South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is leading the prosecution of an immigrant charged in the hit-and-run death of a University of South Carolina student, told Newsmax on Thursday that his office became involved as part of its ongoing investigation related to illegal immigration throughout the state.
"We've been working with local law enforcement throughout the state," Wilson said on "Wake Up America." "This case is of particular importance because of our renewed focus on illegal immigration and a lot of the violent crimes that come with it."
He added that his office has been engaged in "high-level investigations in the drug trafficking operations not related to this particular [case], but just related to Mexican drug cartels. Illegal gangs operating in South Carolina, many of whom crossed the border in the last four years, are now in South Carolina."
Last week, the student, Nathaniel Baker, 21, died after a crash in a Columbia, South Carolina, intersection near the university after his motorcycle was hit by a truck driven by Rosali Fernandez-Cruz, 24, reported Mobile Alabama NBC affiliate WPMI.
Fernandez-Cruz was charged with hit-and-run resulting in death after leaving the scene of the accident. Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem confirmed that he was in the United States illegally.
A DHS spokesperson said Fernandez-Cruz was also arrested in December 2016 in Hidalgo, Texas, by U.S. Border Patrol agents after coming into the U.S. illegally. He was issued a notice to appear in court but did not show up. In September 2018, an immigration judge ordered that he be removed from the country.
Wilson told Newsmax that his office is not only looking at the facts of the current case but the "larger issue of illegal immigration."
"How are these illegal aliens able to get a lot of the benefits that they get?" he said. "How are they able to get documentation? What documentation are they providing when they get hired to particular jobs?"
Wilson added that his office has also been working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and has federal partnerships with the FBI and DHS, as well as local law enforcement officials.
"South Carolina, just like every other state, is a border state," he said. "All of the things that cross the southern border of Mexico and Texas end up finding their way into communities here in South Carolina. We've seized enough fentanyl in the last four or five years, I want to say about 144 kilos. One kilo of fentanyl is enough to kill half a million people, just to give you some context for how much poison is being poured into our state because of the illegal immigration crisis in this country."
The Trump administration, Wilson added, has "done an excellent job of plugging the holes in the boat and shutting down the border, but we still have all the bad things that poured into this boat, so to speak. We've got to bail it out and that's what we're working on right now."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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