A nine-month-old boy is dead and his mother and sister are hospitalized after an illegal immigrant from Guatemala allegedly struck them in a New Jersey grocery store parking lot, and the state's Democratic governor has yet to say a word.
Maria Cobon-Guzman, 20, faces a manslaughter charge after she allegedly drove into a mother pushing a baby carriage outside a kosher grocery store in Jackson, New Jersey, on Friday. The nine-month-old boy was pronounced dead at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune. His mother and five-year-old sister were hospitalized in stable condition. Fox News Digital reported that Cobon-Guzman had never held a valid driver's license, in New Jersey or any other state.
A second woman, Ariadna Lazaro-Flores, 22, was also charged. She allegedly let Cobon-Guzman drive her car despite knowing Cobon-Guzman was unlicensed. Lazaro-Flores faces a charge of endangering the welfare of an incompetent person. Both women are being held at Ocean County Jail, and ICE has sought detainers on both.
The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News Digital that Cobon-Guzman entered the United States once during the Biden administration and was "released unvetted into the nation's interior." On July 31, an immigration judge issued an order of removal against her. She was still in the country when she allegedly got behind the wheel on Friday.
Lazaro-Flores's immigration history is worse. DHS said she illegally entered the United States five separate times in October 2023 alone and was removed each time. Her last illegal entry came "at an unknown place and time" during the Biden administration. Five removals, five returns, and she was still here when she allegedly handed her car keys to an unlicensed driver.
A DHS spokesperson placed the blame squarely on the previous administration's border policies:
"An innocent baby would still be alive today had it not been for Joe Biden's disastrous open border and reckless immigration policy that released countless illegal aliens into our country."
The agency also tweeted a demand aimed directly at New Jersey: "New Jersey must honor ICE's detainers on these two criminal illegal aliens to take them out of American communities once and for all."
The case adds to a grim pattern. An illegal immigrant was recently charged in a New York Harbor capsizing that killed a mother and her infant daughter, another preventable tragedy that ended young lives.
The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office told the New York Post that Lazaro-Flores was "allegedly aware CobonGuzman had never possessed a valid driver's license in New Jersey or any other state, but still let her drive." That decision cost a baby his life.
Three people were loaded into ambulances that Friday, a mother and her two children. One of those children never came home. The mother and five-year-old girl remain hospitalized in stable condition at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.
In a separate incident, a Haitian illegal immigrant truck driver allegedly killed a Pennsylvania state trooper after ignoring a federal order to leave the country. The common thread in these cases is hard to miss: individuals who had no legal right to be here, and who remained because the system failed to remove them permanently.
As of Tuesday morning, Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill had not commented publicly on the crash. Fox News Digital reached her office for comment. Her spokesman directed the outlet to New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, who also did not respond.
Sherrill's social media accounts were not inactive during that stretch. Fox News Digital noted that she posted about other subjects, including a critique of President Trump's approach to Iran. A nine-month-old boy was dead in her state, ICE was demanding cooperation, and the governor was talking about foreign policy.
Social media users noticed the gap. One replied to Sherrill's posts: "How about sticking to doing something about the highest property taxes in the US [or] stopping illegals from killing and maiming us?" Another user simply wrote: "Any comment yet? Hello?"
The silence is not random. It reflects a political bind. Sherrill signed legislation codifying New Jersey's Immigrant Trust Directive, a policy originally drafted by former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. That directive limits the voluntary assistance New Jersey law enforcement may provide to DHS, making it harder for ICE to take custody of illegal immigrants held in local jails.
DHS is now demanding that Ocean County Jail honor ICE's detainers on Cobon-Guzman and Lazaro-Flores. Whether the jail complies may depend on how far the Trust Directive reaches, and whether the governor's office chooses to intervene or stay quiet.
The New Jersey Republican Party issued a statement that drew a direct line from the crash to the governor's sanctuary policies:
"An innocent baby is dead. A mother and another child were seriously injured. Now, ICE is seeking custody of the two women charged in connection with the crash."
The statement continued with a pointed demand aimed at Sherrill:
"This should not be complicated: New Jersey must comply with ICE detainers. Governor Sherrill has a responsibility to put the safety of New Jersey families ahead of sanctuary policies. When federal immigration authorities seek custody of individuals charged with serious crimes, the state should cooperate, not stand in the way."
Ocean County, where the crash occurred and where both women are jailed, leans Republican in an otherwise blue state. But the Trust Directive is a statewide policy. Local willingness to cooperate with ICE may not be enough if state law ties their hands.
The political stakes extend beyond New Jersey. Across the country, cases involving illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes have put sanctuary jurisdictions under pressure. A Salvadoran illegal immigrant was charged with murder after a Virginia mother was found stabbed near a trail outside Washington, D.C. In California, a judge freed an illegal immigrant on pretrial release one day before he allegedly stabbed a 68-year-old man to death. Each case raises the same question: how many preventable tragedies will it take before state leaders stop shielding illegal immigrants from federal enforcement?
Lazaro-Flores crossed the border illegally five times in a single month and was removed each time. She came back again. Cobon-Guzman had an active removal order when she allegedly got behind the wheel of a car she was not licensed to drive. Both women were in the country because the enforcement system failed at every stage, at the border, in immigration court, and in the communities where they settled.
The family that walked into a grocery store parking lot on Friday had no say in any of those failures. A mother was pushing her children in a carriage. Now her nine-month-old son is gone, her five-year-old daughter is in a hospital bed, and she is recovering from her own injuries.
DHS says the baby would still be alive if the border had been secured. The New Jersey GOP says the governor should cooperate with ICE. Sherrill has said nothing. Davenport has said nothing. The Trust Directive remains in place.
When a policy's consequences include a dead infant, silence is not neutrality. It is a choice.
