San Francisco Tweaks Sanctuary City Law To Remove Convicted Violent Criminals

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) -- San Francisco leaders have retained strict protections for people who are in the country undocumented, with clarifications.

The Board of Supervisors reached its decision Tuesday after considering a measure calling for law officers to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement only if a defendant is charged with a violent crime and has been convicted of a violent crime within the past seven years.

The city's sheriff, who wanted more discretion to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, agreed to the proposal.

Tuesday's vote came nearly a year after a Mexican national was accused of killing a woman along a popular pier, sparking a national debate on how to handle undocumented criminal suspects in the U.S.

The sheriff at the time cited the city's so-called sanctuary law in ignoring a federal request before the killing to hold the man pending deportation.

The deadly shooting put San Francisco's leaders on the defensive as critics and outside politicians called for a change in the sanctuary law.