Just when you thought things couldn’t get more Leftist, they get more Leftist.  But it’s San Francisco after all.

From SFGate.com, a bay area news site:

Pier 14 killing: S.F. sheriff asked feds to send immigrant here

by Jaxon Van Derbeken

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has deflected blame in the release of a Mexican national now facing murder charges in the Pier 14 slaying by demanding to know why federal authorities returned him to San Francisco to face a 20-year-old marijuana charge in the first place.

An excellent question.  Why?  Finally, a journalist with an inquisitive mind.

The answer, it turns out, is that the Sheriff’s Department asked federal officials to do so.

Mirkarimi’s agency requested custody of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez as he was completing a 46-month stint in federal prison in March in San Bernardino County, according to a Sheriff’s Department letter obtained by The Chronicle. Lopez-Sanchez had been deported five times to Mexico, and had been imprisoned for illegally re-entering the U.S.

Curiouser and curiouser.

The federal Bureau of Prisons alerted the Sheriff’s Department in March that Lopez-Sanchez was going to be released. Mirkarimi’s agency, realizing that Lopez-Sanchez was wanted on a $5,000 bench warrant related to a 1995 marijuana possession for sale case, asked prison officials March 23 to hold onto him and to notify San Francisco authorities “when the subject is ready for our pick-up.”

“Also, please notify us if the hold cannot be placed or the named subject is released to another jurisdiction prior to our receipt,” said the letter, signed by Vic Gaerlan of the sheriff’s warrant bureau.

Lopez-Sanchez arrived in San Francisco on March 26, and the marijuana case against him was discharged the following day. He was returned to jail, however.

For the next three weeks, sources with knowledge of the matter told The Chronicle, sheriff’s deputies sought clarification from the department’s legal division on whether to hold onto Lopez-Sanchez so Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials could pick him up for possible deportation. ICE had requested that the city detain Lopez-Sanchez.

About now, you’re asking yourself a question, aren’t you?

Let’s let Breitbart.com pick up the story.

Lopez-Sanchez was scheduled for release from federal prison in southern California in March. Given that information, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began processing a reinstatement of removal order for the five-time deportee, Breitbart News previously reported.

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department was also alerted to Lopez-Sanchez’s impending release from federal Bureau of Prisons custody in March, according to a Sheriff’s department letter obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. Noting Lopez-Sanchez had a 20-year-old bench warrant on possession-for-sale of marijuana, on March 23 the Sheriff’s department requested notification when Lopez-Sanchez was “ready for our pickup.”

“Ready for pickup” on a $5,000 dope charge about which the SF District Attorney couldn’t care less.

Lopez-Sanchez was transferred from the federal Bureau of Prisons in Victorville, California to San Francisco Sheriffs’ department custody on March 26.

A court dismissed Lopez-Sanchez’s charges the day after he arrived in San Francisco, March 27.

It was not until after Lopez-Sanchez was delivered to San Francisco County custody that ICE was notified of the transfer. ICE then issued a detention request for Lopez-Sanchez. That request simply asked for notification prior to Lopez-Sanchez’s release, not that he be detained for an extended period of time.

San Francisco sanctuary city and Sheriff’s department policies specifically deny all such detainer requests unless backed by a court order or warrant.

In other words, as a “sanctuary city,” San Francisco chooses not to comply with the law.

So why request his return?

Please allow me to state what, in my opinion, may be the answer to: why did they request Sanchez?

I believe it’s because they are a “sanctuary city” and that, by acquiring physical custody of Sanchez, they could assure his release prior to being detained by the feds for deportation back to Mexico.

In other words: they were protecting him.

It’s what they do.

BZ