A ranking member of the Trump administration suggested this week that the “entire family” of an illegal immigrant who killed a Colorado woman last year and got no jail time from a prosecutor could be deported.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who is President Donald Trump’s top immigration advisor, made the remark in response to an X post from Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, who noted the lenient treatment of the migrant following the death of Kaitlyn Weaver, 24, of Aurora.
“BREAKING: ICE confirms to @FoxNews they have arrested the teenage Colombian illegal alien who was given no jail time & probation after he hit & killed Kaitlyn Weaver in Aurora, CO while driving 90mph & unlicensed. ICE also arrested the teen’s entire family, who are also illegal aliens & will seek to deport all of them,” Melugin wrote.
He also included a full statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in his tweet.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a 16-year-old criminal alien from Colombia May 20 in Aurora, Colorado. The minor, who was convicted of reckless driving resulting in death was arrested along with his family who are also illegal aliens,” the statement said.
The minor in question was traveling at 90 miles an hour when he struck Weaver’s vehicle. Reports at the time said he had other minors in the vehicle with him and that Weaver died instantly.
“The minor was convicted in Colorado’s 18th Judicial district and was sentence to probation and community service. As part of its routine operations, ICE arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws. All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality,” it added.
In response, Miller wrote on X: “The entire family will be deported.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to remove the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian, and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, supporting the president’s push to increase deportations.
The court stayed Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s order halting the administration’s move to end the immigration “parole” granted to 532,000 of these migrants by former President Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to immediate removal, while the case is heard in lower courts.
In April, Talwani determined that the statute regulating such parole did not allow for the program’s blanket termination but instead required a case-by-case examination.
The Supreme Court’s ruling was unsigned and did not offer any lengthy explanation. Two of the court’s three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, officially dissented, CNN noted.
Immigration parole is a type of temporary authorization granted by U.S. law to enter the nation for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” which allows grantees to live and work in the United States.
Trump issued an executive order on January 20, his first day back in office, calling for the elimination of humanitarian parole programs. The Department of Homeland Security then attempted to terminate them in March, shortening the two-year parole awards.
The department said at the time that revoking parole would make it simpler to place migrants in an “expedited removal” procedure.
The lawsuit is one of many that the Trump administration has filed urgently with the nation’s highest court, seeking to overturn judgments by lower courts that hinder his sweeping plans, including those targeting immigration.
On May 19, the Supreme Court also allowed Trump to withdraw a deportation protection known as temporary protected status, which Biden had granted to some 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States while the legal battle continues to play out.
