If a measure set to be proposed in the California legislature is approved, law enforcement agencies in the Golden State will have to report to federal officials before releasing from prison an illegal immigrant convicted of a felony.
Republican state Sen. Jeff Stone of Murrieta said that he will propose the bill after two California women were allegedly killed by illegal immigrant felons in Santa Maria and San Francisco, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Under the expected measure, state law enforcement officials would have to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the illegal immigrant felon was about to be released and also hold the person in custody for 48 hours while ICE decides if it wants the detainee prosecuted or deported.
Santa Maria resident Marilyn Pharis, 64, was allegedly raped and killed by Aureliano Martinez Ramirez and another man July 24, just days after Ramirez had been released from jail.
Weeks earlier, Kathryn Steinle, 32, of San Francisco was allegedly killed by Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, who had been deported from the United States five times and had several felony convictions when he shot and killed Steinle on July 1, while she was walking on a San Francisco pier with her dad.
"This has got to stop," Stone said. "If police and sheriff‘s departments were to notify immigration officials before they released these dangerous criminals, murders like these would not take place."
The San Francisco slaying led other lawmakers to look at the city's "sanctuary city" laws with more scrutiny.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon have authored "Kate's Law," which would require a minimum sentence of five years for any illegal immigrant that re-enters the country after they are deported.
Cruz, along with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, has also co-authored a measure that would result in withholding federal funds from sanctuary cities.
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