Trump blasts Democrats on immigration after NFL player killed in car crash by suspected illegal immigrant

AP

Edwin Jackson of the Indianapolis Colts in 2016.

• President Donald Trump mourned the loss of Colts' linebacker Edwin Jackson on Tuesday morning by calling on Democrats to get tough on immigration.
• Trump often pushes his immigration agenda in the wake of killings or deaths.

President Donald Trump mourned the loss of Colts' linebacker Edwin Jackson on Tuesday morning by calling on Democrats to get tough on immigration.

"So disgraceful that a person illegally in our country killed @Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson. This is just one of many such preventable tragedies. We must get the Dems to get tough on the Border, and with illegal immigration, FAST!" Trump tweeted.

Jackson died in a crash at 4 a.m. Sunday morning in Indiana, and police told CNN that they believe the culprit was an undocumented illegal immigrant who had been deported twice.

"My prayers and best wishes are with the family of Edwin Jackson, a wonderful young man whose life was so senselessly taken," the president said in a follow-up tweet.

The driver of the truck that fatally hit Jackson and his Uber driver first entered the US in 2004, according to The Arizona Republic. Authorities told the newspaper that Manuel Orrego-Savala, 37, was arrested twice for entering the country illegally, and deported to Guatemaela in 2007 and 2009.

Orrego-Savala had a blood alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit, police told The Indianapolis Star.

Trump has often used tragic crimes and deaths to push his immigration agenda. After an undocumented illegal immigrant was acquitted after killing a 32 year-old woman walking with her family on a San Francisco pier, Trump lashed out at the city's "sanctuary city" status.

Similarly, after terror attacks from immigrants or foreign nationals, Trump has lashed out at "chain migration" or the diversity visa lottery program.

Jackson's roommate Chad Bouchez told CBS News that his friend wouldn't have wanted his death politicized.

"I don't think Edwin would have judged anyone on where they were from or anything else," Bouchez said.

The Colts said in a statement Sunday that the team is "heartbroken" by Jackson's death and that the 26-year-old "was loved by all in the Colts organization," the Associated Press notes.