SF Mayor Calls For Immigration Reform In Wake Of 5 Murders
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee called on federal immigration officials to adopt policies that would prevent undocumented felons from being returned to the communities where they committed the crime if they cannot be repatriated.
Mayor Lee said Binh Thai Luc, arrested on suspicion of killing five victims found inside a home near San Francisco City College, should not have been allowed to return to the Bay Area after Vietnam refused to allow him back.
"We've got to have the federal authorities think through those alternatives," Lee said Tuesday.
KCBS' Margie Shafer Reports:
The deportation order came in 2006 after Luc served an 11-year sentence for a 1998 armed robbery in San Jose, but the Vietnamese government would not provide travel documents for the deportation to take place.
Luc was released back to authorities in Santa Clara County, and ultimately took up residence in San Francisco after he was released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The 35-year-old was arrested in the city for the Howth Street murders on Sunday.
One of the victims identified by the Medical Examiner's Office on Monday, Hua Shun Lei, was a chef at the R&G Lounge in Chinatown.
"The staff there had kind of their own memorial yesterday for their lost chef. It's a horrible tragedy," Lee said.
Lei's wife, 62-year-old Wan Yi Wu, 30-year-old Chia Huei Chu, 37-year-old Ying Xue Lei and 32-year-old Vincent Lei were also found dead by a relative who entered the home on March 23.
Police said the slayings do not appear gang-related, despite gang ties that turned up during the investigation. Luc's brother was arrested on the same day on unrelated drug and weapons charges.
Police have not indicated a motive for the slayings.
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