NEWARK, N.J. — Migrants seeking to escape justice have been flocking to New Jersey in recent years to take advantage of Governor Phil Murphy’s sanctuary state, but the rules are quickly changing.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested a Guatemalan national with a prior vehicular homicide conviction for illegally reentering the United States.
Ismael Efrain Lopez-Bautista, 43, was apprehended on March 11 in Vineland, New Jersey. He had previously been convicted in 2014 of death by auto or vessel and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Lopez-Bautista was deported in 2019 but was arrested again in 2020 while attempting to cross the border in Arizona.
He served a 15-month sentence for illegal reentry before being removed again in 2022.
ICE officials say he is now being prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.