An illegal alien the Biden administration released into the country is accused of killing a North Carolina man in a hit-and-run, while a separate illegal alien with a vehicular homicide charge was freed three times by Massachusetts officials who refused to honor ICE detainers — two dead Americans, two systems designed to fail them.

The federal government and local sanctuary officials are both in the business of releasing illegal aliens who go on to kill Americans, and neither wants to answer for it.

In Sylva, North Carolina, 51-year-old James Bagley III was struck and killed around 3 a.m. on August 2 by a speeding driver who fled the scene. Police arrested Mauricio Josue Alberto Sarmiento of Honduras on charges of felony hit-and-run resulting in death, driving with a revoked license, no insurance, speeding, and failure to reduce speed. Sarmiento had crossed the southern border illegally in October 2021 as an Unaccompanied Alien Child. Border Patrol arrested him; the Biden administration released him into the U.S. interior to an unrelated adult sponsor. ICE has now lodged a detainer with Jackson County Jail.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin didn't mince words: "If it weren't for the Biden Administration's disastrous open borders, James Bagley would still be alive."

Meanwhile in Massachusetts, ICE arrested Heriton Da Silva Aredes of Brazil on August 6 in Taunton — a career criminal illegal alien who faces vehicular homicide charges and had been released from local custody three separate times despite ICE detainer requests. The most recent release came from the Bristol County Sheriff's Office on July 25 after Aredes posted bail.

Acting ICE ERO Boston Field Office Director David Wesling laid it bare: "Had any of the prior detainers been honored, lives would have been saved."

Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux has made a media crusade of refusing ICE cooperation, claiming state law — the Lund decision — bars him from holding anyone after they post bail. But Heroux went further, telling the Herald he won't even voluntarily notify ICE when he releases dangerous illegal aliens, and called ICE a "bad law enforcement partner."

Pressed on whether releasing potentially dangerous illegal aliens is worth the risk, Heroux deflected to January 6: "What about the 1,600 'January 6ers' who Trump pardoned? Many of them who went out and did subsequent crimes."

Breitbart framed the North Carolina case squarely around Biden's border releases and the body count they produce. The Herald reported the Massachusetts case in detail but gave Heroux ample space to pivot to J6 — a talking point about pardoned protesters that has nothing to do with a Brazilian national charged with vehicular homicide walking free three times on his watch.

Here is the bipartisan failure: a Republican administration released Sarmiento into the interior, and a Democratic sheriff released Aredes back onto the streets — both times, ICE detainers existed and were ignored. The system has detainers. The system ignores them. Americans die.

The question neither party wants to answer: how many detainers need to be ignored before someone in power is held responsible?