No Condolences for the Government’s Collateral Damage Victims

Most Americans are familiar with the name Kate Steinle, the San Francisco woman who died a terrible death July 3 when she was shot and killed by five-time deported criminal illegal alien, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez.
Yet, while hundreds of millions in the U.S. have heard about this tragedy, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, claimed Tuesday to know nothing about it.
In an immigration-related hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on July 14, members had planned to ask Secretary Johnson if the administration intends to reverse the sanctuary city and detainer policies that led to Steinle’s untimely death. However, they didn’t get very far into the conversation.
“Has the administration reached out to the Steinle family, to your knowledge?” Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) asked Johnson.

“To who?” Johnson responded.

His response left members, staffers and the audience visibly horrified.

“To the family of the woman who was brutally murdered… this individual who had committed seven different felonies in four different states and to my understanding had been deported, kept coming back… has the administration reached out to that family?” Chabot asked again.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know the answer to that question sir,” Johnson said.

That a top U.S. security official would claim not to not know about Steinle’s death is hard to believe. It would be like President Obama not being aware of the deal his administration made with Iran this week.

But what if Johnson knew and played dumb to the congressman’s question? That is the more likely story.

The administration will only use a tragedy when it is able to further its own agenda by drawing attention to an event. If President Obama and Secretary Johnson admitted the truth – that Steinle’s death is the direct result of lax immigration policies in San Francisco, at the southern border and the interior of the country – they would have to change the very policies they put into place.

Steinle’s death is a result of the federal government’s dismantling immigration enforcement programs such as Secure Communities and replacing them with the Priority Enforcement Program, while allowing sanctuary cities not to honor requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold criminal aliens; or even notify ICE when violent felons are scheduled to be released.

That the administration won’t even express its condolences to the heartbroken Steinle family is not surprising when you understand the politics behind why she died. For the president and his team, the end goal justifies the means.

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