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A Georgia congressman is calling for a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to his state after a teacher was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant fleeing law enforcement.
“It is truly a tragedy,” Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., told Digital. “This is something that should have never happened.”
A special education teacher at a K-8 school in Savannah, Ga., was killed when Oscar Vasquez Lopez ran a red light while trying to leave the scene of an ICE operation earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
Rep. Buddy Carter is calling for more ICE agents in his home state of Georgia after the killing of a Savannah teacher. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images; John Moore/Getty Images)
DHS said Vasquez Lopez is “a criminal illegal alien from Guatemala who was issued a final order of removal by a federal judge in 2024.”
Carter, who has previously called for more ICE agents in Georgia’s capital, said he believed having more federal agents throughout the Peach State could help prevent such tragedies in the future.
“I’ve already called for more ICE agents to be in Atlanta, and now I’m calling for more ICE agents to be out throughout the state of Georgia,” Carter said. “Listen, this is serious. We need to get rid of the criminal illegal immigrants here in this country. We’ll deal with the others later.”
Carter cited reports that claim there are roughly 500,000 illegal immigrants residing in Georgia.
Guatemalan national Oscar Vasquez Lopez faces homicide charges after allegedly killing a Savannah, Georgia, teacher while fleeing ICE. (Department of Homeland Security)
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“It would be naive of us to think that some of those aren’t criminal illegal immigrants,” he said.
DHS said Vasquez Lopez was charged with vehicular homicide by the Chatham County Police Department after the fatal collision, in which he sustained “minor injuries.”
The department said ICE agents had attempted a traffic stop when Vasquez Lopez “initially complied” but then fled, making an illegal U-turn and running a red light before striking the teacher’s car.
President Donald Trump listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, 2026. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)
Tensions over ICE have reached a fever pitch after President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, which recently concluded after the administration directed a surge of federal officers to the Midwest city to withdraw.
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A U.S. citizen was shot and killed by ICE agents last month while attempting to leave the scene of a demonstration, though she was accused by the federal government of trying to hit one of the agents with her car while fleeing.
Weeks later, a second U.S. citizen was killed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents while recording them during a separate anti-ICE demonstration.
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