Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is meeting with leadership in the upper chamber to craft a law in response to last week’s murder of a San Francisco woman by a five times-deported illegal alien, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly reported on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Tuesday.
The action is a response to the murder of Kathryn Steinle. The 32-year-old was shot in broad daylight on San Francisco’s Pier 14 last Wednesday by Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a 45-year-old Mexican national who has seven felonies on his criminal record.
The fatal shooting has stirred national outrage because the San Francisco sheriff’s department had released Lopez-Sanchez from custody in April, despite a detainer request placed on him by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The request was not honored because San Francisco, like many cities in the U.S., is what’s known as a sanctuary city. That means it prohibits local agencies from enforcing federal immigration laws.
“There is some good news today as Kate may not have died in vain,” O’Reilly said Tuesday.
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told ‘The Factor’ he is meeting with with the Senate leadership to discuss Kate’s Law,” he announced.
“As we suggested last night, Congress should pass legislation that would impose a mandatory minimum five-year sentence on any illegal alien that’s deported and then comes back.”
O’Reilly has posted a petition to his website calling on McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner to pass “Kate’s Law.” He also stated that he believes the law should include language to punish government officials who refuse to enforce the statute.
O’Reilly also said that Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon is drafting a similar bill to punish aliens who repeatedly re-enter the country illegally.
Challenge accepted… "Where is a law that says if you are deported one time and come back you serve five years in prison?" –@oreillyfactor
— Matt Salmon (@RepMattSalmon) July 7, 2015
Tristan Daedelus, Salmon’s communications director, confirmed to The Daily Caller that Salmon is currently writing “Kate’s Law.”
Salmon will introduce the bill “as soon as possible,” Daedelus said. The bill would codify a minimum five year prison sentence on aliens who illegally re-enter the U.S. Federal law currently imposes a fine, a two-year prison sentence, or both on aliens convicted of re-entering the country illegally.
On June 25, Salmon proposed the “Stop Catch and Release Act,” also known as “Grant’s Law.” That bill is named after Grant Ronnebeck, a Mesa, Ariz. convenience store clerk who was killed while on duty by Apolinar Altamirano, an illegal alien from Mexico. Altamirano, who shot Ronnebeck over a pack of cigarettes, was in ICE custody in 2013 for a burglary charge. But he was released on $10,000 bond while awaiting deportation proceedings. After being released and before shooting Ronnebeck, Altamirano allegedly threatened to kill a woman a pointed a gun at her boyfriend.
“Grant’s Law” would require DHS to complete removal proceedings not more than 90 days after a criminal illegal alien is detained.
This post has been updated to include more information.
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