U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has requested that Florida authorities detain an undocumented Venezuelan man involved in a crash that resulted in the death of his grandmother. This information comes from documents reviewed by The Daily Caller.
Carlos Suarez Contreras, a Venezuelan citizen, allegedly reversed his vehicle into his 82-year-old grandmother, Deborah Murphy, while she was at a crosswalk near a public plaza in Panama City Beach, Florida, on May 17.
After the incident, authorities reported that Suarez Contreras continued driving and did not immediately stop. Both he and his passenger, Luis Sanabria Perez, were found to be undocumented. The Bay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Suarez Contreras on the same day, and ICE filed a detention request the following day.
Interestingly, Suarez Contreras had previously been encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in November 2021 near Blythe, California, and he was released into the U.S. under the Biden administration.
Lauren Biss, Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), described the tragic event as “100% preventable” in a statement, emphasizing that such accidents involving undocumented individuals should not happen. She noted that “one death due to an illegal alien is one too many.”
Biss affirmed that ICE is pushing for Florida officials to transfer Suarez Contreras to federal custody if he is released. She stated, “Thanks to our law enforcement partners at the federal and local levels, the illegal alien responsible for this tragic death will now be brought to justice for his crimes.” She added that the passenger in the car, who was granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) by the Biden administration, has been deported.
The passenger, Luis Sanabria Perez, was also apprehended on May 17 and taken into ICE custody the next day. His immigration history shows he entered the U.S. on September 4, 2019, as a temporary resident but overstayed his authorized stay. He applied for TPS in August 2021, which was subsequently approved in June 2022. However, his TPS was terminated, and he was deported on June 8, 2026.
