San Francisco pays an ILLEGAL immigrant $190k because Police Turned him over to Immigration Agents

Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, 33, reached the settlement agreement with the city attorney’s office, said Saira Hussain, a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus who represented Zarceno. The agreement must be approved by the Board of Supervisors.



“It’s really important for San Francisco to remain a sanctuary city not in name only but also in practice,” Hussain told The San Francisco Examiner. “Our hope is that the department is going to look into this further and really examine the way that the department can do more.”



Figueroa-Zarceno sued San Francisco in January for violating its sanctuary city law.



The construction worker said he went to police in December 2015 after getting a call from authorities that his stolen car had been found. Instead of helping him, he said, officers detained him and called immigration authorities.



He was taken into custody by federal authorities outside the police station and was in jail for two months. He has been fighting his deportation since his release.



“What happened to me was very unfair and it was an injustice,” Figueroa-Zerceno said. “I went into the police station to seek help and they didn’t tell me what was happening and they arrested me and treated me badly.”



City law prohibits law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration officials except when violent criminals are involved.