The shocking murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco last week by a career criminal illegal alien has angered the American people and has had staying power even on the liberal media, which prefers sympathetic sob stories about lawbreaking foreigners. A Google News search on July 10 for San Francisco Murder Woman Illegal Immigrant got 8.2 million results.

When presented with Rasmussen’s poll question, “Should the U.S. Justice Department take legal action against cities that provide sanctuary for illegal immigrants?” 62 percent of voters responded Yes.

However, it’s unlikely that the Obama DoJ would ever investigate a policy that the Democrats support so whole heartedly (except when it’s inconvenient).

Another question concerned cutting off federal funding for sanctuary cities, and that strategy is far more likely to gain traction since it falls within Congressional powers. Senator Tom Cotton has submitted legislation to defund alien-alien-protecting cities. In the House, Congressmen Lou Barletta, Matt Salmon and Duncan Hunter have introduced similar bills. Certainly there will be many sponsors in the House. Obama would hate to sign defunding into law, but such legislation draws a line that the GOP desperately needs to make, particularly after its snuggling up with the President to pass his power-grabbing trade deal.