Two boys riding their bicycles on a sidewalk in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, are dead after a car veered off the road and struck them Sunday afternoon. The driver, Eri Otoniel Roblero-Perez, is an illegal immigrant who showed signs of severe intoxication and could not hold himself upright, prosecutors said at his bond hearing. A judge denied him bond Monday on two counts of felony DUI resulting in death.

Dereon James Robins, 12, was just days away from his 13th birthday. Mikhail-Lee Smith was 9. They were riding bikes along Asheville Highway at Brock Street, about three miles west of Spartanburg, when the 2016 Honda Accord left the roadway and hit them on the sidewalk around 12:20 p.m. Sunday. Both boys later died from their injuries.

The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office confirmed Roblero-Perez is in the United States illegally. A judge noted during Monday's hearing that an immigration detainer has been placed on him. He faces additional charges of driving without a license and open container, and he is being held at the Spartanburg County Detention Facility ahead of a June 18 court date.

A mother watched her son die

Dereon's mother, identified only as Megan, told Fox News Digital that she was walking behind the children when the car swerved toward them.

"I watched him almost hit me, and I then ran to my son while he bled to death."

That is the kind of sentence no parent should ever have to say. Megan was feet away when a man who had no license, no legal right to be in this country, and, prosecutors allege, no sobriety drove off the road and ended her son's life.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol said Roblero-Perez was driving the Accord eastbound when the vehicle left the roadway and struck the two boys. At the scene, prosecutors said he could not complete a field sobriety test. He could not stand on his own. A second passenger in the vehicle fled and, as of the latest reporting, had not been located.

South Carolina senators respond

Both of South Carolina's Republican U.S. senators connected the crash to the consequences of years of lax border enforcement. Sen. Tim Scott issued a statement that left no ambiguity about where he placed responsibility.

"This devastating loss is not an isolated tragedy, it is the direct result of Biden's open border policies, and innocent Americans are paying the price."

Scott also said the families of both boys were in his prayers. "Our hearts are heavy as we lift up the families of the two young boys whose lives were tragically taken in South Carolina," he said. "We are praying for God's comfort to surround them, and for justice to be swiftly and fully served."

The pattern Scott described is not new. Across the country, cases involving illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes, including fatal vehicle incidents, have mounted during and after the Biden administration's tenure. A similar case in North Carolina involved an illegal immigrant released under Biden-era catch-and-release policies who was later charged in a fatal hit-and-run.

Sen. Lindsey Graham struck a similar tone, calling the crash "yet another tragic example of the disastrous immigration policies of the last administration."

"My heart breaks for the two young victims of this horrific crime, and their families."

Graham added: "President Trump is trying to clean up this mess and I intend to keep working with him to do just that." The remark reflects a broader push among Republican lawmakers to draw a direct line between border security failures and preventable tragedies in American communities.

The charges and what comes next

Roblero-Perez now faces two counts of felony DUI resulting in death, among the most serious charges available under South Carolina law for an impaired driving fatality. The driving-without-a-license charge underscores a basic fact: he should not have been behind the wheel at all, by any standard.

Details from Monday's bond hearing were first reported by WYFF News 4. Fox News Digital reached out to the coroner's office, the South Carolina Highway Patrol, and the solicitor's office for additional comment. No blood alcohol measurement or toxicology results have been publicly disclosed so far, nor has the identity of the passenger who fled the scene been released.

Florida's attorney general recently described a separate killing in Fort Myers as "preventable," blaming Biden-era immigration failures for allowing the suspect to remain in the country. The Spartanburg case follows the same grim template: a person who entered or remained in the United States unlawfully, who was never removed, and who allegedly committed a violent act that left Americans dead.

The immigration detainer placed on Roblero-Perez means federal authorities have flagged him for potential removal proceedings, regardless of the outcome of his state criminal case. But for the families of Dereon Robins and Mikhail-Lee Smith, that detainer came too late.

A familiar and preventable grief

Every one of these cases carries the same unbearable weight. Two children were doing what children do, riding bikes on a sidewalk on a Sunday afternoon. They were not in the road. They were not at fault. They were on the sidewalk, and a man who could not stand upright allegedly drove a car into them.

The Trump administration has designated an Angel Family Day to honor Americans killed by illegal immigrants, a recognition that these are not abstract policy debates but real families destroyed by real failures. Dereon's mother, Megan, is now one of those families. She watched her son bleed to death on a sidewalk.

Critics of strict immigration enforcement often frame the debate in terms of compassion. But compassion has to include the 12-year-old who never reached his birthday and the 9-year-old who never made it home. It has to include the mother who ran to her dying child. The question is not whether enforcement is harsh. The question is who pays the price when enforcement fails.

Even some former champions of progressive policy have begun to acknowledge the costs. Bill de Blasio, once the face of New York's sanctuary-city movement, has conceded that Biden's border failures were mistakes. That concession comes too late for two boys in Spartanburg County.

Roblero-Perez sits in a county jail. His next court appearance is June 18. The passenger who fled has not been found. And two families in a small South Carolina community are planning funerals instead of summer.

Borders exist to prevent exactly this. When leaders refuse to enforce them, the bill comes due, and it is always paid by people who had no say in the matter.