The father of Katherine Steinle testified a few minutes ago before the Senate Judiciary Committee. His prepared statement follows the break. The Committee's hearing page is here.
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First of all, I would like to thank the members of this committee for the honor to speak to you about our daughter, Kate.
All children are special in their own way. Kate was special in the way she connected with people. We call it the Kate Effect.
Kate was beautiful, kind, happy, caring, loving and deep in faith. Kate had a special soul, a kind and giving heart, the most contagious laugh, and a smile that would light up a room. Kate loved to travel, spend time with her friends, and most of all spend time with her family. In fact, the day she was killed, we were walking arm in arm on Pier 14 In San Francisco, enjoying a wonderful day together. Suddenly a shot rang out, Kate fell, and looked at me and said "Help me, Dad." Those are the last words I will ever hear from my daughter.
The day Kate died, she changed her Facebook cover photo to a saying that said, whatever's good for your soul....do that. This quote truly describes her spirit. After graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she went to work for a title company and saved her money so she could see the world. She traveled to Spain, Thailand, Amsterdam, Dubai, and South Africa, just to mention a few. She even made her way to the slums of Mumbai, India to reach out to her friend's mother's nanny. She spent time there with the woman's family and came home a changed person. She went to South Africa on safari with her friend and witnessed the aftermath of the slaughter of elephants. After that, she became passionate about PAWS, an organization that helps save and create sanctuaries for these remarkable animals. Everywhere Kate went throughout the world, she shined the light of a good citizen from the United States of America. Unfortunately, due to unjointed laws and basic incompetence of the government, the US has suffered a self-inflicted wound in the murder of our daughter by the hand of a person that should have never been on the streets in this country. I say this because the alleged murderer is an undocumented immigrant who has been convicted of 7 felonies in the US and already deported 5 times. Yet, in March of this year, he was released from jail and allowed to stay here freely because of legal loopholes.
It is unbelievable to see that so many innocent Americans have been killed by undocumented immigrant felons in recent years. In fact, we recently came across a statistic that says between 2010 and 2014, 121 unique criminal aliens who had an active deportation case at the time of release were subsequently charged with homicide related offenses. Think about that, 121 times over the past 4 years the administration has released an illegal immigrant with prior criminal convictions that later went on to be charged with a murder when they should have been deported. That's 1 every 12 days.
Our family realizes the complexities of immigration laws, however, we feel strongly that some legislation should be discussed, enacted and/or changed to take these undocumented immigrant felons off our streets for good. We would be proud to see Kate's name associated with some of this new legislation. We feel that if Kate's Law saves 1 daughter, 1 son, a mother or a father, Kate's death won't be in vain.
First of all, I would like to thank the members of this committee for the honor to speak to you about our daughter, Kate.
All children are special in their own way. Kate was special in the way she connected with people. We call it the Kate Effect.
Kate was beautiful, kind, happy, caring, loving and deep in faith. Kate had a special soul, a kind and giving heart, the most contagious laugh, and a smile that would light up a room. Kate loved to travel, spend time with her friends, and most of all spend time with her family. In fact, the day she was killed, we were walking arm in arm on Pier 14 In San Francisco, enjoying a wonderful day together. Suddenly a shot rang out, Kate fell, and looked at me and said "Help me, Dad." Those are the last words I will ever hear from my daughter.
The day Kate died, she changed her Facebook cover photo to a saying that said, whatever's good for your soul....do that. This quote truly describes her spirit. After graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she went to work for a title company and saved her money so she could see the world. She traveled to Spain, Thailand, Amsterdam, Dubai, and South Africa, just to mention a few. She even made her way to the slums of Mumbai, India to reach out to her friend's mother's nanny. She spent time there with the woman's family and came home a changed person. She went to South Africa on safari with her friend and witnessed the aftermath of the slaughter of elephants. After that, she became passionate about PAWS, an organization that helps save and create sanctuaries for these remarkable animals. Everywhere Kate went throughout the world, she shined the light of a good citizen from the United States of America. Unfortunately, due to unjointed laws and basic incompetence of the government, the US has suffered a self-inflicted wound in the murder of our daughter by the hand of a person that should have never been on the streets in this country. I say this because the alleged murderer is an undocumented immigrant who has been convicted of 7 felonies in the US and already deported 5 times. Yet, in March of this year, he was released from jail and allowed to stay here freely because of legal loopholes.
It is unbelievable to see that so many innocent Americans have been killed by undocumented immigrant felons in recent years. In fact, we recently came across a statistic that says between 2010 and 2014, 121 unique criminal aliens who had an active deportation case at the time of release were subsequently charged with homicide related offenses. Think about that, 121 times over the past 4 years the administration has released an illegal immigrant with prior criminal convictions that later went on to be charged with a murder when they should have been deported. That's 1 every 12 days.
Our family realizes the complexities of immigration laws, however, we feel strongly that some legislation should be discussed, enacted and/or changed to take these undocumented immigrant felons off our streets for good. We would be proud to see Kate's name associated with some of this new legislation. We feel that if Kate's Law saves 1 daughter, 1 son, a mother or a father, Kate's death won't be in vain.
I'm surprised that C & C would take up so much time with such a "little thing" as the death of an innocent person.
For those who don't get the reference, one of our esteemed Congressmen, Rep Gutierrez (D-Ill.) referred to Ms. Steinle's death as a little thing.