Federal Judge Rejects Plea Bargains for Drug Dealers

A federal judge in San Francisco has rejected plea deals for two illegal aliens dealing drugs in the Tenderloin.  J.D. Morris and Megan Cassidy of the Chronicle report that District Judge William Alsup told federal prosecutors that he would not accept any plea agreement that failed to give the illegals jail time before they were deported. Both defendants were arrested for dealing fentanyl, which the judge called “public enemy number one.” Judge Alsup is not the only federal jurist denying lenient plea deals. District Judge James Donato also rejected a similar deal involving an illegal immigrant from Honduras earlier this week, because it was “not consistent with the goals of sentence and the ends of justice.”

While San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Governor Gavin Newsom have insisted that police deliver more arrests of drug dealers, under California law, they are charged with misdemeanors with no jail time.  So, in effect, the arrests by local police are only for show. But many dealers can be prosecuted under Federal law, which is much tougher on dealers. Public defenders complain that allowing illegal alien drug dealers to be prosecuted in federal court constitutes an end-around San Francisco’s sanctuary policies which have for years protected illegal alien criminals. It is those policies that have turned parts of the city into open-air drug markets, covering sidewalks with burned-out junkies.  Judge Alsup correctly notes that just deporting the Hondurans without punishment “sends exactly the wrong message,” amounting to an illegal alien drug dealer “recruitment tool.”