EXCLUSIVE: DHS Honors Victims of Fatal DUI, Other Illegal Alien Crimes

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—It was a warm summer night in New Jersey, and Maria Santos Pleitez was driving her 11-year-old daughter and her daughter’s friend to get milkshakes when a drunken driver slammed into Pleitez’s vehicle, killing her and her daughter.

The other girl was injured, but survived the July 26 crash.  

The man charged with driving the other vehicle was 43-year-old Raul Luna-Perez, an illegal alien from Mexico. Luna-Perez has been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide and assault by auto following the crash.  

Pleitez, 42, and her daughter, Dayanara Cortes, are just two of the more than a dozen victims of illegal-alien crime the Department of Homeland Security is honoring the memories of this week.  

“Behind every one of these crimes is a victim and their family left to rebuild their lives after unimaginable loss, suffering, and brutality,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.   

A number of counties in New Jersey are considered “sanctuary jurisdictions” and have “policies, laws, or regulations that impede enforcement of federal immigration laws,” according to the federal Justice Department.  

Luna-Perez was previously arrested twice in New Jersey for driving while intoxicated, but was released. 

“For too long, politicians turned a blind eye to the suffering of American citizens while protecting criminal illegal aliens. That ended on Jan. 20,” McLaughlin continued. “Under President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem, DHS is standing with the victims—not depraved criminal illegal aliens. [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] will continue to target the worst of the worst to protect American lives and make our country safe again.” 

Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, an illegal alien from Mexico, has been charged with concealing the body of a “woman in a storage container on his yard for two months, abusing her corpse, and obstruction of justice,” DHS reported in July. Megan Bos, 37, was reported missing in March. Her remains were found decapitated in a bleach storage container, according to DHS.  

Megan Bos (DHS)

Other victims DHS is honoring include a Texas woman kidnapped and sexually assaulted by an illegal alien from Honduras, a child in New York who was stalked and raped by an illegal immigrant from Colombia, and two Wisconsin teens who were killed in a car crash with an illegal alien from Honduras.

“These cases are just a glimpse into the harm criminal illegal aliens have caused in communities across the country,” according to DHS.  

“DHS remains committed to supporting all victims and families impacted by illegal alien crime and to making America safe again.” 

Since returning to the White House, Trump has prioritized border and immigration enforcement, pledging his administration will arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens.  

DHS continues to work to expand its detention capabilities to remove the “worst of the worst” from U.S. streets. On Tuesday, Noem announced a new illegal-alien detention center in Indiana dubbed the “Speedway Slammer” after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway some 70 miles to its south, with the news coming about a month after the Trump administration opened the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility in the Florida Everglades.   

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