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Authorities in different parts of the country have announced the arrests of multiple illegal immigrants accused of fatally striking drivers, pedestrians and even a teen on a bicycle in recent days, according to authorities and local reports.
“It seems to be almost a daily occurrence where an illegal alien driving kills innocent Americans,” Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “All of these deaths are preventable because these illegal aliens should have never been in our country.”
In Louisiana, 31-year-old Juan Alfredo Chavarria Lezama is accused of slamming into a bicycle-riding 15-year-old boy in Livingston Parish on Thursday at around 7 p.m.
The unnamed child victim was airlifted to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries, according to the sheriff’s office. Chavarria faces charges of vehicular homicide, driving while intoxicated, driving without a license and other charges. He was the subject of a detainer request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, authorities said.
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A 3:30 a.m. crash in Nashville on Aug. 10 left a woman dead and her husband seriously injured, according to authorities. Police arrested Julio Cesar Herrera-Gonzales on drunken driving, vehicular homicide and other charges at the time.
Fox News on Tuesday confirmed that Herrera-Gonzales is an illegal immigrant from Honduras.
“Julio Cesar Herrera-Gonzales, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras, was granted Temporary Protected Status in 2008,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News’ Bill Melugin. “His TPS was revoked in 2015. He had a previous conviction for vandalism.”
DHS identified the victims of the Nashville crash as 37-year-old Raquel Lorena Sarabia Baraja, who died, and her husband, Marco Antonio Baez Del Angel, who suffered life-threatening injuries.
ICE issued a detainer for Herrera-Gonzales over the weekend.
Around 1 p.m. Friday in Lewiston, Maine, 31-year-old Lionel Francisco allegedly drove up a curb in a 2013 Buick and hit a Massachusetts woman who was walking at the edge of a park, according to the Lewiston Police Department.
Francisco, who was driving with a learner’s permit, remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators – however, he was also subject to an ICE detainer and is from Angola, authorities said.
ICE said in a statement that his tourist visa expired on July 30, but he remained in the country illegally.
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Also in Maine, another illegal from Angola was accused of killing a 64-year-old female pedestrian in New Gloucester on Aug. 16.
Mukendi Mbiya arrived in the U.S. with a tourist visa in December 2018, according to ICE. It expired in June 2019, but he never left.
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In Florida, an alleged illegal immigrant from India named Harjinder Singh is accused of making an unlawful U-turn near Port St. Lucie and causing a crash that killed three people riding in a minivan.
Singh allegedly failed to recognize three out of four highway traffic signs and answered just two questions out of 12 correctly in an English proficiency assessment delivered by transportation officials, Fox News Digital reported previously. Despite laws preventing illegals from obtaining full commercial driver’s licenses, Singh received one from Washington state in 2023. He later received a limited license from California.
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He entered the U.S. illegally in 2018, was rejected for work authorization under the first Trump administration, and allegedly fled to California after the crash. Police arrested him in Stockton.
And in late July, Wisconsin police arrested 30-year-old Noelia Saray Martinez-Avila, accused of driving the wrong way before slamming into two high school sweethearts, killing them near Madison, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
According to the outlet, she had a previous conviction for drunken driving in 2020.
President Donald Trump campaigned heavily on fighting migrant crime, and a nationwide crackdown has been underway since he returned to office in January.
“Hallie Helgeson and Brady Heiling had their whole lives ahead of them—and they would still be alive today if it weren’t for Noelia Saray Martinez-Avila—a criminal illegal alien from Honduras,” McLaughlin said.
She said ICE had filed a detainer request that was not honored due to local sanctuary policies.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
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