Honduran drug dealers have made a business hub out of San Francisco due to the progressive city’s sanctuary laws for illegal immigration, fueling the nation’s fentanyl epidemic and the visible decline of a major American city.
San Francisco’s accommodative approach to illegal immigration makes it appealing to sell there, Honduran dealers told the San Francisco Chronicle as part of an in-depth investigation into how Honduran nationals have come to play a dominant role in the city’s drug crisis.
Under current San Francisco law, last amended in July 2016, city employees are forbidden from using city resources to cooperate with any ICE investigation, detention, or arrest relating to an illegal immigration case. The law also prohibits ICE from placing holds on local prisoners so they can be deported upon their release from jail, the publication noted.
A Honduran dealer told the Chronicle that San Francisco is a hot spot for drug work because those illegal immigrants who are caught are less likely to be deported.
“The reason is because, in San Francisco, it’s like you’re here in Honduras,” another dealer said. “The law, because they don’t deport, that’s the problem. … Many look for San Francisco because it’s a sanctuary city. You go to jail and you come out.”
San Francisco drug arrests have dropped significantly in recent years. Only 734 were made in 2021, followed by 929 in 2022. In 2015, 1,273 were made, according to data obtained by the Chronicle. This is despite fentanyl sales increasing during the pandemic, the outlet said. Honduran dealers also started controlling the open-air drug markets in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods during the Covid crisis.
The trafficking of drugs, which move through Mexico after being made with ingredients from China, has made many dealers wealthy, earning the most successful as much as $350,000 a year, according to the Chronicle. In many cases, their fortunes have been funneled into new mansions in the Siria Valley, a region north of Honduras’ capital. The exteriors of some of the homes, such as the front gates and walls, pay homage to the city that gave the dealers their big break, with San Francisco 49ers and Giants logos adorning them.
The human toll of drug trafficking from Central America has been monumental, with 2,200 dead in San Francisco due to overdoses on fentanyl since 2020. Some public defenders representing Honduran illegal immigrants facing drug charges have argued that they are trafficking victims rather than offenders. Progressive prosecutors have justified their lenient treatment of foreign drug dealers by arguing that many of them are forced into the trade by gangs.
For example, some dealers owe money to coyotes, who smuggle illegal immigrants across the border. Without a stream of income their families could be put in danger of facing retaliation from their creditors, the Chronicle noted. However, of the 25 dealers the publication interviewed, only three said they were forced into the trade.
In February, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors announced a proposal to change the city’s sanctuary status amid the astronomical number of fentanyl deaths.
“It is time to withdraw the protection of sanctuary from undocumented immigrants trafficking fentanyl on our streets,” Supervisor Matt Dorsey said. He proposed legislation to modify the city’s policies to refuse “sanctuary” to illegal immigrants who were previously convicted of a fentanyl-dealing felony within the past seven years, and re-arrested for another fentanyl-dealing crime or violent felony crime, KRON4 News reported.
“With just two milligrams of fentanyl estimated to be a lethal overdose for most people, SFPDʼs drug seizure haul from street-level drug dealers in 2022 represents enough fentanyl to kill every adult in California,” Dorsey’s office said in a statement.