A public outcry is causing San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi to defend his decision to release a man from Mexico who was in illegal alien in the United States and is suspected of shooting a woman on a sightseeing pier to death.

Mirkarimi said it was the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency who should have issued an arrest warrant for Francisco Sanchez, since ICE knew he had been deported five times, and they were the ones who failed to do that, according to an Associated Press report.

Sanchez was charged with murdering Kathryn Steinle as she took a walk with her father on Pier 14 last Wednesday. Sanchez appeared to shoot Steinle without any provocation, and the two don’t appear to know each other, according to reports.

Sanchez had been deported repeatedly but still remained on the streets of San Francisco after San Francisco officials ignored requests for immigration officials to put him in jail, the report states.

San Francisco is one of multiple cities in the United States tha toften ignore federal immigration requests, even sometimes terming themselves a “sanctuary” for illegal aliens.

Sanchez even indicated in an interview with a TV station that he had come to the city because it billed itself as a sanctuary. Sanchez has numerous past drug offenses.

The shooting prompted a storm of criticism from immigration authorities, politicians, and others who say that San Francisco’s flippant attitude toward immigration law directly resulted in this death.

Many are criticizing Mirkarimi specifically for letting Sanchez go without notifying ICE.