In 2006 Congress enacted the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The act requires among other things that youth as young as fourteen years register, often for life, following a conviction or a juvenile adjudication for certain sex offenses. it also mandates the publication on the internet of specific information about certain sex offenders including their addresses.

A study by the Associated Press found as to juveniles convicted of registrable offenses the law has not been fully implemented in most jurisdictions. Twenty-one states, according to the study, now require juveniles to register as sex offenders and another nineteen state require them to register if they are convicted as adults. The law is quite complicated and Ohio is the only state fully in compliance. Other states risk loosing Federal funds to support criminal justice programs.

Part of the problem is that states vary in their perception of the need to require juveniles to register as sex offenders. Sex offender registrants often have trouble getting jobs, finding housing, and blending into society. This is particularly true now that the names of registrants are available on the internet.

Long term registration may be appropriate for those who are uncurable. But many experts in the field feel that juveniles can be rehabilitated and registration only makes it more difficult. There is the case of the sixteen year old Iowa boy who was required to register after having sex with a thirteen year old girl. Such behavior is not necessarily proof of a long term sex offender requiring lifetime registration.

San Francisco (along with a number of other cities including Austin, Baltimore, and New York) is a sanctuary city. A sanctuary city is one that is friendly to immigrants. It does not cooperate with the Federal government when the government wants to deport illegal aliens.

There are exceptions to the sanctuary policy. For example city employees will report suspected felons to ICE for deportation. Until July this exception did not apply to juveniles in San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a series of articles about a group of Honduran juveniles. They were placed in a group home in Southern California after being detained on drug charges in order to avoid deportation. They walked away from the home without supervision. At approximately the same time Edwin Ramos was arrested and charged with the murder of a father and two sons in a road rage incident. Ramos was in this country illegally. He was arrested twice as a juvenile on crimes of violence but he had not been deported.

The US Attorney is investigating whether San Francisco officials violated Federal law. At that point San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor ordered city officials to report juveniles arrested on felony charges to ICE if they are suspected of being in this country illegally.

Tuesday the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by a veto proof margin of 8-2 voted to amend the policy to only deport those found to have committed a felony. The legislation was sponsored by by David Campos who originally came to this country as an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. Many juveniles are charged with felonies but due to plea bargaining or judicial orders the charges are either reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed. Newsom stated that he will not only veto the legislation but he will ignore it.

Newsom is supported by the City Attorney’s office which wrote a memo claiming that the Board of Supervisor amendment to the Sanctuary Policy is illegal and will adversely affect the city’s position in several current law suits including a wrongful death suit by the family of the alleged victims of Edwin Ramos. Newsom claims that if the amendment is enforced local authorities will be subject to Federal litigation for violating Federal law. But the City Attorney’s memo only says that the law is unsettled and that they do not know the results of any litigation resulting from the Supervisor’s amendment.