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The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would allow law enforcement to deport illegal immigrants caught driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The measure passed with the support of 274 lawmakers, but as many as 150 Democrats voted against it.
The Protect Our Communities from DUIs Act amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to ensure that illegal immigrants caught driving under the influence can be deported and barred from entering the US. ‘Every 45 years in the United States, someone dies in an accident involving an impaired driver. minutes,” Rep. Barry Moore, who introduced the bill, told Fox News.
“I lost two of my young, newlywed voters to an illegal immigrant who drove under the influence of alcohol.” ‘Angel and Jeremy were riding a motorcycle together when, out of nowhere, an illegal alien, under the influence of alcohol, crashed his pickup truck into the newlyweds. Their lives were dramatically cut short,” Moore said in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, tragedies like this are not uncommon in our country,” he continued. “Consider this case from Missouri, where just two months ago an illegal alien from Honduras was convicted of driving 100 miles per hour and killing a man.” In response to a post about the 150 Democrats voting against the bill, a bewildered Elon Musk posted on X: “What the hell is going on!?”
In December, an illegal migrant from El Salvador, who had previously been deported from the US four times, was accused of killing a Colorado mother and her son in a crash involving alcohol, according to local news channel KDVR. Melissa Powell, 47, and her son, Riordan Powell, 16, were both killed in the crash.
The migrant, Jose Guadalupe Menjivar-Alas, was estimated to be traveling at 100 miles per hour at the time of the fatal crash. According to Colorado court records, the migrant had been convicted four times for alcohol-related driving violations.
“If you are a guest in this country and drive drunk, you should be removed from our country,” Moore said Thursday. The passage comes as immigration policy has received significant attention from lawmakers.
In January, House Speaker Mike Johnson led a delegation of Republicans to Eagle Pass, Texas, to witness the border crisis firsthand. “The situation here and across the country is truly unconscionable,” Johnson said at the time. “We would describe it as heartbreaking and infuriating.”