After an illegal alien from El Salvador was charged for Saturday’s fatal hit-and-run that killed three people in North Carolina, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) filed a detainer asking the state’s law enforcement not to release him.
On Sunday, the deadly details of the previous night’s hit-and-run were released by the Salisbury, North Carolina Police Department:
“On Saturday, July 18, 2026, at approximately 10:45 p.m., officers responded to the area of Mooresville Road (N.C. 150) near Town Court following a reported traffic collision. When officers arrived, they found one of the vehicles occupied by three individuals who had sustained critical injuries. Two occupants were pronounced deceased at the scene. A third occupant was airlifted for medical treatment but later died from injuries sustained in the collision.
“With assistance from a Cabarrus County Sheriff's Office K-9 team, officers located the driver, who was transported to Novant Health Rowan Medical Center before being transferred to a Charlotte-area hospital for additional treatment.
“Following the preliminary investigation, the driver of the second vehicle, Javiel Pena Sola (DOB: 05-14 -1984), has been charged with three counts of Felony Hit and Run Involving Serious Injury or Death.”
Sola was arrested by Salisbury police on Tuesday when he was released from the hospital, prompting ICE to file its detainer request, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported in a statement. At the time, Pena Sola's bond was set at $1,000,000.
But, during his first appearance in Rowan County District Court on Wednesday, the court modified his conditions of release to no bond, meaning that he cannot post bail and be released from police custody.
This isn’t Sola’s first run-in with U.S. law enforcement - or even his first hit-and-run. However, after his 2016 conviction, the Obama Administration ordered that he be released from ICE custody, DHS explains:
“This illegal alien was RELEASED into the country by the Obama Administration after law enforcement turned him over to ICE following his conviction for a prior hit-and-run.”
….
“Sola’s criminal history includes prior convictions for reckless endangerment, failure to stop after accident involving damage to attended vehicle, and driving without a license in Maryland in July 2015, and an arrest for escaping from custody. After his arrest in Maryland on the charge of escaping from custody, officials in Baltimore honored an ICE detainer and turned him over to ICE custody in March 2016. He was then RELEASED by the Obama Administration two months later in May.”
“Although ICE had arrested him in 2016, the Obama Administration RELEASED him into American communities. These deaths were 100% preventable. Open borders and sanctuary policies have deadly consequences,” Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in the DHS statement.
ICE’s detainer request will be honored, since the North Carolina Border Protection Act prohibits sanctuary cities and counties and compels law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
The provision supporting federal immigration law enforcement was passed on June 24, 2026 when the state’s lawmakers succeeded in overriding a veto by North Carolina’s Democrat Governor Josh Stein.
