ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT KILLS WOMAN IN SAN FRANCISCO -- the death of Kathryn Steinle

[HairOfTheDog]

I'm starting a dedicated thread for this crime/story. It involves a random shooting death by an oft-deported illegal immigrant/criminal using a gun stolen from a federal law enforcement officer in a sanctuary city.

Lots of political tie-ins on this one.

Copied from Misc Crimes II thread:

Random Murder by Illegal Immigrant with 7 Felony Arrests and 5 Previous Deportations -- San Francisco, CA

This case is very sad and politically controversial.

The man accused of gunning down a 32-year-old Pleasanton woman while she was out strolling San Francisco's Embarcadero with her father was in a Bay Area jail less than four months ago and should have been turned over to federal immigration officials upon his release, instead of being set free, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

But that's not the way the San Francisco County Sheriff's Legal Counsel Freya Horne sees it. In an interview Friday with NBC Bay Area, she said the city and county of San Francisco are sanctuaries for immigrants, and they do not turn over undocumented people – if they don't have active warrants out for them – simply because immigration officials want them to.


Meanwhile, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said Francisco Sanchez, 46 (above left), who was arrested following the Wednesday evening shooting of Kathryn "Kate" Steidle (above right) along Pier 14, has "made an admission" with regards to the seemingly random death in the middle of a populated part of town.

Kate's parents have mixed feelings about the immigration policy. "It would have been so much better if he were gone. Absolutely," said Steinle's mother, Liz Sullivan. "But we're not dwelling on that,", Jim Steinle said, adding that nothing will bring his daughter back. "It's a non-issue."

Sanctuary cities, which are dotted throughout the United States, don't inquire about immigrants' status for the federal government and actively don't pursue catching undocumented immigrants to deport them. San Francisco's particular ordinance is called the "Due Process Ordinance for All on Civil Immigration Detainers."

The issue is a divisive one. Liberals mostly argue in favor of not reporting immigrants to immigration for deportation, and conservatives, including Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, argue that illegal immigrants, especially those that commit crimes, are the reason why the United States should better enforce its borders.

Sanchez, who has about a dozen aliases, was taken into custody after witnesses described him to police. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he is an undocumented immigrant with a long criminal history who has previously been deported to Mexico five times, the last time in 2008. He was last in prison, serving time, for illegally re-entering the United States, ICE records show.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Fra...81541.html