How often do Democrats thunder that “people will die” if Republicans get their way on issues such as healthcare, climate change and gun control?

Well, thanks to the sanctuary policies of Gavin Newsom and California Democrats, people have died.

Consider the case of retiree Todd Stewart, recently slain on camera in Martinez just a day after his alleged killer was excused from local custody –– by a Newsom-appointed judge.

Trump border czar Tom Homan on Thursday put the state and its governor on blast over the slaying –– and hundreds of other cases like it.

“It’s just one case after another after another,” Homan said of the state’s sanctuary madness. “This person’s dead because Governor Newsom and the state of California puts politics –– hatred of President Trump –– over public safety.”

Zero words minced; every word right.

Gavin Newsom & Team need to stop playing politics and start cooperating with federal efforts to deport violent criminals.

The feds’ ask is simple: Communicate on impending releases of illegal-immigrant criminals –– cooperation that was historically commonplace among local, state and federal law-enforcement partners.

The feds can then apprehend the offenders without drama, and deport them. It’s basic, common-sense public-safety policy. 

Such coordination would save lives, spare victims and prevent suffering in California.

Instead, Newsom and his allies shield convicted illegal-immigrant criminals from deportation.

They put partisan pique and politics above public safety.

They distract from California’s own (often epic) failures by “resisting,” demonizing and pointing fingers at President Trump.

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The reality is this: Trump will be out of power in two years. Victims and their loved ones will endure the effects of violent crime for a lifetime.

In reply to Homan’s broadside, Newsom told The California Post that the blame actually rests with –– no drumroll needed –– the Trump administration.

But how exactly were the feds were responsible for a local decision to release a known criminal who then apparently committed a stabbing murder?

Still, Newsom said, “California takes public safety seriously.”

That’s cute. 

The governor’s long record in public office belies that boast. 

Not only has Newsom peddled sanctuary-state nonsense to harbor repeat and violent criminals.

He’s also made recent news for his soft-on-crime appointments to the state parole board; Newsom-appointed commissioners have backed the early release of such odious offenders as convicted serial child rapists.

Plus, the governor slow-walked funding for Prop. 36, the 2024 voter-approved measure to reinstate some penalties for theft and and drug offenses after a decade of failed permissiveness.

Also, Newsom: endorsed Prop. 47, which gutted punishment for many theft and drug offenses (and led to Prop. 36); signed legislation that restricts the use of gang enhancements; suspended the California death penalty despite repeated statewide votes to keep it; and advocated shutting prisons and shrinking prison terms.

Does that sound like a guy who prizes public safety?

Even before the state’s eight long years under Newsom, the California left spent years easing penalties for criminals –– to the detriment of law-abiding victims everywhere.

Homan’s right.

There’s been enough bloodshed in service of politics.

Newsom’s anti-Trump sanctuary policies need to end.

They’re not just harmless rhetoric or empty posturing.

People have died.