Obama rejects Senate bid to defund 'sanctuary cities'

The White House warned Congress on Tuesday that President Obama would veto pending Senate legislation that would strip federal funding from so-called "sanctuary cities."

Sanctuary cities came under scrutiny this summer when a San Francisco woman, Kate Steinle, was murdered by a convicted felon who was supposed to be deported, and had been several times before. San Francisco, like more than 200 other municipalities, refuses to comply with federal immigration laws that require deportation of illegal aliens such as Steinle's killer.

An illegal immigrant, Francisco Sanchez, was a convicted felon but was released from custody by law enforcement in San Francisco in April, despite a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement order to hold him so he could again be deported. He has been charged with killing the 32-year-old Steinle.

But the White House mostly based its opposition to the Senate bill on the idea that it is not a comprehensive immigration bill favored by Democrats. "This bill fails to offer comprehensive reforms needed to fix the nation's broken immigration laws and undermines current administration efforts to remove the most dangerous convicted criminals and to work collaboratively with state and local law enforcement agencies," the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement of official policy issued Tuesday morning.

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