As part of its never-ending politicization of the killing of (pretty, white) Kate Steinle by an undocumented immigrant, Fox News hosted acting ICE Director Thomas Homan yesterday to blame sanctuary cities for her death.
Homan said he was “sickened” by the verdict that acquitted Jose Ines Garcia Zarate of murder. "These sanctuary cities got to be held accountable, this person needs to be held accountable," Homan added. He promised that the federal government would deport Zarate to Mexico. Homan sneered that it would be accomplished “with no help from San Francisco, by the way.” San Francisco is the sanctuary city that released the five-times-deported and felon Zarate, after minor marijuana charges against him were dropped, despite a federal retainer request. Steinle was later shot and killed on a San Francisco pier.
Homan complained that "Sanctuary city policy had everything to do with” Steinle’s death. "Sanctuary city policy is the reason this young lady's not with us today," he said.
But there is at least one important factor in the case that has nothing to do with immigration or sanctuary cities: how Zarate got the gun that killed Steinle. He says he found it. The prosecution found no evidence that he had stolen it.
The Sacramento Bee has more:
[W]e do know the gun itself was stolen from the car of a ranger for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The ranger, who was never punished and has since been promoted, carelessly left his.40-caliber Sig Sauer in a backpack on the seat of his car parked near Pier 14.
Yet Fox would rather blame San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy than question the ease with which a felon obtained a gun.
Watch the scapegoating below, from the December 1, 2017 Your World.