Illegal Immigrant Released by Obama Administration in 2016 Charged in Triple-Fatal Hit-and-Run in North Carolina

Three people are dead in Salisbury, North Carolina, and the man charged in their deaths spent a decade in the country after immigration authorities already had him in custody once.

Javiel Pena Sola, 42, a citizen of El Salvador, is charged with three counts of felony hit-and-run involving serious injury or death, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Police say Sola crashed into another vehicle on July 18 in Salisbury, killing two occupants at the scene. A third victim was airlifted to a hospital and died from injuries. Sola allegedly fled and was tracked down with a police K-9 unit, DHS said. His car was later found in a nearby creek, according to WSOC-TV.

A witness near the crash site, Quindel Woods, told WSOC-TV he heard screaming as first responders pulled Sola from the wreck. The names of the three victims have not yet been released publicly, pending family notification, according to the Daily Wire.

A prior release, a decade later

This is not Sola's first serious brush with the law. DHS says he was convicted in Maryland in July 2015 for reckless endangerment, failure to stop after an accident involving damage to an attended vehicle, and driving without a license. He was also arrested for escaping custody. After that arrest, Baltimore officials honored a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and turned Sola over to federal custody in March 2016.

Two months later, in May 2016, the Obama administration released him back into the country, according to DHS. Sola says he entered the U.S. illegally through Arizona. DHS's own statement gives an entry date of April 2002, which matches the year cited by Breitbart, though the New York Post's account of the same DHS statement states April 2022. That discrepancy has not been resolved by the available reporting.

DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis put the blame squarely on the decision to let Sola go. "Although ICE had arrested him in 2016, the Obama Administration released him into American communities," Bis said in a statement carried by Breitbart, the New York Post and the Daily Wire. "These deaths were 100% preventable. Open borders and sanctuary policies have deadly consequences."

ICE lodged a formal detainer with Rowan County Jail on July 22, asking North Carolina officials not to release Sola if he posts bond or is otherwise freed from state custody, according to DHS. He remains held in Rowan County as of this week, and the Daily Wire reported that additional charges are expected.

What's proven, what isn't

The facts are not in dispute across the reporting: Sola had a 2015 Maryland conviction tied to a prior hit-and-run, he was in ICE custody in 2016, and he was released two months later. DHS has not explained why that release happened, and none of the available reporting includes an on-record explanation from the Obama administration or from immigration officials who made that specific 2016 decision. The Daily Wire noted plainly that "the reason for his past release from ICE detention is unclear." Assigning blame to "the Obama Administration" is accurate as a factual description of who was in office and whose immigration enforcement priorities governed ICE releases at that time, but no source has produced the actual case file or internal reasoning behind the specific release decision.

It's also important to be precise about the word "sanctuary" in this case. Maryland's status as what DHS and reporting outlets describe as a sanctuary state is relevant to the 2015 conviction and the earlier custody transfer, not directly to the 2016 crash in North Carolina, which is not itself described as a sanctuary jurisdiction in the sources. Rowan County officials cooperated with ICE this time, with the detainer request lodged without apparent resistance noted in the reporting.

Sola faces three felony hit-and-run counts, with more charges possibly coming, according to WSOC-TV's reporting cited by the Daily Wire. The detainer means that if he makes bond or the state case resolves in his favor, ICE intends to take him into federal custody rather than let him return to the community. Whether that detainer will actually be honored, and what becomes of the underlying 2016 release decision, remain open questions no source has yet answered.