Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., said Wednesday President Trump was right to blame the deaths of an Indianapolis Colts player and Uber driver on poor U.S. immigration laws and insecure borders.
“The president is exactly right. We have to have — If we’re going to be a sovereign nation… we’ve got to have a border. We’ve got to be able to enforce who comes in and out of our country,” Rokita said on Fox News.
“The guy who murdered these two innocent people shouldn’t have been in our country – maybe others should be, but we ought to make that decision,” he added. “Like President Trump said, this was a completely preventable tragedy. If we had the wall, which is a tool for enforcing our immigration law, something every other country on the face of this Earth does, this would not have happened. Two people would still be alive.”
The GOP lawmaker said the background to this story is what makes it an immigration case, not a drunk driving case, as Indiana law enforcement investigate possible driver impairment as the cause of the crash.
President Trump on Tuesday demanded that Congress eliminate loopholes that allowed a twice-deported illegal immigrant to kill two people over the weekend, including a player for the Indianapolis Colts.
“So disgraceful that a person illegally in our country killed @Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson. This is just one of many such preventable tragedies. We must get the Dems to get tough on the Border, and with illegal immigration, FAST!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
Police officials said Manuel Orrego-Savala, 37, killed Jackson and Uber driver Jeffrey Monroe when he drove his car into the emergency shoulder of a highway near Indianapolis.
The suspect may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the suspect was deported in 2007 and 2009.
In December, Rokita introduced a bill that would make it a felony for local elected official’s decision not to honor federal immigration agencies’ requests for detainers of criminal aliens.
