Elon Musk backs deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of DUIs

His comments came following the passing of a bill by the House that would make driving under the influence a deportable offense, legislation that 150 Democrats voted against.

"It is hard to visualize the consequences of bad lawmakers until you see the victims," Musk said in a post on X citing the story of an illegal immigrant, Jose Guadalupe Menjivar-Alas, who had been served four deportation orders and hit with two DUIs before killing a family while once again driving drunk.

"This could have been your family," he added. "It was someone’s family."

HR 6976, also called the Protect Our Communities from DUIs Act, was introduced by Rep. Barry Moore on January 11, and makes it a deportable offense for an illegal immigrant to be convicted of or admitted to driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

"Every 45 minutes -- that is how often someone in the United States dies in a crash with an alcohol-impaired driver," Moore said in a Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill. "In 2021 alone, there were 13,384 impaired driving fatalities and 400,000 injuries. Those crashes don't discriminate. It could me, it could be you, could be one of our family members."

On December 12, 2023, Menjivar-Alas was behind the wheel of a Toyota Tundra when he crashed into a Mazda CX-5 that was driven by 47-year-old Melissa Powell. She, and her 16-year-old son Riordan who was in the back seat, were both killed as a result of the accident.

The El Salvadoran was also injured during the crash, and transported to a nearby hospital. Three days later, however, he was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide from reckless driving, vehicular homicide caused by DUI, and habitual traffic offender.