The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas has put out a new arrest warrant for Jose Inez Garcia Zarate, the multiple-felon illegal alien just acquitted of murder in the death of Kate Steinle.
The warrant stems from Zarate’s violating the conditions of his release from federal prison in 2015. Zarate had been convicted of illegally reentering the United States as a criminal after being deported multiple times, and sentenced to nearly four years in prison plus three more years of supervised release in addition to deportation.
When he finished his prison term, however, he faced more serious drug charges in San Francisco, and was sent there by federal authorities. The “sanctuary city” then promptly dropped the drug charges, and because they refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, released the criminal alien right back onto the streets rather than honor a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “detainer” demanding he be returned.
Less than three months after San Francisco protected Zarate from federal prosecution and deportation, he was arrested for the death of Kate Steinle, who bled to death after being stuck by a bullet from a stolen gun in Zarate’s possession.
Despite confessing to shooting Steinle on a San Francisco pier, Zarate was convicted only of illegally possessing a firearm and will face only a short sentence in sanctuary state California. The jury, the majority of whom were San Francisco millennials and one quarter of whom were immigrants, apparently believed the defense’s assertion that Zarate’s stolen pistol went off “accidentally.”
The verdict drew widespread condemnation from conservatives.
The firearms charge, however is enough to violate the original terms of Zarate’s supervised release on the illegal reentry conviction which specifies he commit no further crimes and possess no firearms. Friday’s warrant demands he be sent back to Texas to serve out the rest of his 2011 sentence in prison.
A DOJ official informed Breitbart News that a detainer already exists that “requires this defendant to be remanded into the custody of US Marshals Service to be transported to the Western District of Texas pursuant to the arrest warrant.” This is the type of order San Francisco chose to disregard from ICE pursuant to their “sanctuary” policy when they first put Zarate back on the street.
By issuing the new warrant Friday, DOJ is setting up a showdown for when Zarate is released from his weapons charge – in essence daring San Francisco and the sanctuary state California to protect him again. So far, they have proven uncooperative. According to the U.S. Attorney’s petition for a new arrest warrant, “[A] request for records was submitted to the San Francisco County Superior Court. No response had been received at the time of this amended petition’s completion.”
The gambit adds another wrinkle to the Steinle saga after ICE made clear they will seek to deport Zarate regardless.
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