A previously deported illegal alien has been charged in a DUI-related hit-and-run in New York state last week that left a father of three dead.
The Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office says Heriberto Perez-Velasquez, a 31-year-old illegal alien from Guatemala, was drunk when he hit and killed 59-year-old Mark Knapp in Weedsport, New York, on November 10. Knapp, a retired electrician, was driving his tractor to have it cleaned when he was struck, thrown from the tractor and killed on impact.
In their report, police said Perez-Velasquez fled the scene of the accident but was ultimately apprehended, where officers determined he was both drunk and driving without a license.
And apparently, this wasn’t the Guatemalan national’s first brush with DUI charges. Shockingly, Perez-Velasquez had been arrested for drunk driving just once month prior to the accident that killed Knapp, but was released by Wayne County, New York with a notice to appear, rather than being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for immigration violations.
“Had Mr. Perez-Velasquez been detained by ICE after his October 2019 DUI arrest, a life might have been spared,” Acting ICE Director Matt Albence told CNY Central. “Sanctuary jurisdictions that do not honor detainers or allow us access to jails and prisons are shielding criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and jeopardizing the lives of law-abiding citizens.”
ICE officials added Perez-Velasquez had been apprehended by Border Patrol agents in May of 2007 after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and was immediately sent back to Guatemala, but had returned to the U.S. illegally sometime since.
Knapp was married and leaves behind his wife, Sharon, their three children and one grandson.
Perez-Velasquez is currently being held on a $50,000 bond and has been issued an ICE detainer by ICE – though it remains to be seen whether the request will be honored this time, now that an American man is dead.