SAN ANTONIO – The man accused of causing a deadly crash in Kerr County does not have legal status in the United States, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told KSAT on Tuesday.
On Saturday, members of the Thin Blue Line Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club were traveling to Kerrville to have lunch before the group’s meeting. Kerr County Sheriff’s deputies say Ivan Robles Navejas crossed over the center line on Highway 16, striking several of the motorcycles head-on.
Kerr County man charged in head-on crash that killed three Blue Line Law Enforcement motorcyclists
Three motorcyclists were killed in the crashed and four others were injured and hospitalized. Robles Navejas is facing four counts of intoxication assault with a vehicle and three counts of intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle, jail records showed.
ICE spokesperson Nina Pruneda on Tuesday confirmed that Robles Navejas is “an unlawfully present Mexican national,” leading the agency to filed an immigration detainer against him.
Immigration detainers require local county jail operators to detain people who are accused of crimes and do not have legal status for at least 48 hours after they would have otherwise been released from the jail so that immigration agents have the ability take them into federal custody.
In November 2016, ICE encountered Robles Navejas after a DWI arrest in Kerr County, but he did not meet the agency’s enforcement priorities at that time.
Robles Navejas also has a pending aggravated assault charge stemming from a 2018 incident in Bexar County, court records showed. Navejas was out on bail for that case before he was arrested for the deadly crash.
Killed in the crash were Joseph Paglia, President of the TBLLEMC Chicago chapter and retired Officer with the Niles City Police Dept., Jerry Wayne Harbour, Thin Blue Line ambassador, Lt. Col. Army (retired) and pilot for Eastern Airlines (retired), and Michael White, secretary of the TBLLEMC Chicago chapter.