Brazen, Pro-Sanctuary City S.F. Sheriff Mirkarimi Trounced in Re-Election Bid

Challenger Vicki Hennessy, who entered the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department in 1975 and rose to Chief Deputy in 1997, easily defeated incumbent Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, an election that was decided in part by Mirkarimi’s sanctuary advocacy. With 100 percent of the ballots counted, Hennessy won 61.09 percent of the vote versus 32.9 percent for Mirkarimi.

Hennessy received support from Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who had a contentious relationship with Mirkarimi, and the San Francisco Deputy Sheriff’s Association.

Out!	In!

Mirkarimi’s fate may have been sealed since July 1 when he came under heavy criticism not only nationally but also in uber-liberal San Francisco for releasing five-times deported, seven-times convicted felon, Francisco Lopez-Sanchez. Citing San Francisco’s sanctuary status, Mirkarimi ignored an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requesting that Lopez-Sanchez be detained for possible deportation.

On July 1, Lopez-Sanchez murdered Kate Steinle in broad daylight as she walked along a popular tourist pier with her father. Watch Mirkarimi here as he absurdly tries to defend sanctuary policies under the guise that it “makes cities safer.”

Other factors that contributed to Mirkarimi’s defeat were a domestic violence charge, a brief driver’s license suspension for not reporting a minor accident while driving a department-issued vehicle and also failing a marksmanship test.

Sanctuary cities are so unpopular that the University of California Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies polling found that 73 percent of Democrats, including nearly two out of three Hispanics, oppose giving protected status to criminal aliens.

While Mirkarimi’s defeat may provide the Steinle family a modicum of comfort, the battle to defund sanctuary cities and impose mandatory jail sentences on criminal aliens who re-enter the U.S. after being removed remains uphill. The Senate recently blocked an anti-sanctuary bill that would have protected citizens from violent criminal aliens.

Please contact your representatives and, using the talking points included in this previous CAPS Action Alert, demand that Congress defund sanctuary cities and that once-deported aliens who re-enter be sentenced to five-year terms.