'Dreamer' Faces Deportation After Trafficking Illegal Immigrants in High-Speed Chase
A recipient of former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is set to be deported following a high-speed chase with three illegal immigrants in his car.
When law enforcement officials attempted to pull over Jose Yepez-Vega, a “dreamer” from Mexico, in July 2018 at a checkpoint in Texas, he took off, leading authorities on an over-50-mile chase spanning multiple jurisdictions.
The vehicle reached speeds of over 130 mph before Yepez-Vega lost control and pulled off the highway, KVEO-TV in Brownsville reported.
Authorities found three illegal immigrants in his car, and they said they paid between $4,000 and $6,000 to be smuggled into the United States.
Their destinations were Texas, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
In April, Yepez-Vega pleaded guilty “to three counts of transporting an undocumented alien within the United States for financial gain, causing risk of serious bodily injury or death as well as one count of conspiracy,” the Department of Justice said in a news release.
As a result, U.S. District Judge Diana Saldaña revoked Yepez-Vega’s status as a DACA recipient last week and ordered him to be deported.
The court warned Yepez-Vega not to come back to the United States, the statement said.
The battle over DACA recipients is heating up as the Supreme Court is slated to hear the arguments on Nov. 12 over the embattled Obama-era program.
Last year, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration would be gradually dismantling the program, but the effort was hit with injunctions by four federal circuit courts, CBS News reported.
As a result, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to quickly take up the case last year, but the court declined.
Instead, the court decided it would take up the case during the fall term.
Additionally, in June, a Democrat-led House passed the Dream Act, which would eventually give millions of DACA recipients a path to citizenship.
However, the bill is facing an uphill battle as it makes its way to the Republican-held Senate.
Even if it were to make its way to President Donald Trump’s desk, it’s unknown if he would sign the legislation.
While the president has often expressed sympathy for DACA recipients, he has often opposed legislation that would eventually lead to their citizenship, CBS News noted.
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