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.