An immigration judge ordered Vicente Torres-Vasquez deported in November 2010. Twelve months later, he was still in the country, drunk behind the wheel in Wauconda, Illinois, where he slammed into a motorcycle carrying Gregory Errol Homola — a 55-year-old Marine Corps veteran.

Homola died. Two women in another vehicle were injured. Torres-Vasquez had four prior drunk driving arrests on his record before that night.

The timeline is worth laying out in full because every single checkpoint that was supposed to stop this failed. Torres-Vasquez, a Mexican national, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally twice in March 2004. Both times he was caught. Both times he was granted voluntary departure — the immigration equivalent of "please leave and we trust you will." He crossed a third time undetected. A judge ordered his removal in November 2010. Nine months before that order could be executed, he'd already killed a Marine.

In 2012, an Illinois court convicted Torres-Vasquez of aggravated drunk driving resulting in death and two counts of aggravated drunk driving causing great bodily injury. The sentence was 25 years. That should have been the end of two stories — a criminal's time in American society and a sanctuary state's ability to shield him from federal immigration enforcement.

It wasn't. On November 2, 2026, Illinois released Torres-Vasquez on parole after 14 years — ignoring active ICE detainers filed in January 2017 and again in March 2026. Two detainers. Two explicit federal requests to hold him for deportation. The state looked at both and opened the door anyway.

Nine days later, on November 11, ICE arrested Torres-Vasquez themselves. He is now pending deportation proceedings, as reported by Breitbart.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin didn't dress it up. "These heartless sanctuary politicians need to stop prioritizing political power over constituent safety," Mullin said.

The detainer system exists precisely for cases like this. ICE identifies a deportable criminal alien in state custody, files a request to be notified before release, and asks the state to hold the individual briefly so federal agents can take custody. It requires no state resources beyond a phone call and a short hold. Illinois refused — not once, but twice across nearly a decade — because the state's sanctuary framework treats cooperation with federal immigration enforcement as politically unacceptable.

Gregory Errol Homola served his country in the Marine Corps. The man who killed him had been ordered deported before the crash, had been caught crossing the border illegally twice before that, and had four drunk driving arrests before the night he took Homola's life. After conviction, the state that was supposed to hold him for ICE released him on parole without a word to federal authorities.

Torres-Vasquez was granted voluntary departure in 2004. He was ordered deported in 2010. Detainers were filed in 2017 and 2026. Illinois released him anyway.

ICE picked him up nine days later.