Ramos and wife Amelia.

On June 22, Tony Bologna and his two sons, Matthew and Michael, were driving back to their San Francisco home after lunch in the park. They were traveling down a narrow street when a car carrying Edwin Ramos approached from the opposite direction. As Ramos passed, police say he opened fire, riddling the Bolognas’ car with bullets and killing all three men inside.

In the wake of the triple homicide, the surviving family members didn’t call a wrongful death lawyer. They called Kris Kobach. The reason is that Ramos is no run-of-the-mill murder suspect.

In the past five years, Ramos had been charged with assaulting a city bus passenger and a pregnant woman at a Metro stop. Tattoos indicated that he was a member of the gang Mara Salvatrucha or MS13. Born in El Salvador, he wasn’t a legal resident of the United States. According to Kobach, those three strikes should have prompted San Francisco officials to contact federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The likely result: Ramos would have been deported.

“But they never made that phone call,” Kobach says. “On three occasions they put Ramos back on streets of San Francisco knowing he was a violent gang member who would likely cause injury or death. And the city was violating federal law each time they did that.”

That's because, in 1989, San Francisco adopted a sanctuary city policy, barring city officials from reporting undocumented residents to federal immigration authorities unless specifically mandated by law or warrant. Such policies aren't just confined to the liberal bastions of the coasts, either. From Salt Lake City to Jackson Hole, municipalities have passed similar measures to, in part, prevent illegal immigrants from being targeted by criminals and encourage them to assist police in investigating crimes. As San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said in an April 2008 press release: "City employees will not report individuals or their immigration status to federal immigration agents. San Francisco residents should feel safe when they visit a public health clinic, enroll their children in school, report a crime to the Police Department or seek out other City services."

But Kobach says that "radical sanctuary city policy” resulted in murder. Last month, the UMKC professor, along with California attorney Michael Kelly, filed this complaint alleging the city was responsible for the Bolognas death because it didn't turn over Ramos to ICE officials when he was in its custody. Kobach says the claim doesn't just aim to compensate the widowed wife and her two surviving children.

"We hope to send a clear message that will bring an end to San Francisco's sanctuary policy, which one would expect to happen if the city is found liable [for the Bolognas' deaths]," he says. "And we want to send a clear message to other sanctuary cities, if they put their lawful citizens at risk like this they'll be held liable. One thing city councils understand is liability."

Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for the San Francisco city attorney, declined to comment about the complaint. But he added that it's not likely the city's going to settle. They'll see Kobach in court.