On July 1, 2015 an illegal alien who had been deported five times killed a 32-year-old American woman, Kate Steinle, in San Francisco, a “sanctuary city” where local law enforcement refuses to honor requests from federal authorities to detain illegals for ICE pickup.

According to government data, about 120 immigrants released back into the community have gone on to be charged with subsequent killings. This is not a new occurrence, but the killing can be greatly reduced if local governments act to protect the people they were elected to serve by cooperating with the little real immigration enforcement efforts the Obama regime allows.

Sanctuary cities (and counties) are already “illegal” under federal law and have been since 1996.

So, for common-sense Georgians looking for an issue to push in the next General Assembly, know this: sheriffs in Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties have — quite proudly — made it policy to not honor ICE detainers for illegal aliens.

If you doubt that astoundingly mindless and dangerous fact, just take a look at the websites of the illegal alien lobby groups like the corporate-funded GALEO where the Executive Director, Jerry Gonzalez, congratulates the counties for advancing the anti-enforcement cause.

Gonzalez says releasing criminal illegal aliens serves to “keep families together but to also enhance public safety.” Tell that to the Steinle family.

So far, there is silence from the governor and most state legislators on these sanctuary counties — as well as the near-certainty that the consequences will be dire for more innocent Americans.

Georgians should be speaking out in gratitude to Republican Senator Josh McKoon from Columbus. He plans on expanding his bill, SB 6 — already aimed at ending the current loony practice of rewarding any illegal aliens with Georgia driver’s licenses — to include sanctioning local governments that refuse to protect us from criminal aliens. And he wants to require the state to obtain data from the feds on criminal aliens released by the Obama administration and make it available to the public.

McKoon has seen the reports that other states are actually hiring illegals to be public school teachers, giving them a license to practice law and putting them ahead of Americans and legal immigrants for instate tuition and taxpayer subsidized scholarships. His intent is to make sure that doesn’t happen in Georgia.

It should come as no surprise that the young conservative state senator is a constant target of the anti-borders left, including many in the liberal media blogosphere, but it should be an informative and shocking wake-up call that Republicans who ran as “conservatives” have in large part remained silent on offering their support for McKoon’s bold and potentially life-saving common sense ideas.

Unsurprisingly, Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway has offered his endorsement and enthusiastic support of McKoon’s efforts — including ending the practice of rewarding illegals with driver’s licenses.

Georgia legislators with their fingers in the air should listen to Sheriff Conway. And voters should light up the legislator’s phones.

Maybe Americans killed by illegal aliens can get as much action and attention as has the Confederate flag.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society. He is assisting Senator McKoon with his immigration legislation. Twitter: @DAKDIS.