Illegal immigrant with years-old deportation order arrested for involvement in car crash that killed college student

An illegal immigrant he ordered removed from the United States several years ago has been arrested in connection with a fatal car crash in Virginia that killed a young college student.

Elvis Jamir Cruz-Ferrera, an 18-year-old Honduran national, was arrested in February on manslaughter charges for the car crash in Chesapeake, Virginia, that month that killed Lauryn Ni'Kole Leonard, a 19-year-old University student Old Dominion. in accordance with The Virginian pilot. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Cruz-Ferrera entered the country illegally in 2016 and never showed up for a subsequent immigration court hearing where he was ordered to be deported .

Border Patrol agents arrested Cruz-Ferrera in McAllen, Texas, when he crossed illegally into the United States as an unaccompanied minor in October 2016, according to the Virginian-Pilot. At that time I was 11 years old.

Cruz-Ferrera was soon released from ICE custody and ordered to appear before an immigration judge in two years in September 2018. However, the then-13-year-old never appeared at the court hearing and was ordered to be expelled from the country.

He eventually took up residence in southeastern Virginia, where he had multiple run-ins with local law enforcement, according to the Pilot. Virginia State Police charged him with reckless driving and driving without a license in November 2023, and he was charged with driving without a license again on January 14.

However, none of these charges would have triggered an investigation into his immigration status.

Cruz-Ferrera was southbound on I-664 on Feb. 19 when her Pontiac Vibe struck Leonard's Toyota Solara, causing both drivers to run off the freeway and crash into the guardrail, killing Leonard on impact, according to the Pilot. He was charged with reckless driving, no proof of insurance, driving without a license, no valid car inspection, and several days later, he was also charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Leonard's mother, Dana Hargrove, said she did not understand why Cruz-Ferrera's previous arrests did not trigger investigations into his immigration status.

“I think it's crazy,” he said, according to the Pilot. “How come nobody looked at it? … She's minding her own business and you just came out of nowhere and turned my life upside down.”

Leonard was a sophomore at Old Dominion University and reportedly told his family just hours before the fatal crash that he got a job conducting orientation for new students. Her brother, Erick Hargrove, also questioned law enforcement's handling of Cruz-Ferrera's immigration history.

“I don't want to say anything that sounds far right or far left,” Hargrove told the pilot. “But I would just say it's a possibility that this wouldn't have happened if the deportation had happened when it was supposed to.”

Leonard's death follows other high-profile murders of American women in recent months, allegedly at the hands of illegal immigrants. Of Venezuelan nationality was loaded with the February killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, a Salvadoran national he was arrested Earlier this year for the murders of Maryland mother Rachel Morin and two Venezuelan nationals they were arrested in June for the rape and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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