San Francisco officials voted Tuesday to affirm their sanctuary city policy that shields illegal immigrants from being turned over to federal agents, pushing back against the national attention the city garnered after the July death of a woman at the hands of an illegal immigrant.

The Board of Supervisors passed a resolution which not only backed the existing sanctuary policy but specifically rejected participating in the Obama administration’s new Priority Enforcement Program, which was designed to entice at least some cooperation from reluctant counties.

Everyone from the city’s former mayor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, to GOP presidential hopeful Donald J. Trump had called for the policy to be rescinded in the wake of the July 1 death of Kathryn Steinle. An illegal immigrant who’d been deported five times and had been released into the community by San Francisco, ignoring a request he be turned over for deportation, has admitted to killing her — though he says it was an accident.

Immigrant-rights advocates rallied outside the supervisors’ offices Tuesday, while inside the chamber the supervisors themselves said they wanted to halt almost all immigration activities in their city.

“SF says No to PEP! No to immigration enforcement!” Supervisor David Campos posted in a Twitter message after the vote.

The vote came the same day that Democrats in the U.S. Senate launched a filibuster to defend sanctuary cities, halting a GOP-led effort to crack down by stripping funding from communities such as San Francisco that refuse to cooperate.

San Francisco’s decision is a particular strike against Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who had nixed an earlier cooperation program, Secure Communities, and replaced it with the PEP program he said should be more welcome for reluctant communities.

The new program only asks locales to report on serious criminals, and cuts down on the number of “detainer” requests that ask local authorities to hold an illegal immigrant beyond their release time. Instead, PEP asks that police and sheriff’s offices alert Homeland Security of upcoming releases, so agents can be on hand for a turnover.

Mr. Johnson had pleaded with Congress to let him try his carrot approach to earn cooperation, rather than the GOP’s stick approach of punishing recalcitrant communities.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said San Francisco’s decision shows Mr. Johnson now needs to get tough.

“It’s not enough for Secretary Johnson to publicly criticize sanctuary policies while refusing to take meaningful steps to end them. How many Americans must die at the hands of criminal aliens before the Obama Administration addresses this public safety crisis?” Mr. Goodlatte said.

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