San Francisco values were on full display with the Kate Steinle trial, as Public Defender Jeff Adachi and deputy Matt Gonzalez got Jose Ines Garcia Zarate off for murder. Gonzalez, a well-known far-Left activist and former Green Party candidate for mayor, even took the opportunity to mock President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions after the acquittal [Illegal immigrant in San Fran pier shooting got lucky with defender, New York Post, December 2, 2017]. It’s time the Trump Administration and Sessions in particular to respond by using the full legal arsenal at their disposal.

As of now, Sessions is using a cap gun instead of a bazooka. The federal government plans to charge Zarate with violating the terms of his parole in a federal case in Texas. Zarate is facing a year or less on the gun charge that he has been convicted of because of credit for time served on a possible three-year sentence. The penalty for his parole violation charge will not be much harsher:

The warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the western district of Texas says Zarate was sentenced in Texas on May 12, 2011 to 46 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for illegally re-entering the U.S.

The warrant says the terms of the supervised release, which began March 26, 2015, barred Zarate from committing another crime and from possessing a firearm. He was still bound to the terms of that release when Steinle was shot and killed…

[Feds Release Arrest Warrant For Jose Ines Garcia Zarate After Pier Shooting Verdict, CBS News, December 1, 2017]

But there is a more appropriate Federal charge in this case: Title 18 United States Code Section 922, Unlawful Possession Of A Firearm, with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Zarate would be eligible for the maximum penalty, considering his record.

Yet Sessions, as he so often does, appears to be pulling his punches. And the U.S. Attorney for Northern California is Brian Stretch, an Obama holdover, notorious for his lack of prosecution of illegal aliens and immigration fraud cases. He also is doing nothing about the criminal activity of the state California, cities such as Los Angeles, and officials like Janet Napolitano, although they all openly support illegal aliens, technically a crime.

Neither Stretch nor Sessions are having Zarate arrested for “felon in possession”—nor for violating Steinle’s civil rights under Title 18 USC Section 245 - Federally Protected Activities. Sessions is strangely quiet on this and many other issues.

But President Trump has alternatives in this war with Sanctuary Cities. And there is now a nice fat target for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice in San Francisco, an example pour encourage les autres.

More than 800 executives from the nation’s largest corporations—including Univision, which owns Splinter—are patting themselves on the back for urging elected officials to support the young, undocumented immigrants who are losing protections from deportation and the right to legally work in the U.S. .… These statements are nice things to say, and that’s about it. They’re nothing more than symbolic declarations…

So far only one company, Airbnb, has publicly pledged to defy federal laws and keep DACA recipients employed once their work permits expire. Airbnb confirmed the policy, first reported by The Guardian, but a spokesperson declined to say how many DACA recipients the company employed.

[What DACA Recipients Really Need Is for Their Bosses to Break the Law, by Jorge Rivas, Splinter, November 30, 2017]

Airbnb (last seen reneging on rental agreements with Alt Righters before Charlottesville) has declared itself a “sanctuary employer” that will not fire DACA illegal aliens once their employment authorization expires. As the current plan among Cultural Marxists and the ethnic lobby is to pressure employers, especially in Silicon Valley, to defy immigration laws, the fate of Airbnb will be closely watched:

The Guardian asked 19 major tech corporations if they would lay off their employees who are Dreamers – immigrants brought to the US as children without documentation – if they lose their work permits because of Trump’s elimination of their legal status.

Airbnb spokesman Nick Papas replied in an email: “No. We are 100% committed to protecting Dreamers.”

Despite other CEOs’ public promises to support employees targeted by the president, all the other tech companies refused to say if they would allow Dreamers to continue working for them, or did not respond to inquiries.

It’s unclear how American companies could employ immigrants if their work authorization documents became invalid. Papas did not respond to follow-up questions and declined to comment on how many Dreamers Airbnb currently employs.

[Airbnb Vows To Be First Company To Defy Trump And Keep Employing Dreamers, by Sam Levin, The Guardian, September 7, 2017]

The response of the Trump Administration should be to order Ryan Spradlin, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) to immediately begin operations against Airbnb, which has now openly admitted it is violating the law. Investigations of Twitter, Facebook and other tech employers in San Francisco should follow.

The Trump Administration could also simply increase immigration enforcement in San Francisco. The Commander-in-Chief has broad authority to create enforcement priorities, the most important of which is the authority to determine how many enforcement employees from HSI, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), and the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) are assigned to San Francisco and what enforcement actions they take.

What is needed is an Operation Wetback for both San Francisco and all California.

Such actions could include:

• A very public grand jury subpoena or search warrant executed on the City and County of San Francisco for their City Identification Card records
• Implementation of City Patrol and Area Control policies in the City and County of San Francisco
• Orders for the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration to provide no-match records from employers in San Francisco to the Department of Homeland Security
• Subpoenas for records of California Driver’s Licenses provided to illegal aliens
• A declaration that  uniformed Border Patrol Agents will begin patrolling the streets of San Francisco.

There’s also movement in Congress. Congressman Todd Rokita has introduced a bill to crackdown on lawless officials. The “Stopping Lawless Actions of Politicians Act” (SLAP) would “hold state and local lawmakers criminally responsible for refusing to comply with federal immigration enforcement efforts”. [After Steinle verdict, rep unveils bill to imprison officials who shelter illegal immigrants, by Barnini Chakraborty, Fox News, December 3, 2017]

This would make the consequences for treason personal. If he wants to get serious, President Trump should speak up for this bill.

San Francisco, and California generally, are spitting in the eye of President Trump. Local and state officials seem to believe he is a coward. They are relying on that imagined cowardice.

Bold action using powers Trump already possesses would allow him to burst their bubble and reclaim the political initiative.

If Kate Steinle isn’t enough to move him to action, just what is he waiting for?

The blogger Federale (Email him) is a 4th generation Californian and a veteran of federal law enforcement, including service in the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and other federal law enforcement agencies.

Federale's opinions do not represent those of the Department of Homeland Security or the federal government, and are an exercise of rights protected by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.