs in San Francisco were sent within the past few weeks to the company's group homes, where one month's placement costs $7,000 per youth. San Francisco taxpayers bear the expense.Within 10 days of being sent to the unlocked group homes, however, all eight youths ran away, said Bill Siffermann, head of juvenile probation in San Francisco. He said his agency had issued arrest warrants for them.Siffermann said the city has stopped sending juvenile offenders to Silverlake because of the escapes. "We have now eliminated that as a prospect," he said, adding that San Francisco is trying to come up with an approach for handling juveniles that does not involve giving them to federal immigration authorities.Bart Gray of the San Bernardino County sheriff's office said Silverlake had reported the Honduran youths as runaways -- not as juvenile offenders. Three were listed as missing June 20 and two more on June 22. It's not clear when the remaining three disappeared.Silverlake officials confirmed that the youths had vanished but would say nothing further, referring inquiries to San Francisco officials.Silverlake's Web site says the company maintains 10 group homes that "exist for the sole purpose of providing a home environment and psychological health care for troubled youth."The site adds that many of the group homes "have large lots and offer the opportunity for the residents to garden, tend to fruit trees and raise farm animals."San Francisco sent the youths to the Southern California group homes after federal authorities demanded that they stop flying illegal immigrant juvenile offenders to their homeland without alerting immigration officials.Turning the youths over to federal authorities for deportation could have resulted in their being legally barred from ever returning to the United States. Federal officials said the city's practice of returning the youths to their homeland to be reunited with their families did nothing to prevent drug-dealing juveniles from coming right back to the United States.They also noted that it is a crime to help an illegal immigrant cross the border, even if it is to leave the country.San Francisco officials countered that many of the youths were victims of drug dealers and that it wasn't fair to bar them from ever becoming citizens.The eight youths were scheduled to be flown back to Honduras before city juvenile probation authorities halted the flights in May. They were not convicted of violent crimes, so they were ineligible to be sent to the California Youth Authority.They were among dozens of young Honduran illegal immigrants who have been arrested in San Francisco in recent years for dealing drugs. Police said many of the Hondurans -- some of whom they believe are actually adults -- live communally in other local cities at the behest of drug lords, who finance their travel here and threaten to kill their families if they cooperate with law enforcement. Officials say at least 22 illegal immigrants are being held at the city's juvenile hall.Undersheriff Richard Beemer said the practice of "dumping" youths in his county "is a huge concern."The youths sent there are hundreds of miles from their probation officers in San Francisco, so "they end up being a problem in the community," Beemer said. "This is in no way rehabilitating them. They are coming in and engaging in the same kind of conduct that got them sent down here."Lidia Stiglich, president of the San Francisco commission that oversees the Juvenile Probation Department, said she was working with the mayor's office and the probation department to decide what to do with offenders the city refuses to turn over to federal immigration authorities.She would not comment on the San Bernardino County escapes.With flights home and cooperation with federal authorities ruled out and the Southern California group homes off the table, Siffermann said, "We're running out of options."(E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken(at)sfchronicle.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)