Charges the Justice Department filed against Kate Steinle's shooter after he was acquitted of her murder are a start, acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan said Wednesday, insisting there is no "sanctuary" from the law.
"The night of the verdict, I was on the phone with officials from DOJ talking about what more we can do," Homan told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "The federal government will enforce federal law. If the politicians in San Francisco aren't going to protect their citizens we will. They call themselves a sanctuary city. I want to make something clear. There is no sanctuary from federal law enforcement."
Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who had already been deported five times and was wanted for a sixth deportation, had been charged with murder after Steinle was fatally shot in the back while walking with her father on a San Francisco pier.
Zarate did not deny shooting her, but said it was an accident. While he was acquitted of murder, he was found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The case gained national attention, as it came during the presidential campaign, touching off a debate over immigration and sanctuary cities.
The DOJ has also filed federal charges against Zarate, accusing him of being a felon in possession of a firearm and an alien in charge of a firearm, and if convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.
Homan has said he was sickened and stunned by the verdict against Zarate, and his opinion on sanctuary cities has not changed.
"We have politicians that are putting their political ambitions ahead of public safety," Homan said. "It doesn't ever make sense for a politician to release a known public safety threat back into the public, when they are here illegally."
In San Francisco, "these politicians" knew Zarate to be a seven-time convicted felon, said Homan, and ICE had notified authorities they wanted custody of him.
"Knowing all this, they release him back into the street and a young lady is dead," he said. "It's ludicrous what's going on."
Homan said he has also got a message for sanctuary cities that will not follow the law: They're putting politics over public safety and their communities in danger.
"You are putting law enforcement, my officers at risk when they have to go to someone's house, knock on the door and arrest somebody," he said. "It doesn't make sense that a federal law enforcement officers can't walk into a county jail to take custody of somebody that entered this country illegally, a crime in itself, committed another crime on top of that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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