House Speaker Paul Ryan (R, Wis.) laid out the goals of two proposed immigration reform bills, Kate's Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, in a video released Thursday featuring Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R.,Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Republicans are hoping to move the immigration reform bills forward. Kate's Law would boost penalties for deported immigrants who try to re-enter the country, and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act would withhold federal grants from cities that shield illegal immigrants from federal immigration officers.
"Kate Steinle. Sarah Root. Grant Ronneback. Three lives taken by illegal immigrants harbored by sanctuary cities," Ryan tweeted.
Kate Steinle. Sarah Root. Grant Ronneback. Three lives taken by illegal immigrants harbored by sanctuary cities. https://t.co/2RcvHmDxtx
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) June 29, 2017
"San Francisco is a so-called sanctuary city. But this sanctuary city was not a sanctuary at all—not for Kate it wasn't," Ryan said in a press release Thursday.
Kate Steinle was a 32-year-old woman living in San Francisco when, in 2015, she was shot and killed by convicted felon Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez.
Lopez-Sanchez was an illegal immigrant with "a rough criminal record of seven felonies." He had previously been caught and deported five times, but he was in San Francisco on July 1, 2015. The convicted felon stole a gun from a federal officer's car, fired shots in public, and shot Steinle in the back.
Following her death, Steinle's family filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit on the grounds that the city's actions led to the free release of Lopez-Sanchez. City officials did not notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement when Lopez-Sanchez was released from a local jail in April 2015. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
"No law required the Sheriff's Department to share Lopez-Sanchez's release date with ICE, nor did any law forbid [Sheriff] Mirkarimi establishing a policy against such cooperation," wrote Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero.
The House will vote this week on the two initiatives designed to "protect law-abiding citizens."
Jurisdictions across the United States have enacted measures to establish themselves as so-called sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants. In response, Texas took steps to crack down on the practice in its own cities early this year.
"We have a duty to protect our citizens. Let's pass this legislation for Kate. Let's pass it for Sarah and Grant," Ryan said. "Let's pass it to stop more people from becoming victims of senseless, preventable tragedies."