Nassau County Sheriff’s deputy Eric Oliver might still be alive if the Obama administration took illegal immigration more seriously.

francisco_obbidio_portillo-fuentesOliver was struck by a vehicle full of illegal aliens that fled from Florida Border Patrol agents on Tuesday, law enforcement officials say.

WOKV reported yesterday:

(Sheriff Bill) Leeper says before 7:30AM, Border Protection agents were checking out several people in a vehicle at a Gate gas station on State Road 200 near Chester Road. Nassau County deputies on scene for a previous call were asked to standby and assist. Leeper says one of the suspects took off on foot, and two deputies pursued.

The suspect crossed SR 200, and we’re told 32-year-old Deputy Eric Oliver was hit and killed while chasing the suspect.

“He was just doing his job, and doing it well,” Leeper says.

Police say 25-year-old Francisco Obbidio Portillo-Fuentes of Guatemala has been arrested for killing Oliver.

“[The suspect] had been deported from the U.S. on two separate occasions and is being held on felony reentry into the U.S. by Border Patrol at this time,” Leep says, according to the news station.

Further:

A statement to the press from Border Patrol afterward noted that three of the people in the truck were in the country illegally and that the other two fled in the truck while the Border Patrol agent went to help Deputy Oliver after he had been struck by the SUV.

The two who fled in the truck were found later on in the day and are now in custody, per Border Patrol.

Portillo-Fuentes was booked into the Baker County Jail and will face a federal judge on Wednesday.

Leeper said he was forced to inform Oliver’s daughter of her father’s death two days before Thanksgiving.

“It’s really tough,” he said.

“I told her that her dad died doing what he loved to do and that was serving the community. He is a hero, and he is looking down on her protecting her, watching over her and then hopefully she will take some gratification from that.”