Let that sink in for a city that has branded itself as the ultimate sanctuary, that has poured millions into immigrant services, and that never misses an opportunity to virtue-signal its compassion on the national stage. Nearly half the people this city claims to champion are showing up to some of the most consequential legal proceedings of their lives completely unrepresented.

Now, to be clear — there is no constitutional right to a public defender in immigration court. These are civil proceedings, not criminal ones. But San Francisco has voluntarily taken on the mission of providing legal representation to immigrants. It's created dedicated funds, staffed nonprofit pipelines, and made splashy announcements. So the question isn't whether the city should be doing this — it already decided it would. The question is why it's failing so badly at something it chose to do.

This is the pattern we see over and over in San Francisco governance: big promises, big budgets, mediocre results. The city spends more per capita on homelessness than virtually anywhere in America and still has tent encampments. It funds transit at eye-watering levels and still can't run buses on time. And now, on one of its signature policy commitments — immigrant legal defense — it's delivering for barely more than half the people it promised to help.

If you're fiscally conservative, this is maddening because taxpayer dollars are being spent inefficiently. If you're progressive, this should be maddening because real people are suffering real consequences from bureaucratic underperformance. Either way, someone at City Hall should be answering for the gap between the rhetoric and the reality.

The lesson, as always: announcements aren't outcomes. Budgets aren't results. And San Francisco has a chronic addiction to confusing the two.