Kathryn Steinle’s Shooting Death In San Francisco Is Sheriff’s Fault Say Deputies, Union Wants Immigration Policy Changed

The San Francisco waterfront murder of Kathryn Steinle by an illegal immigrant is being blamed on the sheriff, and now, his deputies want his policies on immigration changed.

San Francisco deputies formally filed a complaint against Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi on Monday. The letter, delivered by their lawyers, condemns the sheriff’s order that bars them from speaking with federal immigration agents.

The order prohibits deputies from releasing a prisoner’s citizenship status, booking and arrest documents, and their release dates to immigration officials.

Bill O’Reilly blames Steinle’s death on officials at city hall, and Donald Trump said Mexico is at fault for sending us their criminals, but San Francisco deputies say their sheriff is to blame.

They say his policies recklessly compromise the safety of those he is sworn to protect, as well as his own officers, and they’ve called on him to rescind the memo implementing them.

San Francisco sheriff defends release of immigrant suspect later charged in pier slaying of Kathryn Steinle: http://t.co/wvxTlYNihA

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 11, 2015

Mirkarimi says city hall is to blame and points to a 2013 city ordinance that protects immigrants saying city leaders should get together and change it.

His deputies, however, have gone in search of a new leader and are now endorsing his opponent in the fall election.

This isn’t the only controversy surrounding Mirkarimi. He was also charged with domestic abuse back in 2011, but he managed to hang on to his job after city supervisors failed to garner 9 out of 11 votes needed to oust him.

During a New Years Eve celebration in 2011, Mirkarimi roughly grabbed his wife’s arm hard enough to leave a bruise. He was charged and found guilty of domestic abuse and almost lost his job, but a politically charged vote kept him in office.

Mayor Ed Lee was on the losing side of that vote, and now, he isn’t taking any backtalk from the sheriff. The Mayor said Mirkarimi was fully capable of allowing his officers to communicate with federal agents if he so chose.

Lee said nothing in city law stopped the sheriff from picking up the phone and calling federal immigration officials if he felt it was necessary.

If he had, the mayor contends, then Steinle may not have been randomly shot to death by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez as she walked with her family along the San Francisco Embarcadero waterfront earlier this month.

The 32-year-old was gunned down by Sanchez after being released from San Francisco jail despite requests from immigration officials to hold him for deportation.

Sanchez is a convicted felon who had been deported five times before and was transported from federal prison in San Bernardino to face a 20-year-old drug charge for selling marijuana.

He was released in April after the district attorney decided not to prosecute him.

His shooting murder of Steinle has set off a nationwide debate on the status of so-called sanctuary cities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Michael Macor-Pool/Getty Images