Rep. Matt Gaetz said he continues to wait on the Biden administration to explain why an Escambia County motorcyclist died because an illegal immigrant was not tossed out of the country despite being wanted by federal immigration officials.
“Even before this fatal incident, where someone died on a motorcycle, you had some sort of contact between Pineda and law enforcement, and that’s what we want to know,” Gaetz told WEAR in Pensacola on Monday. “Was it about a dangerous crime? Was it about a crime of unlawful entry into the country?”
The fatality occurred last month, according to the Florida Highway Patrol, after Byron Pineda, an illegal immigrant, tried to change lanes on a busy highway west of Pensacola and allegedly struck the 21-year-old biker and killed him. The motorcyclist was not identified.
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As the Tampa Free Press reported last week, Gaetz sent letters to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner seeking answers about Pineda, whom ICE wanted at the time of the fatal crash.
ICE refused, saying Gaetz needed to obtain a waiver of privacy from Pineda in order to receive his records.
“Instead of giving us the circumstances of Mr. Pineda’s arrival in the United States (and) why he was on an ICE detainer,” Gaetz continued, “they simply said it was his right to privacy which predominated over our interest in how to adjust public policy in order to keep people safe from these type of deadly encounters.”
Gaetz wanted to know how Pineda entered our country and was allowed to remain. He also sought answers as to why ICE wanted Pineda and how quickly he will be deported if he is convicted in Florida.
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“While I support the mission of your component, and DHS more generally, and strive to maintain a positive working relationship, your response is wildly inappropriate,” Gaetz wrote back to the agency on March 15.
“The quick turnaround suggests that perhaps the response was in error, because it is both legally inappropriate and tone-deaf to recommend that a member of Congress seek a Privacy Act waiver from an illegal alien who murdered a constituent of mine. So I am giving you a second chance for response.”
“Possible responses to these questions include statements of Departmental policy: it cannot be the case that if I ask the Department of Defense ‘what are you going to do about an attack on U.S. servicemembers,’ that an adequate response might be ‘explaining what we are going to do will violate the rights of those who died, or those who carried out the attack.’”
“Try again.”
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