Senate Has Not Voted On ‘Kate’s Law’ Five Months After It Passed House
Senate Has Not Voted On ‘Kate’s Law’ Five Months After It Passed House With Bipartisan Support
WILL RACKE
Immigration and Foreign Policy Reporter
11:12 AM 12/01/2017
The Senate has yet to take up a bill that would toughen penalties for illegal aliens who re-enter the country after being deported, almost five months after the measure passed the House in a bipartisan vote.
In June, the House approved “Kate’s Law,” a Trump administration-backed bill that would raise the maximum prison sentence for illegal aliens caught re-entering the U.S. following deportation and increasing penalties for repeat offenders.
The bill is named after Kate Steinle, the woman who was shot and killed when an illegal immigrant, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, discharged a firearm on the San Francisco pier in 2015. Zarate, a Mexican national who had been deported five times, was acquitted Thursday of Steinle’s murder as well as involuntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon.
(RELATED: Jury Finds Illegal Immigrant NOT GUILTY In Kate Steinle Murder)
The shooting sparked a nationwide debate over sanctuary city policies and later became a key refrain in President Donald Trump’s promises to crack down on illegal immigration.
This summer, GOP Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia introduced “Kate’s Law” to near-universal Republican approval. The bill also received backing across the aisle, with 24 Democrats voting yes in a floor vote on June 29.
In the wake of Zarate’s acquittal, conservative activists and immigration hawks are likely to pressure Senate lawmakers to take up the bill in the next legislative session. Trump has also seized on the verdict to attack Democrats, tweeting Friday that the party would “pay a big price” in the midterm elections for failing to support tougher immigration policies.
An earlier version of Kate’s Law was considered by the Senate in 2016, it but failed to get to the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster.
Only three Democrats — Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin — voted with Republicans.
Since then, electoral circumstances have changed in favor of passing Kate’s Law. In addition to Manchin, Heitkamp and Donnelly, seven other Democratic senators are up for re-election in states that Trump won in 2016, which could motivate them to support some aspects of Trump’s immigration agenda in order to shore up political support at home.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/01/se...tisan-support/
Ted Cruz Calls on Senate to Pass 'Kate's Law' After Acquittal
Friday, December 1, 2017 03:54 PM
By: Todd Beamon
Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday called on the Senate to pass "Kate's law" after an illegal immigrant was acquitted Thursday for fatally shooting Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier with her father in 2015.
"The verdict was frustrating — and it makes you angry," the Texas Republican told Dana Perino on Fox News. "Kate Steinle, a beautiful 32-year-old young woman, shot down in the prime of her life.
"The grief makes it harder to deal with," Cruz said, adding that "this should've never happened."
The illegal, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 45, was acquitted by a San Francisco court jury of charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, and assault with a deadly weapon.
He was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Garcia Zarate had been deported five times and was wanted for a sixth deportation on drug felonies when Kate Steinle was fatally shot in the back while walking with her father on the pier in July 2015.
Garcia Zarate did not deny shooting Steinle and said it was an accident.
The incident came in the middle of the presidential campaign and touched off a fierce debate over the country's immigration policies.
Republican candidate Donald Trump relentlessly slammed San Francisco's "sanctuary city" policy, which limits local officials from cooperating with U.S. immigration authorities.
Cruz told Perino that passing "Kate's law"— which imposes a mandatory aggravated felony charge and prison term on immigrants who illegally re-enter the U.S. a second time — was "the best response" for the Senate after the acquittal.
"The person who shot Kate Steinle had been deported five times," Cruz said. "He had been in and out of jail.
"If case law had been on the books, the person who pulled the trigger would've been in a federal prison cell instead of out there on that pier that night.
"And Kate Steinle would still be alive and with us today.
"The best thing Congress can do is pass Kate's law right now to prevent the next tragic murder we saw in California."
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/te.../01/id/829396/
