Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.

Last week liberalism suffered a major shock that won’t blow over anytime soon. Kate Steinle’s killer walked away from murder and manslaughter charges in a San Francisco, California courtroom stunning the nation.

All of a sudden those “not guilty” verdicts caused the nation to collectively scream foul for this 32-year-old woman cut down in her prime as her life slipped away in her father’s arms on San Francisco’s famous waterfront Pier 14 where she was shot by Jose Ines Garcia Zarate an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had been deported five times, who had seven prior felony convictions for crimes committed in the U.S. This information was kept private from the jury because it was declared “irrelevant” to the case, according to Zarate’s public defender. Oh really? Not important?

This 45-year-old Mexican national was found guilty of ‘possession of a firearm’ by a convicted felon punishable by 15-months to 3-years in prison. It was as if this woman’s death did not matter at all. She was inconsequential to the liberal cause of protecting illegals in a sanctuary city.

Steinle’s death certainly caught the nation’s attention due to the dramatic details surrounding her passing, but case-after-case of illegal immigrants committing serious deadly crimes keep happening in sanctuary cities and communities across the nation that rarely make mainstream media news. Zarate was charged July 1, 2015 during former President Obama’s second term. Obama is a supporter of the sanctuary city concept of protection from deportation by voluntarily violating federal immigration laws thereby protecting criminals. It’s crazy, but it’s true.

Reacting to this series of events, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a statement saying the U.S. Department of Justice has issued a warrant for the immediate arrest of Zarate upon his release from the California court system. Because of time-served awaiting trial Zarate could be released at any time and federal authorities will be waiting with open arms. News reports speculate Zarate will be charged with multiple violations of federal immigration laws – all felonies and possible weapons charges. At best he will spend the next 10-15 years in a federal prison.

This “decision to protect criminal aliens led to the preventable and heartbreaking death of Kate Steinle,” said Sessions. “I urge the leaders of the nation’s communities to reflect on the outcome of this case and consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to cooperate with federal law enforcement officers.”

During President Trump’s campaign for president last year Trump hammered away at this case using it as leverage to sell his proposed border-wall plan for the southern border with Mexico helping to prevent illegals from entering but also to better attempt to shut down hardcore-drug trafficking and illegal weapons from arriving in the United States. Also Trump used this case to make his case for permanently deporting illegal immigrant criminals immediately.

As the direct result of Steinle’s death legislation commonly known as “Kate’s Law” has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to establish mandatory-minimum prison sentences for those entering the U.S. illegally and then committing serious crimes. This bill — as originally written — has never been voted upon by the U.S. Congress. The U.S. House passed a similar version of Kate’s Law but the U.S. Senate has not voted on it, according to Wikipedia.

Of course now there is a new wave of enthusiasm for getting this new law passed and on the books. Critics of Kate’s Law say it would explode the incarcerated population in the United States far beyond its present full house of 7-million prisoners in local jails, state, federal and private prisons, says the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Kate Steinly was a beautiful girl with a bright future robbed from her by the liberal sanctuary city policies of San Francisco, a place where common sense and reality have escaped into a dark crevasse of liberal tolerance gripping America.

About the Author Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.