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The family of deceased 10-year-old Alex “AJ” Wise Jr. laid their boy to rest on Saturday, a week after he was fatally injured in a hit-and-run involving an illegal immigrant in Midland, Texas.
Alex was walking home from school on Feb. 8 when Rogelio Ortiz-Olivas, a 50-year-old illegal immigrant and serial border offender, struck the young Texan with his black truck and fled.
Mr. Ortiz-Olivas was later detained by police from the Midland Police Department and charged with drunk driving and a hit-and-run.
But for Alex, after being airlifted to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, in critical condition, he succumbed to his injuries the following morning.
“AJ was the sweetest, coolest, funniest little boy you ever would meet,” his aunt wrote on a GoFundMe campaign page, which raised over $24,000 in donations to go toward covering costs for the funeral.
It was Alex’s school, IDEA Travis, that confirmed the boy had been the victim of a hit-and-run. Midland is approximately 320 miles northwest of San Antonio.
Mr. Ortiz-Olivas had already been deported from American soil five times. But still, he managed to reenter the United States, after which the deadly incident occurred.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials told CBS7 News that Mr. Ortiz-Olivas had returned to Mexico voluntarily the first time he was caught by border officers at the U.S.–Mexico border. But he would then go on to illegally enter the United States five more times.
Authorities were able to identify him with his fingerprints on record from his first removal from the country.
He is currently being held by the Midland Police Department in Midland County Jail on $110,000 bail.
He also has an ICE detainer that has been issued against him, meaning that Mr. Ortiz-Olivas will be sent back to Mexico after serving his sentence.
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) blamed the tragedy on the Biden administration’s mismanagement of the southern border.
“How many more Americans have to die before Joe Biden secures the border?” he wrote on X.
According to CBP, between May 12, 2023, to Jan. 31, 2024, DHS has removed or returned over 520,000 individuals, mostly across the southwest border. This number exceeded the yearly totals reported for removals and returns for every fiscal year since 2013, and does not include data for the number of non-detained illegal immigrants who evaded authorities as they entered.
In fiscal year 2023, ICE reported that more than 6 million non-detained illegal immigrants had entered the United States, marking another milestone in the ongoing border crisis.
Citing a crisis and an unsustainable influx of people across the southern border, House Republicans impeached DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Feb. 13 for failing to execute his border duties.
