President Donald Trump conflated the death of Indianapolis Colts player Edwin Jackson with a need for more stringent measures against illegal immigration.
Authorities determined Monday that the driver responsible for the fatal incident that killed Jackson and his Uber driver, Jeffrey Monroe, as they were pulled over on the side of an interstate early Sunday is Manuel Orrego-Savala, a Guatemalan citizen who was using the alias Alex Cabrera Gonsales. Orrego-Savala is living in the U.S. illegally and has previously been deported twice.
Trump capitalized on this detail Tuesday, arguing that this type of incident can be prevented by keeping undocumented immigrants out of the country:
Building a wall and enforcing a series of Trump’s other draconian measures is precisely what Jackson wouldn’t have wanted, his roommate Chad Bouchez told CBS News.
“I don’t think Edwin would have judged anyone on where they were from or anything else,” he said.
Unable to overcome the impasse on an immigration deal, lawmakers let the government shut down briefly last month. Although Congress is expected to vote on a short-term spending deal on Tuesday to fund the government through March 23, no updated immigration deal has been proposed.
Trump, who originally revoked the protections awarded to the recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, has said he’s willing to offer protections to so-called Dreamers as long as the deal includes funding for a wall along the border with Mexico.
