Why our immigration system needs ‘Kate’s Law’ and more

On July 1, Kathryn Steinle was allegedly killed by illegal immigrant and seven-time convicted-felon Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez.

The fact that Sanchez was able to return to the US after being deported five times is nothing short of shameful.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said San Francisco “made a mistake.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) called on San Francisco to cooperate with President Barack’s immigration laws. Obama himself, has been silent on the matter.

There’s something wrong with our country’s immigration system when we allow a man to commit seven felonies, be deported five times and somehow come back.

Can one actually say we have a secure border when a man, and he’s not the only one, was on his way to being deported a sixth time? How strong can our border security be if Sanchez was able to cross it repeatedly.

Bill O’Reilly is pushing for “Kate’s Law”which would include a mandatory five years in federal prison for illegal immigrants who are deported and a mandatory 10 years in federal prison for repeat offenders. The victim’s parents, Jim Steinle and Liz Sullivan support such a law.

The suggested “Kate’s Law” is a good step and is much needed but more needs to be done. Sanchez had been deported three times before being sentenced to approximately five years in prison. That’s completely ridiculous.

San Francisco is just one of many cities and several states with “sanctuary” laws for illegal immigrants. These laws allow illegal immigrants to remain in their localities without fear of punishment for breaking the law by illegally immigrating to the US.

First and foremost, immigration is not a local or state issue. It is a federal issue. Illegal immigrants who migrate to the United States of America have broken the law and should be federally imprisoned for doing so. States and localities that don’t comply should lose various federal funds for doing so.

It isn’t an issue of if they commit so-called “low-level” crimes or sever felonies or how many crimes they commit before they should be imprisoned. The fact of the matter is, they broke the law when they crossed the border illegally.

Secondly, there should be no talk of amnesty for illegal immigrants for the simple fact that they broke the law. The US is not a nation built on laws where we pick and choose which ones we’re going to enforce.

Giving amnesty to people who crossed the border illegally provides less incentive to immigrants to legally come into this remarkable land in the future.

Thirdly, our immigration system needs to be faster and more efficient. Currently, people who want to immigrate to our country the right way are forced to go through lengthy waiting periods and fill out mountains of paper work. The immigration process should benefit those who want to leave their homeland for the hope of the American dream, not hinder them.

If we make the legal immigration process more efficient, easier and faster and we secure the border, immigrants will want to enter our country legally. We’ll be able to drastically cut down the number of immigrants who illegally enter the US and commit heinous crimes without retribution.