Vicente Torres-Vasquez spent nine days as a free man after walking out of an Illinois prison on parole. The man convicted in a 2011 drunk-driving crash that killed a Marine Corps veteran in Wauconda was picked up by federal immigration agents in the Chicago area on November 11, held as authorities move forward with deportation proceedings against him.
Torres-Vasquez, a Mexican national living in the country illegally, drove while intoxicated on July 24, 2011, and crashed his SUV into a motorcycle ridden by 55-year-old Gregory Errol Homola in Wauconda, according to reporting from Tampa Free Press. Homola, a former Marine and father of five, was killed, and two women riding in another car were injured in the wreck, per the Lake County Gazette, which reported that Torres-Vasquez's blood alcohol level was 0.288 at the time of the crash. He was later convicted of aggravated DUI causing death and two counts of aggravated DUI causing great bodily injury.
The length of his sentence is disputed in the available reporting. Rockford News First reports he was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, while the Lake County Gazette reports he was sentenced to 18 years and served 13. Authorities said Torres-Vasquez had three prior DUI convictions and had been arrested four times for driving under the influence before the fatal crash, according to Rockford News First. He served his time at Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton before being transferred to Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill on March 3.
A Decade-Old Deportation Order and a Border History
Torres-Vasquez's immigration history stretches back years before the crash. He crossed the U.S. border illegally through Arizona twice in March 2004, accepting voluntary departure both times before reentering the country at an unknown location, according to the seed reporting. An immigration judge issued him a final order of removal in November 2010 — about eight months before he got behind the wheel drunk in Wauconda.
ICE lodged an immigration detainer for Torres-Vasquez on January 16, 2017, and filed a second detainer ahead of his parole this year. But Stateville authorities declined to honor that second detainer, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which said Stateville refused to honor the detainer and released Torres-Vasquez on parole on November 2 without notifying federal agents. ICE detainer forms ask custodial agencies to notify DHS as early as practicable, at least 48 hours before an inmate's release if possible, according to the agency's own detainer documentation.
Homeland Security Secretary Blasts Illinois Leaders
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin criticized Illinois leaders, including Governor J.B. Pritzker, over the state's refusal to coordinate with federal immigration enforcement. Mullin said Torres-Vasquez would be deported from the United States, and the convicted killer remains in ICE custody while federal authorities proceed with removal.
DHS pointed to other cases it says illustrate the same pattern of local noncooperation, including ICE agents arresting a Jordanian national in Mokena two days after Will County officials released him despite a detainer; that man was taken into custody for possessing eight molotov cocktails. The agency also cited the arrest of a Mexican national in Lake County after local officials released him following charges that he hid the body of 37-year-old Megan Bos. DHS said ICE has lodged detainers or made arrests in other violent cases across the state.
Those cases, per DHS, include a Venezuelan national accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Kane County, a former Venezuelan teacher arrested in connection with a Chicago house-party shooting that killed three people in December 2024, and a Venezuelan man charged in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Loyola student Sheridan Gorman. The agency's list also names a Nicaraguan man arrested for sexual assault in Chicago, a Venezuelan man accused of killing another man in Cook County and burying the body in concrete, and a Montenegrin national arrested while working as a sworn Hanover Park police officer.
DHS has also tied its enforcement push to the case of 20-year-old Katie Abraham, killed in a drunk-driving crash in Urbana involving a Guatemalan national. That January 2025 crash prompted the launch of Operation Midway Blitz, the federal immigration enforcement effort the agency has referenced in connection with the Torres-Vasquez arrest.
