ICE Arrests Man in Fatal DUI After Illinois Ignores Detainer, DHS Says

Federal immigration agents have arrested a Mexican national who killed a U.S. Marine Corps veteran in a 2011 drunk-driving crash in Lake County, Illinois, after state prison officials released him on parole without honoring an immigration detainer, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Friday.

DHS said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from its Chicago field office arrested Vicente Torres-Vasquez on Nov. 11 and that he will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin first reported the case in a post on X Friday morning, writing that DHS alleges Illinois ignored the detainer on a man with a deportation order and four DUI arrests.

EXCLUSIVE: DHS is blasting the sanctuary state of Illinois after they allege the state ignored an ICE detainer on a Mexican illegal alien w/ a deportation order, four DUI arrests, and a prior conviction for a DUI crash that killed U.S. Marine veteran Gregory Errol Homola in IL in… pic.twitter.com/DavIqYfmB1

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) November 13, 2026

The 2011 crash

According to DHS, Torres-Vasquez caused a crash in Wauconda on July 24, 2011, while driving under the influence, killing 55-year-old Gregory Errol Homola, a Marine Corps veteran who was riding a motorcycle. Two women in another vehicle were also injured, the department said.

The Daily Herald reported in 2012 that Torres-Vasquez pulled out of a parking lot on Route 176 into the path of Homola’s motorcycle and then struck a car carrying two women, one of whom was pregnant. Lake County prosecutors said at the time that tests showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.28 percent, more than three times the legal limit, according to the Daily Herald.

DHS said Torres-Vasquez was convicted in 2012 of aggravated DUI resulting in death and two counts of aggravated DUI resulting in great bodily injury, and that he had previously been arrested four times for driving under the influence. The Daily Herald reported in 2012 that he pleaded guilty and that a Lake County judge ordered consecutive sentences totaling 18 years; the DHS statement puts the sentence at 25 years.

The detainer dispute

DHS said ICE first lodged a detainer with the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton on Jan. 16, 2017. According to the department, he was moved to Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill on March 3, 2026, ahead of his parole date, and ICE lodged another detainer there. DHS said Stateville released him on parole on Nov. 2 without notifying ICE.

The department also said Torres-Vasquez illegally entered the United States through Arizona twice in March 2004, receiving voluntary departure both times, then entered illegally a third time on an unknown date. An immigration judge issued him a final order of removal on Nov. 11, 2010, according to DHS.

“Thankfully, the brave patriots of ICE managed to arrest this killer anyway, and he will now be deported from our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in the statement, adding that “sanctuary politicians” in Illinois “refused to cooperate with us.”

The case is the latest in a long-running dispute between the Trump administration and Illinois over detainers. Fox News reported in December 2025 that ICE said Illinois had released 1,768 criminal aliens with active detainers since January 2025.

Sources

• Bill Melugin on X
• Department of Homeland Security statement
• ICE on X
• Daily Herald (2012)
• Fox News (2025)

Reporting by Daily Beltway.