A ranking Republican member of the House has accused President Barack Obama of being partly responsible for the death of a woman who was shot by an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco last week.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the Obama administration's alleged failure to enforce the country's immigration laws led to the death of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle, who was shot by undocumented immigrant Francisco Sanchez on Wednesday last week.
Goodlatte also blamed San Francisco's sanctuary policy for undocumented immigrants for what happened.
San Francisco's 1989 Sanctuary Ordinance states that "no department, agency, commission, officer or employee of the City and County of San Francisco shall use any City funds or resources to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law or to gather or disseminate information regarding the immigration status of individuals in the City and County of San Francisco unless such assistance is required by federal or State statute, regulation or court decision."
Sanchez, who is from Mexico, admitted to KGO-TV that he kept coming back to San Francisco to avoid deportation.
"Did you keep coming back to San Francisco because you knew that they wouldn't actively look for you to deport you?" KGO-TV asked Sanchez, who replied, "Yes."
Sanchez had been deported five times. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Sanchez was turned over to the San Francisco police last March because of an outstanding drug warrant and it requested the police to notify them before they released Sanchez so they could put him in custody.
But the San Francisco Sheriff's Department reportedly said it had no legal basis to hold Sanchez based on a federal immigration detainer. San Francisco said the city would only turn over undocumented immigrants if there are active warrants for their arrest. Since Sanchez's local drug case was closed, he was released.
"It's a bad policy but they know about it," Goodlatte told ABC's "This Week."
"Why did they turn him over to them when they could have deported him again or prosecuted him for illegally re-entering the country four times? Either way, Kate Steinle would be safe," he said.
Goodlatte questioned why San Francisco released Sanchez who had illegal immigration status and committed seven prior felonies.
When asked if there should be a law the requires cities like San Francisco to turn over those who were charged in the past, charged with illegal crimes, Goodlatte said, "That's the law and that was the law, the policy regarding detainers, which is a law of the United States, was enforced by the Bush administration as being mandatory."
He said the Obama administration converted it into something voluntary, which eliminated a program that was working before.
Goodlatte said the actual deportations from inside the US "are way down."
"This administration is not enforcing our immigration laws, and quite frankly, I don't think they care," he said.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration will release thousands of prisoners serving sentences for federal drug charges next year based on a new rule.
The United States Sentencing Commission reduced the penalties for most drug offenses and made it retroactive, according to the New York Times.
The new rule will benefit about 50,000 federal prisoners, the report said.
According to the commission, this will decongest prisons and reduce prison spending, which eats about one-third of the Justice Department's budget.
