President Donald Trump may be the current occupant of the Oval Office, but the holdover effects from terrible Democrat policies still echo across the country today - and in some cases, they prove deadly.
A University of South Carolina student was killed around 2 p.m. on Wednesday in a hit-and-run incident involving an illegal alien who’d been in the country for nearly a decade and had already been ordered deported. Not that anyone cared, of course, until 21-year-old Nathanial Baker wound up dead in the intersection of Blossom and Assembly streets near the USC campus in Columbia, where he was studying business as a junior. Baker was on his motorcycle when he was struck by a driver in a pick-up truck. The driver then fled the scene on foot, but was caught and arrested by a police officer not far from the crash site. Police say there were two passengers who were also in the vehicle at the time of the crash, but that they aren’t facing any criminal charges.
The driver was later identified as 24-year-old Rosali I. Fernandez-Cruz, an illegal alien from El Salvador. Authorities aren’t sure exactly when he had first come into the United States, but documents show he was arrested by the Border Patrol in Hidalgo, Texas, on Dec. 24, 2016, during the last full month of Obama’s presidency. Despite being illegally present in the U.S., he was released the next day with a notice to appear for an immigration hearing.
This one comes at us from the Obama administration, shortly before Trump took office for his first term in January of 2017.
That hearing took nearly two years, resulting in an immigration judge in Charlotte, North Carolina ordering him to be sent back to his home country during a hearing on Sept. 6, 2018. That obviously didn’t happen. Now, more than six years later, Nathaniel Baker is dead, his friends and family have been left traumatized and heartbroken, and Fernandez-Cruz is in police custody facing multiple criminal charges. Local authorities said they also notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they found Fernandez-Cruz’s name listed in the National Crime Information Center database, and that he was wanted by ICE.
Friends and family say Baker, who was from Glen Allen, Virginia, will be remembered for his “kindness, selflessness and generosity,” with his USC fraternity writing in a social media post that he “brought light, laughter, and love into all of our lives.”
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“Nate will always be remembered for the way he showed up for others and the impact he had on everyone around him. His passion, loyalty, and love for this brotherhood will never be forgotten. May we honor his memory by living with the same kindness, selflessness and generosity that he showed to everyone around him,” the group wrote.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a post on X that Baker “should be alive today” were it not for illegal aliens being allowed to enter and remain in the United States unlawfully.
"Yesterday, 21-year-old USC student Nathaniel "Nate" Baker was driving a motorcycle when he was hit by a truck driver who fled the scene. The hit & run driver was in our country illegally. Nate should be alive today,” she wrote, adding, “[DHS] prays for Nate's family, friends and loved ones and will work every day to protect innocent Americans like Nate.”
Fernandez-Cruz has been charged with hit-and-run resulting in death, failure to render aid, and driving without a license.