The City of San Francisco is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit in which Kathryn Steinle’s family seeks to hold the city liable for the July 2015 death of their daughter.

Kathryn was killed by illegal immigrant Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who had been deported five times and convicted of seven felonies, yet was released by former San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi’s office onto the streets again in spring 2015.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, attorney Alison Cordova is fighting to preserve the Steinle family’s suit. She contends that when Mirkarimi released Sanchez he did so “with full knowledge and awareness that it foreseeably would result in the loss of innocent lives.” Cordova pointed to Mirkarimi’s non-compliance with “federal immigration officials,” suggesting he should have know such non-compliance could “result in yet another undocumented felon, with a history of erratic and criminal behavior, being free on the streets of San Francisco and committing a heinous crime.”

Mirkarimi is invoking San Francisco’s “sanctuary city” policy as a defense; an ordinance which “allows local officers to ignore federal agencies’ orders to keep unauthorized immigrants in custody and turn them over for deportation.” Mirkarimi sees the ordinance as a tool that encourages illegals to “cooperate” with police “without fear of deportation.”

Kathryn’s parents, Jim Steinle and Elizabeth Sullivan, have also filed suit against federal immigration officials, “saying they knew before Lopez-Sanchez was released that Mirkarimi was refusing to comply with their detention orders.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.