Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday urged for "stricter" penalties for illegal immigrants who hurt Americans, after a recent case where an illegal immigrant was sentenced to two years in prison for killing an American man and his two children in a car crash.
Last year, Margarito Quintero Rosales fell asleep while driving and swerved into the oncoming lane, hitting the husband and two children of Courtney Hacking, according to WFAA-TV. Rosales pleased guilty in Texas state court and was sentence to two years in prison, with the 500 days he'd already spent in jail counted against that.
Hacking blasted the sentence, saying, "being illegal in the country was a crime on its own so I don't understand how he did get only two years."
Paxton told Fox News' "Fox & Friends," "I think our laws in Texas need to be stricter for this.
"We've been dealing with this for years. Dealing with sanctuary cities, trying to prevent people from coming into our country illegally. This is an area I think the legislature needs to address, because I don't think the penalties are strong enough for people who commit these types of crimes."
He added that "we've had over six hundred thousand crimes including twelve hundred homicides. We've had six thousand sexual assaults and here we go again. How many of these stories do we have to have before we address this issue — and I am thankful that the president is making a significant impact here."
Hacking appeared on "Fox & Friends" Saturday, saying she wants "our laws enforced," and that, "the message needs to be put across to them that when you come to this country you need to do it legally because when they come here, all they're getting is . . . they're committing crimes, they're getting a slap on the wrist and they're going back to Mexico or they're going back to whatever country they came from."