DHS slams release of criminal charged with vehicular homicide

An illegal immigrant from India released at the Arizona border and later charged with vehicular homicide following a fatal crash in Washington state that led to the death of a 29-year-old man has been released from custody on a $100,000 bond despite a detainer request from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

In a Tuesday statement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security accused “Washington sanctuary politicians” of refusing to honor the arrest detainer for Kamalpreet Singh, a truck driver and an illegal immigrant from India.

“These demented and dangerous sanctuary policies have deadly consequences,” Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, said. 

Singh is facing charges after his Freightliner truck crashed into a 2010 Mazda 3 sedan driven by a young man named Robert Pearson, KTTH reported Monday. The cause of the collision, which took place on State Route 167, remains under investigation; however, the Washington State Patrol confirmed that drugs or alcohol were not factors in the crash. 

At the time of the incident, Pearson’s sedan was crushed between Singh’s truck and a 2016 Peterbilt truck, killing him instantly and causing a fire in the sedan’s engine compartment, according to a press memo provided to The Christian Post by the Washington State Patrol. 

Moments before the crash, Pearson and the Peterbilt truck driver had stopped for traffic, but Singh failed to decelerate, and he slammed into Pearson’s vehicle and pushed it into the other truck. The roadway was blocked for nearly seven hours following the collision, according to the press memo. 

Singh and the driver of the Peterbilt truck were reportedly unhurt, and the former was later released from King County Jail, which is in a sanctuary jurisdiction, according to KTTH. The outlet reported that it’s unknown if the facility ignored ICE’s detainer request. 

“Robert Pearson would still be alive today if the Biden administration hadn’t released this illegal alien into our country,” McLaughlin said in a statement Tuesday. “How many more Americans have to be killed before Democrat politicians start to put the public’s safety ahead of politics?”

An ICE source told Fox News Digital this month that U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Singh in Lukeville, Arizona, after he entered the United States illegally on Dec. 23, 2023. The ICE source claimed Singh was released into the U.S. instead of being detained.

The DHS highlighted multiple car wrecks in recent months that involved individuals who are unlawfully in the U.S. 

Earlier this year, the family and friends gathered to mourn Maria Pleitez and her 11-year-old daughter after they died in a car crash in New Jersey. The driver responsible for the collision, Raul Luna-Perez, entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico. 

Luna-Perez was driving a Dodge Durango when he crossed into an oncoming lane of traffic and slammed into Pleitez’s Nissan Sentra, according to local prosecutors. Pleitez was pronounced dead at the scene, but her daughter, Dayanara Cortes, was transported to Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood. 

Cortes later succumbed to her injuries at the hospital and died, while her friend, who was also in the car at the time of the crash, survived after being transported to Monmouth Medical Center. 

According to first responders on the scene, Luna-Perez showed signs of impairment. After he was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, he was taken into custody and transported to the Ocean County Jail to await a detention hearing.

In a statement at the time, the DHS highlighted Luna-Perez’s rap sheet, which included two DUI arrests in March and April, and one arrest in June 2023 for “simple domestic violence.”