An illegal migrant charged with fatally running over a North Carolina man carried a history of drunk driving arrests, but was repeatedly released by local authorities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer for Wilmer Fuentes Mejia, a criminal illegal migrant who allegedly drove off after striking and killing a 61-year-old man in Durham in September, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Trump administration says Mejia should’ve been locked up long before the tragic accident.
“Wilmer Fuentes Mejia is a criminal illegal alien from Guatemala who has a history of driving while intoxicated and was previously deported by ICE in 2020,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to the DCNF.
“A local DA allowed him to walk free after multiple DUIs only to then cause this fatal hit-and-run that killed an innocent 61-year-old man in North Carolina,” McLaughlin continued.
Mejia — who DHS revealed also goes by the name Werner Orosco-Clemente — allegedly killed Richard Ferguson, Jr. with his vehicle in Durham, North Carolina, on September 13. The illegal migrant, who had already been removed from the U.S., was previously arrested in 2020 for allegedly driving under the influence in Wake County, but was released by the county’s district Democrat attorney without bond.
After Mejia was released without bond for his 2020 DUI arrest, he failed to show up to his court hearing and an order was issued for his arrest, according to court records reviewed by WRAL. However, he was not arrested until the fatal car accident in September involving Ferguson.
The illegal migrant’s criminal history includes two previous apprehensions for DUI and assault, according to DHS. The criminal history draws into question why Mejia was released without bond in 2020.
A spokesperson for the Wake County District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
Mejia, a Guatemalan national, first unlawfully entered the U.S. in 2015 and was released by the Obama administration, according to DHS. Upon an immigration judge’s order, ICE deported him in 2020 during the Trump administration, but he illegally re-entered the U.S. again — a felony under U.S. law — at an unknown date and time.
“There was a time twenty-some-odd years ago where I was going through some rough things, a drug addiction, and my brother helped see me through that,” Ferguson’s brother told WRAL. “Never once gave up on me, one time… He didn’t deserve to get killed and leave this earth.”
Cooperation with ICE has long been a contentious issue for law enforcement in Wake County. Longtime Republican sheriff Donnie Harrison lost his bid for re-election in 2018 in an election that largely centered around the agency’s 287(g) program, which deputizes local law enforcement personnel with immigration authorities and is hailed by the agency as a tool to help apprehend criminal illegal migrants.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, who held office when Mejia was released without bond in 2020, announced earlier this year that she would not be seeking re-election in 2026.
“Richard Ferguson Jr. will get justice,” McLaughlin said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “ICE lodged a detainer for this criminal to ensure this menace and public safety threat isn’t released back onto America’s streets.”
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