California Governor Gavin Newsom has backflipped on a plan to release an illegal immigrant convicted of vehicular manslaughter amid fury about sanctuary city policies.
Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano was driving drunk, under the influence of drugs, and at speed when he crashed into a car being driven by 19-year-old sweethearts Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin in November 2021.
The couple both burned to death in the fiery wreckage.
The 43-year-old had been deported from the United States twice prior to the incident but had illegally crossed the border again.
Days after the crash, Immigrants and Customs Enforcement authorities issued a detainer with the Orange County Jail in an effort to keep track of his whereabouts.
Ortega-Anguiano was sentenced to two 10-year jail terms, to be served concurrently, for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
So the victims’ families were horrified on Easter Sunday to learn that he had been granted parole just 3.5 years into his sentence and was due to walk free in July.
Amid mass backlash, Newsom has caved and vowed to work with ICE authorities to ensure he is transferred to their custody.
As a sanctuary city, local authorities can limit their cooperation with federal immigration agencies and refuse to share details about the inmate’s whereabouts.
But Newsom’s press office on Wednesday maintained that would not be the case.
‘After being deported in 2013, this individual unlawfully re-entered the US & committed heinous crimes,’ the press office said on X.
‘A GOP DA then gave him a plea deal instead of pursuing 2nd-degree murder.
‘CDCR [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] will again coordinate with ICE—as they have w/ 10,000+ inmates—to transfer him before release.’
In an effort to combat the mounting bad press as new shocking details emerged of Ortega-Anguiano’s criminal past, the press office shared 14 separate posts over the span of 12 hours insisting they would cooperate with ICE.
ICE revealed he was convicted of burglary in 2005, theft of a vehicle in 2007 and battery on a spouse with kidnapping in 2014.
‘An immigration judge ordered Ortega removed Nov. 3, 2014; he filed several unsuccessful appeals and was taken into ICE custody Dec. 2, 2016, and removed to Mexico the same day,’ ICE revealed.
‘Ortega attempted to reenter the United States Feb. 2, 2018… by presenting a counterfeit document; he was paroled into the U.S. pending criminal prosecution for illegal reentry after removal.
‘An immigration official issued Ortega an expedited removal order and removed him June 1, 2018, to Mexico.
‘After his latest removal, he again illegally reentered the U.S. on an unknown date and location.’
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan had earlier vowed to do whatever it takes to remove Ortega-Anguiano, even if local authorities refused to assist.
‘I will work with [Homeland Security] Secretary Noem on this case,’ he said.
‘I guarantee you, if they don’t honor the detainer, we’ll have ICE agents outside that facility to take custody of this individual and deport him.’
The grieving families of both victims said they couldn’t understand why authorities had deemed him eligible for parole after such a short period of time served.
‘It’s disgusting. You have two young, unbelievable future, productive American citizens killed for nothing and that illegal immigrant who already has been deported twice is going to be released again? For what?’ Varfolomeev’s father told Fox News.
And Nicholay’s father Pavel said he hoped the parole would be reversed so Ortega-Anguiano would ‘get old in prison’ and be deported at the end of his full sentence.
‘Three years for killing two kids! It’s confusing to me. Why you give them 10 if they’re gonna spend five, and then three?’ he said.
‘Give them three in the beginning, at least we know what to expect. It’s sort of spitting in my face.’