The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday called out Washington state for its “sanctuary policies” after a “criminal illegal alien” who was involved in a crash while behind the wheel of a car-haul tractor-trailer was released from custody.
DHS said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer for Juan Hernandez-Santos, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico who is accused of causing a wreck while driving an 18-wheeler that ran into the rear of a school bus, causing a six-car pile-up along I-5 on the morning of Dec. 4, in Lacey, Washington. The crash reportedly resulted in three people being hospitalized.
Yet “local authorities did not honor the ICE detainer due to sanctuary policies, and he was subsequently released from custody,” according to DHS.
Overdrive has reached out to Washington State Patrol about the case and will update with any response.
[Related: 'Every foreign truck driver's worst nightmare': Courts can't stop Trump, DOT's immigration crackdown]
According to local reports, state authorities said Hernandez-Santos did not possess a commercial driver’s license, insurance or a valid medical card, but was operating the semi-truck when he caused the pile-up.U.S. Department of Homeland Security
“This dangerous illegal alien has a criminal history, including multiple DUIs, possessing a controlled substance, and two prior removals from the U.S. He was a walking public safety threat and illegally was driving a massive 18-wheeler when he caused a six-car pile-up involving a school bus on the highway in Washington,” said Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Thankfully, no children were in the bus. This story could have had a very different tragic ending. The sanctuary politicians in Washington failed once again to protect American citizens by refusing to honor our ICE arrest detainer.”
Hernandez-Santos’s criminal history in the U.S. dates back to 2005, according to DHS. On Feb. 24, 2005, the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) removed Hernandez-Santos to Mexico, and he illegally re-entered -- a felony -- and was removed again from the U.S. on June 7, 2006. On an unknown date, and at an unknown place, he re-entered the United States for a third time, DHS added.
Apart from immigration-related crimes, Hernandez-Santos also had other run-ins with the law:
- On May 24, 2008, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office arrested Hernandez-Santos for driving without a license.
- He was arrested again just weeks later, on June 7, 2008, in California for driving under the influence and a hit-and-run with property damage.
- On Nov. 2, 2018, he was charged with possession of a controlled substance.
- On Feb. 24, 2020, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested Hernandez for driving under the influence.
Hernandez-Santos’s crash and subsequent arrest is the latest in a string of truck-involved crashes DHS says were caused by “criminal illegal aliens” behind the wheel. In August, ICE lodged an arrest detainer for Harjinder Singh following his arrest resulting from a crash in Florida that killed three. Harjinder Singh’s case in part led to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Sept. 29 emergency rulemaking seeking to force nearly 200,000 non-citizen CDL holders out of truck driving and other CDL work.
A DOT investigation into Singh's trucking history found that Washington had improperly issued him a full-term CDL, not a non-domiciled CDL. Washington later blamed the error on a lack of staff training.
In October, Borko Stankovic earned ICE’s attention after his involvement in a fatal crash in Indiana. That same month, ICE lodged an arrest detainer for Jashanpreet Singh, who failed to stop in traffic and plowed into a line of cars, causing a chain-reaction crash that killed three and injured several others on I-10 in Ontario, California.
Last month, ICE lodged an arrest detainer for Rajinder Kumar for his role in a fatal crash in Oregon.
[Related: 'Criminal illegal alien' caused Oregon crash that killed two: DHS]
