Almost as disgusting as the jury verdict in the Kate Steinle murder trial was -- not even finding career criminal and illegal alien Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, also known as Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, guilty of manslaughter -- was the victory dance his attorney, Francisco Ugarte, performed on Kate Steinle’s grave when he said:

The suspect's lawyers said outside court that their client's immigration status was unfairly exploited for political purposes and had nothing to do with the criminal case.

"From Day 1 this case was used as a means to foment hate, to foment division and to foment a program of mass deportation. It was used to catapult a presidency along that philosophy of hate of others," defense attorney Francisco Ugarte said after the verdict. "I believe today is a day of vindication for the rest of immigrants."

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate had been deported five times and was wanted for a sixth deportation when Steinle was fatally shot in the back while walking with her father on the pier.

A day of vindication? Illegal immigration had everything to do with this case, the operative word here being “illegal.” If Garcia Zarate had not been in this country, Kate Steinle would be alive today. Defenders of open borders like to conflate illegal and legal immigration, but we do not hate legal immigrants. We don’t even hate illegal immigrants, just those who come here to commit crimes including murder.

Open border advocates say immigrants come here to do jobs Americans won’t do. Well, excuse me, but we have Americans all too willing to kill their brethren. Murder is a job American criminals are quite willing to do and to those who say immigrants commit crime at a lower rate than American citizens, I say that all that proves is that we have enough criminals -- we don’t need to import more.

Garcia Zarate may serve a few tears for felony possession of a firearm but it is hard to envision an American citizen getting to say “oops!” and walking away from a murder essentially without punishment. Kate Steinle’s blood is on the hands of open border advocates and the sanctuary city loons who provide no sanctuary for the American citizen victims of illegal alien criminals.

Perhaps this will accelerate funding for and construction of the promised border wall the various sections of which should be named after the victims of illegal alien predators such as the murderer of Kate Steinle. President Trump indicated as much when he commented on the verdict:

“The Kate Steinle killer came back and back over the weakly protected Obama border, always committing crimes and being violent, and yet this info was not used in court. His exoneration is a complete travesty of justice. BUILD THE WALL!” he tweeted Friday.

Perhaps it will also get Kate’s Law, passed by the House, to the floor of the Senate for a vote, something former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly championed. Though an accused predator and arch-villain in the left’s cause célèbre, the “war on women”, O’Reilly should also be remembered as the greatest advocate on behalf of Kate Steinle. He was a fierce advocate for Kate’s Law, blocked by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a law to punish those illegals who prey on American citizens. Reid’s objections to Kate’s Law mirrored the despicable analysis offered by Garcia Zarate’s attorney:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) blocked legislation Wednesday increasing the penalty for illegal immigrants who return to the U.S. after a deportation, also known as Kate’s Law.

Reid’s obstruction of Kate’s Law -- named in honor of Kathryn Steinle -- occurred Wednesday afternoon when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked for unanimous consent to proceed to Kate’s law. Reid objected, saying the legislation represents an “attack on the immigrant community.”

“All we’ve seen from Republican leaders and their caucus is bills that attack immigrants and tear families apart. So I object.” the Democratic leader said.

O’Reilly underscored the need for Kate’s Law in in his July 7, 2015 Talking Points Memo:

As The Factor reported last night, 32-year-old Kate Steinle was murdered walking with her father in San Francisco, allegedly by a criminal alien who had been deported five times and had seven felony convictions in the USA.

That man, 45-year-old Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, is now charged with murder. He was arraigned today in a San Francisco courtroom.

Talking Points said last night that the mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee, and the eleven city supervisors are directly responsible for Kate's death.

That's because San Francisco is a sanctuary city that does not cooperate with the federal government, even on holding and identifying criminal aliens.

Sanchez was in custody in San Francisco and the sheriff -- Ross Mirkarimi -- let him out, defying ICE officials.

O’Reilly persisted in his defense of this American woman’s right to live and not be murdered by an illegal alien predator under a policy supported by many of O’Reilly’s current accusers. As O’Reilly noted in his June 1, 2016 Talking Points Memo:

You may remember last July 32-year-old Kate Steinle was murdered in San Francisco. She was out for a walk with her father when an illegal alien felon convicted in the U.S.A. seven times deported five times shot her in the back. The man Mexican national Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez had been released from jail by the San Francisco Sheriff's Department. That despite the fact that ICE, Homeland Security, had asked San Francisco authorities to keep Sanchez incarcerated until they could pick him up.

The Sheriff's Department said no. Backed by the San Francisco board of supervisors, which actually voted not to cooperate with the Feds on illegal alien crime. So, I proposed Kate's law whereby any convicted aggravated felon who defies deportation, that means comes back, could be immediately taken into custody by authorities and then sentenced by a judge to a mandatory five years in a Federal penitentiary. First offense, ten years second.

That would give law enforcement a powerful tool to sweep dangerous foreign nationals here illegally off the streets of America. Yet, Congress would not pass Kate's law. The despicable Harry Reid blocked it in the Senate.

Being a sanctuary city is illegal, as O’Reilly pointed out many times. State and local authorities cannot refuse to enforce federal law. Of course, who is going to call sanctuary cities to account when the President of the United States refused to enforce our immigration laws? As Investor’s Business Daily has noted, President Obama himself ordered those in charge of border security to obey his executive orders on amnesty and not our immigration laws:

If President Obama, who has warned ICE agents of consequences if they do their job, had a son, he might look like Jamiel Shaw Jr., a young African-American killed by an illegal alien who shouldn't have been here.

Shaw was a Los Angeles high school star dreaming of a good life ahead when he was gunned down on March 2, 2008, while walking home. He was picked at random, police said, possibly as part of a gang loyalty test for the illegal alien who shot him.

The sanctuary policies that led to the murder of Shaw are now full-blown federal policies under Obama. "We're not in the business of deporting millions of people or of breaking up families," he says. We're also not in the business of deporting criminal illegal aliens…

…President Obama was telling employees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they had better enforce his executive amnesty orders or else.

Speaking at a Miami town hall meeting sponsored by MSNBC and Telemundo, Obama said "there may be (an) ICE official or Border Patrol agent not paying attention to our new directives. If somebody's working for ICE . . . and they don't follow the policy, there's going to be consequences to it."

O’Reilly’s championing Kate Steinle’s case undoubtedly contributed to Donald Trump’s victory based on the flood of illegal immigrants and the perils of an unsecured border and sanctuary cities. If Kate’s Law is passed, American women in the future will be able to walk the streets of major cities feeling a little bit safer. If Kate’s Law is passed, Kate Steinle will not have died in vain

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.