— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2017 
 
 In other tweets early Friday, Trump said the man who killed Steinle had come "back and back over the weakly protected Obama border, always committing crimes and being violent, and yet this info was not used in court." No wonder the people of our Country are so angry with Illegal Immigration," the President tweeted. I am disappointed and angry at the not guilty verdict for Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an illegal alien who had several felony convictions & was deported from the US five times. Under a sanctuary city law, the San Francisco sheriff's department had released Garcia Zarate from jail despite a federal immigration request to detain him for deportation 
 
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 Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Image 1 of 4 San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, left, answers questions after a verdict was reached in the trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, in San Francisco. A jury on Thursday found Garcia Zarate not guilty on possible charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the 2015 death of Kate Steinle on a popular pier. Jurors convicted the Mexican citizen of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which could bring a three-year sentence. less Matt Gonzalez, chief attorney of the San Francisco Public Defenders Office, center, fields questions after a verdict was reached in the trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, in San ... more Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP Image 4 of 4 FILE - This undated file booking photo provided by the San Francisco Police Department shows Jose Ines Garcia Zarate. "Following the conclusion of this case, ICE will work to take custody of Mr. Garcia Zarate and ultimately remove him from the country," said Tom Homan, the agency's deputy director. San Francisco (CNN) A jury on Thursday found an undocumented immigrant not guilty in the July 2015 death of Kate Steinle, a decision that reignited the debate over immigration policy. Garcia Zarate, who also used the name Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, had been deported five times before the deadly encounter. / Updated By Daniel Arkin and Corky Siemaszko 
 
 The homeless Mexican immigrant who was pilloried by then-candidate Donald Trump after he was accused of fatally shooting a woman on a San Francisco pier was found not guilty of murder on Thursday. Before the verdict, they told the San Francisco Chronicle that above all, they were looking forward to no longer being in the spotlight. He could face up to three years in state prison for that charge, although he has already served more than two years behind bars and could get credit for time served. Kathryn Steinle, 32, died in her father's arms when she was shot on July 1, 2015, while they and a family friend were strolling along Pier 14 in the city's tourist-friendly Embarcadero district. "I can't stress this enough, this really is about the Steinle family. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2017 
 
 "I urge the leaders of the nation's communities to reflect on the outcome of this case and consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to cooperate with federal law enforcement officers," Sessions said in a statement. Attorney General Jeff Sessions expressed his displeasure over the verdict in a statement that claimed San Francisco's decision to release Garcia Zarate "led to the preventable and heartbreaking death of Kate Steinle." Defense attorney Matt Gonzalez told jurors that the shooting was a tragic accident and that prosecutors were pushing a "wild narrative of a desire to hurt someone he does not know." A jury on Thursday found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty on possible charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Kate Steinle on a popular pier. Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the San Francisco prosecutor's office, said the "verdict that came in today was not the one we were hoping for" but it was the jury's decision and prosecutors would respect it. "From day one, this case was used as a means to foment hate, to foment division and to foment a program of mass deportation," public defender Francisco Ugarte said. "Nothing about Mr. Garcia Zarate's ethnicity, nothing about his immigration status, nothing about the fact that he is born in Mexico had any relevance as to what happened on July 1, 2015," the defense attorney said. JUST WATCHED Officials sued after Kate Steinle's death Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Officials sued after Kate Steinle's death 02:00 
 
 Freya Horne, chief legal counsel to the San Francisco County Sheriff, said in a 2015 interview that Garcia Zarate was let go because there was no legal cause to detain the suspect. But three months before the deadly encounter on the pier, Garcia Zarate was released after the district attorney dropped the marijuana charge — despite a request by federal immigration authorities to detain him for yet another deportation. After he was elected president, Trump signed an executive order to cut funding from cities that limit cooperation with immigration authorities, a policy that a federal judge in San Francisco permanently blocked last week. Jurors alerted the judge Thursday that they had a verdict in the death of Kate Steinle. Steinle's family filed a lawsuit in 2016 alleging that San Francisco and its former sheriff were partly to blame for Steinle's death, because officials never notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement when Garcia Zarate was released from a local jail in April 2015. President Donald Trump frequently cited the case during his campaign.
– President Trump slammed the "disgraceful" verdict Thursday after a Mexican citizen was found not guilty of murder in the 2015 shooting death of Kate Steinle at a San Francisco pier. "No wonder the people of our Country are so angry with Illegal Immigration," Trump tweeted Thursday night, and he kept up his criticism Friday morning. "BUILD THE WALL!" he wrote. Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, a 45-year-old undocumented immigrant who had already been deported from the US five times, was also acquitted by a jury on charges of involuntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon, CNN reports. Steinle was fatally shot on July 1, 2015, as she walked on Pier 14. Zarate's defense attorneys said he found a handgun wrapped in a shirt under a chair and it accidentally went off as he picked it up, NBC reports. The gun turned out to have been stolen from a federal agent days earlier, and prosecutors argued that Zarate deliberately pointed it at the 32-year-old Steinle. Zarate—who was wanted for a sixth deportation when he was arrested for the shooting—was found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm and will be sentenced at a later date. Months before the shooting, Zarate was released under San Francisco's "sanctuary city" policy, and Trump complained Friday that he "came back and back over the weakly protected Obama border." He added that the "Schumer/Pelosi Democrats" are weak on crime and "will pay a big price in the 2018 and 2020 elections." Steinle died in the arms of her father, Jim Steinle, who tells the San Francisco Chronicle that the family is shocked and saddened by the verdict. "Justice was rendered but not served," he says.