ICE: Illegal Immigrant Driving Without a License Charged with Killing 7-Year-Old Child
Shane Trejo
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Monday that a Mexican national living in the United States illegally has been charged with causing a death while driving without a license after initiating an accident that resulted in a death of a 7-year-old child.
Jorge Rodriguez-Saldana, 30, was charged by the Egg Harbor Township Police Department in New Jersey with a third-degree felony on July 11 following an accident where his vehicle struck a grandmother and her two grandchildren. The grandmother was critically injured, and one of the children was killed as a result of the crash.
After he was charged, Rodriguez-Saldana was released by local authorities on a summons to walk the streets. Atlantic County law enforcement did not notify ICE and refer the case to them, despite his status. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) apprehended the illegal immigrant on July 13, finding him in Horsham, Pennsylvania.
ICE mentioned in a press release that sanctuary policies allowed this potentially violent criminal back into society where he could have harmed more Americans.
“Unfortunately this is another example that makes apparent the significant public safety concerns the NJ AG Directive limiting cooperation with ICE poses,” said John Tsoukaris, field office director for ICE-ERO Newark.
“Had it not been for the persistent, courageous and diligent efforts of ICE-ERO to track him down, this individual might have fled. We will continue to make public safety our highest priority despite dangerous state policies,” Tsoukaris added.
New Jersey was declared a sanctuary state earlier this year after a directive issued by Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, who was appointed to the position by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, gave free reign to illegal immigrants in the Garden State.
“New Jersey’s law enforcement officers protect the public by investigating state criminal offenses and enforcing state criminal laws. They are not responsible for enforcing civil immigration violations,” Grewal wrote.
“Although state, county, and local law enforcement officers should assist federal immigration authorities when required to do so by law, they should also be mindful that providing assistance above and beyond those requirements threatens to blur the distinctions between state and federal actors and between federal immigration law and state criminal law,” he added.
“Under federal and state law, local law enforcement agencies are not required to enforce civil administrative warrants or detainers issued by federal immigration officers rather than federal or state judges,” Grewal noted, making it clear that New Jersey law enforcement are ordered not to help ICE enforce immigration law.
The results of these Democratic policies against the rule of law in New Jersey have already become deadly, as a seven-year-old child lost their life because an illegal immigrant apparently felt welcomed to drive the roads of this sanctuary state.
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