An innocent woman minding her own business was killed by a convicted felon in the country illegally who was on the streets of San Francisco because the local jail had ignored a “detainer” from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ignoring the detainer was required by San Francisco’s “sanctuary city” policy.

The usual xenophobic suspects raise a hue and cry against all sanctuary cities or proposals to declare sanctuary cities. What is different in the San Francisco case is that people who should know better—including both of California’s Democratic senators---have joined the mob with the torches and pitchforks. You know an argument is going mainstream when Hillary Clinton adopts it.

They are all wrong, and wrong for reasons that affect all people, not just the undocumented.

I confess that from my time as a magistrate, I do have some sympathy for the undocumented. Since I read history, I consider all the colonists to be undocumented but, unlike The Donald Trump, I understand that most of them are decent people as individuals.

Until I was able to stop it temporarily, the Austin jail honored requests by the federal agency not then called ICE to “hold” brown people speaking Spanish who had no papers with them when arrested. Note that I did not say the people were in the country unlawfully.