Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday called on the Senate to pass "Kate's law" after an illegal immigrant was acquitted Thursday for fatally shooting Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier with her father in 2015.

"The verdict was frustrating — and it makes you angry," the Texas Republican told Dana Perino on Fox News. "Kate Steinle, a beautiful 32-year-old young woman, shot down in the prime of her life.

"The grief makes it harder to deal with," Cruz said, adding that "this should've never happened."

The illegal, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 45, was acquitted by a San Francisco court jury of charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, and assault with a deadly weapon.

He was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Garcia Zarate had been deported five times and was wanted for a sixth deportation on drug felonies when Kate Steinle was fatally shot in the back while walking with her father on the pier in July 2015.

Garcia Zarate did not deny shooting Steinle and said it was an accident.

The incident came in the middle of the presidential campaign and touched off a fierce debate over the country's immigration policies.

Republican candidate Donald Trump relentlessly slammed San Francisco's "sanctuary city" policy, which limits local officials from cooperating with U.S. immigration authorities.

Cruz told Perino that passing "Kate's law"— which imposes a mandatory aggravated felony charge and prison term on immigrants who illegally re-enter the U.S. a second time — was "the best response" for the Senate after the acquittal.

"The person who shot Kate Steinle had been deported five times," Cruz said. "He had been in and out of jail.

"If case law had been on the books, the person who pulled the trigger would've been in a federal prison cell instead of out there on that pier that night.

"And Kate Steinle would still be alive and with us today.

"The best thing Congress can do is pass Kate's law right now to prevent the next tragic murder we saw in California."