U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) helped this week investigate how federal officials did not remove a Mexican national in the United States despite his history of violent and illegal behavior.
This behavior resulted in the deaths of four law enforcement motorcycle club members.
This, according to a press release that Blackburn emailed this week.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) joined Blackburn, the press release said.
“Ivan Robles Navejas is charged with causing a head-on collision with members of the Thin Blue Line Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club in July, killing four riders and injuring several others,” the press release said.
“He was allegedly intoxicated at the time of the collision, and had previously faced assault, drunk driving and resisting arrest charges dating back to 2013.”
Various U.S. senators signed a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, requesting all records related to Navejas immigration and law enforcement encounters. They included U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), the press release said.
“This is not the first time that Mr. Navejas has been accused of committing crimes within our communities,” the senators wrote.
“He has faced previous charges including resisting arrest in 2013, driving while intoxicated in 2016, and, most concerning of all, aggravated assault in 2018. We are disturbed by the fact that, despite these egregious charges, Mr. Navejas has been permitted to continue residing in the United States, further endangering our citizens.”
The senators added that “as is so often the case, this tragedy was completely avoidable had this nation’s immigration laws been enforced as they should have been during the Obama administration.”
“Navejas benefitted from several Obama-Biden administration-era policies that shielded him from deportation despite his illegal entry and multiple run-ins with law enforcement. He was granted deferred deportation status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2013, the same year that he was charged with resisting arrest. Though that status later expired, he was allowed to remain in the country following drunk driving charges in 2016 because the Obama-Biden administration’s Priority Enforcement Program did not consider drunk driving offenses to warrant deportation,” according to the press release.
“Despite these encounters, Navejas was still able to receive conditional permanent resident status, which shielded him from removal following 2018 assault charges in which he allegedly pinned a victim with his car and bit off a portion of the victim’s ear.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
