An undocumented individual, released into the United States, is accused of killing 19-year-old Adam Luker in a DUI crash in Mobile County, Alabama.
Antonio Rodas, a 29-year-old undocumented person, was arrested on May 8 and charged with murder in Luker’s death.
According to Mobile County prosecutors, on April 28, Rodas was driving under the influence at three times the legal limit and at 88 mph when he ran a red light and collided with Luker, who had the green light and was making a turn at the intersection.
Over a week after the incident, on May 6, Luker succumbed to his injuries. A GoFundMe page has been established to support Luker’s family. Luker graduated from Mary G. Montgomery High School in May 2023.
Adam Luker (Photo via GoFundMe)
At the crash site, investigators noted Rodas’s vehicle was filled with opened alcohol containers and smelled of alcohol. Before police could arrest Rodas, he attempted to flee the U.S. to South America but was ultimately prevented and taken into Mobile County custody.
An extensive report from Brendan Kirby at FOX10 News disclosed that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency had known about Rodas for nearly six years before the crash that resulted in Luker’s death.
An ICE official confirmed to FOX10 News that Rodas first crossed the U.S.-Mexico border near Hidalgo, Texas, in December 2018. Rather than being detained or removed, Rodas was given a Notice to Appear (NTA) in immigration court at a later date and was released into the U.S. interior, where he resettled in Mobile County.
In 2021, Rodas was arrested and charged in Mobile County for driving under the influence. In this incident, Rodas crashed his car into a utility pole while intoxicated.
ICE officials were aware of Rodas’s arrest but did not detain him due to a policy by President Joe Biden’s administration that does not consider arrests for driving under the influence as grounds for deportation.
“Most people would consider that kind of a DUI to be something serious that’s a threat to public safety, but, under the Biden-Mayorkas priorities, he would not have been somebody that ICE would have been allowed to go after at that point in time,” Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan told FOX10 News.
In 2022, Rodas pleaded guilty to the DUI charge and was sentenced to 180 days in prison and court-ordered supervision upon release on probation. After serving his prison sentence, Rodas eventually stopped complying with court-ordered supervision and did not adhere to his release terms.
Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood told FOX10 News that the organization overseeing his probation did not request his office to revoke Rodas’s probation for non-compliance.
An attorney for Luker’s family stated that the federal government should have deported Rodas long before their loved one lost his life.
“If that had been the case, then this would have never happened,” their attorney said. “You know, the federal government has access to all of the, you know, information about arrests and that kind of thing.”
In a separate case in Maryland, the Angel Family of 20-year-old Kayla Hamilton is suing the federal government for $100 million for releasing an undocumented MS-13 Gang member into the U.S. interior who is accused of brutally murdering and raping the young woman.
RELATED — Mother of MS-13 Victim Kayla Hamilton Testifies: “I Am Her Voice Now”
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