Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer requesting custody of an illegal immigrant accused of killing two children in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, while driving under the influence, The Daily Wire reported.

Eri Perez allegedly veered off the road and onto a sidewalk on Sunday, striking 12-year-old Dereon James Robinson and 9-year-old Mikhail-Lee Smith as they rode their bikes. Both boys died at the scene. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to The Daily Wire that Perez entered the country as a "gotaway" at an unknown time.

Perez was denied bond on Monday after being deemed a flight risk due to his illegal immigration status. He faces two counts of felony DUI resulting in death, driving without a license, and an open container violation. Police said Perez was so intoxicated that officers had to hold him up at the scene, and he admitted to drinking throughout Saturday and Sunday.

The boys' mother witnessed the crash while accompanying them on their bike ride. She told WHNS she was almost hit before running to their aid and performing CPR on her son, who was three days away from his 13th birthday.

What the Left Is Saying

Progressive advocates and Democratic officials have expressed grief over the deaths while urging caution against using the tragedy to advance broader immigration restrictions. Immigration advocacy groups note that crimes committed by undocumented individuals represent a small fraction of overall violent crime in the United States.

"Our hearts break for these families," said a spokesperson for the American Immigration Lawyers Association in a statement. "While we mourn every victim of violence, policies should be based on evidence, not exploited for political purposes."

Some progressive lawmakers have argued that comprehensive immigration reform, including pathways to legal status, would actually improve public safety by allowing law enforcement to focus on serious criminals rather than civil immigration enforcement.

State-level Democratic officials have similarly called for addressing root causes of unsafe driving through public health interventions rather than enhanced criminal penalties specifically targeting undocumented immigrants.

What the Right Is Saying

Conservative Republicans and immigration enforcement advocates are using the case to renew calls for stricter border security and faster deportation proceedings. They argue that the suspect's illegal status made him a flight risk who should have already been removed from the country.

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said in a statement: "This is exactly why we need to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws. An illegal immigrant who should have never been in the country killed two American children. The Biden administration's failure to enforce immigration laws has blood on its hands."

Republican lawmakers have repeatedly pointed to cases involving undocumented immigrants charged with violent crimes as evidence of the need for expanded detention facilities and expedited removal procedures. The Heritage Foundation and other conservative think tanks have cited such cases in policy briefs calling for mandatory detention of individuals who enter the country illegally.

Local law enforcement officials in South Carolina have cooperated with ICE on the detainer, reflecting a broader trend of state and local agencies working with federal immigration authorities despite some Democratic-run cities limiting such cooperation.

What the Numbers Show

According to data from the Center for Migration Studies, the vast majority of undocumented immigrants in the United States have no criminal convictions. FBI crime statistics consistently show that foreign-born individuals, including those in the country illegally, commit violent crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans.

ICE removals have increased in recent years under the current administration, with the agency reporting over 1.7 million removals and returns in fiscal year 2024. The number of individuals entering the country without inspection, classified as "gotaways" by Border Patrol, remains a point of contention in immigration policy debates.

In South Carolina, the state legislature passed a measure in 2024 requiring local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration detainers, one of several states that have enacted such requirements.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that approximately 13,000 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in the United States in 2022. The role of immigration status in such statistics is not separately tracked.

The Bottom Line

ICE has issued a detainer for Eri Perez, who remains in local custody facing charges of felony DUI resulting in death. The case has become a focal point for both sides of the immigration debate, with conservatives pointing to it as evidence of the need for stricter enforcement and progressives urging against policy changes based on individual criminal cases.

Perez is scheduled for future court appearances. The victims' families have called for justice, with a family friend describing the deaths as "preventable" given the suspect's immigration status and prior presence in the country. The case is likely to feature prominently in ongoing congressional debates over immigration enforcement authority.