Presidential unhopeful Donald Trump worked the story of Kate Steinle's July 2015 shooting into his speech on immigration on Wednesday in Phoenix, which seems predictable enough given how Fox News has previously taken and run with the tragedy to fan the flames of the immigration debate. As ABC 7 reports, Trump declared that sanctuary cities like San Francisco should stop receiving federal funding, and he said, "I am also going to ask Congress to pass Kate's Law to ensure that criminal aliens convicted of illegal reentry receive strong, mandatory minimum sentences; strong. And then we get 'em out."
The problem is, the Steinle family has consistently asked Mr. Trump to stop politicizing and sensationalizing her murder, and to stop invoking her name for his own political gain. As early as last July, Steinle's brother Brad Steinle was telling Anderson Cooper, "You hear Donald Trump talking about Kate Steinle like he knows her... I’ve never heard a word from his campaign manager, never heard a word from him... The platform that he’s setting isn’t exactly what our family believes in."
Families of other murder victims (allegedly) by illegal immigrants gathered on stage with Trump Wednesday, however the Steinle family was not there, as KRON 4 notes.
Steinle was killed by what may have been a ricocheting bullet from a gun in the possession of repeatedly deported immigrant Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who has claimed in interviews that he had been taking prescription sleeping pills he found in a dumpster, and that he had found the gun as well and taken it to Pier 14 to shoot at sea lions.
Because it was found that Lopez-Sanchez had at the time been recently arrested on drug charges and released by the San Francisco Sheriff's Department in April despite having seven previous non-violent felony convictions and five deportations on his record the case became a flashpoint for those on the anti- side of the immigration debate, and detractors of the sanctuary city concept SF embraces.
Recent revisions to the sanctuary policy, in fact, still would not have changed how Lopez-Sanchez's case had been handled, because they only pertain to violent criminals.
Previously: Video: 'Wandering' Man Says He Took Sleeping Pills From Dumpster Then Shot Woman At SF Tourist Attraction