A 23-year-old Ohio teacher who had just proposed to his college sweetheart is dead after a previously deported illegal immigrant allegedly drove drunk, flipped his SUV, and struck the couple's car head-on.
Cameron Lyon and his fiancée, 22-year-old Abrielle Kerns, were driving home from a family reunion on September 6 when a GMC Terrain driven by 33-year-old Alvaro Uribe-Gonzalez veered off the highway, overcorrected, overturned into the opposite lane, and struck Lyon's Chevrolet. Lyon was treated at the scene, transported to a local hospital, and later died. Kerns was rushed to intensive care with serious injuries.
Uribe-Gonzalez now faces charges of aggravated vehicular homicide, driving under the influence of alcohol, and operating a motor vehicle without a valid license. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed he is in the country illegally, and that this is not the first time the federal government has dealt with him.
DHS laid out Uribe-Gonzalez's immigration history in a press release. He illegally entered the United States through Texas in January 2020. Border Patrol arrested him. A federal immigration judge issued a final order of removal on January 11 of that year. He was deported on April 14, 2020.
And then, at some unknown date and through some unknown point of entry, he came back. DHS confirmed that Uribe-Gonzalez re-entered the country illegally but provided no details on when or how. He was a Mexican national living in the United States without legal status, without a valid driver's license, and, according to the charges, behind the wheel while drunk on an Ohio highway.
ICE has lodged a detainer with Fairfield County Jail, requesting that Ohio officials not release Uribe-Gonzalez before federal agents can take custody.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem issued a blunt statement:
"Cameron had his whole life ahead of him, and that life was stolen by this criminal who never should have been in our country in the first place. ICE has lodged a detainer asking officials in Ohio to cooperate with us and not release him from jail, so that we can remove him from this country. Deporting illegal aliens is our duty because it saves lives."
Cameron Lyon had just started a teaching job at Crestline Exempted Village School District, where he taught fifth and sixth graders. The school district released a statement saying their "hearts are broken."
He proposed to Kerns during a trip to Rhode Island just weeks before the crash. In July, Kerns shared engagement photos on Facebook with a post that captured the couple's plans:
"On vacation, I said 'yes' to the love of my life, Cameron Lyon. I still can't believe I get to marry my best friend, the one who makes me laugh, supports my dreams, and makes every day brighter. This trip became one we'll cherish forever, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life making memories with you. Here's to forever with my favorite person."
None of that will happen now.
Kerns survived but faces what her family described as a long road ahead. She was moved from the ICU to a rehabilitation facility. A fundraiser set up on her behalf noted that "her world has been turned upside down, and the physical and emotional hardships ahead will be enormous."
Cameron's mother, Andrea Lyon, gave an interview to the Daily Mail in which she revealed a detail that makes the crash even harder to absorb. Police were already searching for Uribe-Gonzalez before he hit her son's car.
Andrea Lyon told the outlet:
"There had been reports of a reckless op, and the state highway patrol was out looking for this guy. But they didn't catch him in time. And he slammed into my son's car."
She described her son as someone who could pull anyone out of a bad mood. "He was very witty. He loved his family. He'd just gotten engaged in June to his college sweetheart," she said.
On the question of justice, Andrea Lyon did not hold back:
"Nothing is gonna bring our son back. I wanna see justice for my son and for Abrielle. I don't know what that looks like. I hope whatever it is, it's the maximum sentence."
She also called for stiffer drunk-driving laws. "Everybody needs to know drunk driving is a problem," she said. "And the punishment does not fit the crime when you take a life."
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan posted about the crash on X: "An illegal alien was driving in Ohio and crashed into Cameron Lyon. Now, a 23-year-old teacher is dead because of a criminal who never should have been in the country."
Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno was sharper. "My constituents are being killed because DC Dems chose feckless open border policies over Americans," he wrote on X. "Deport every single illegal alien. Now."
Moreno had already been raising the alarm. On September 1, five days before the Lyon crash, he sent a letter to Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont over a separate case. Austin Karr Grimes, a 29-year-old Ohio resident, was killed in a car crash believed to have been caused by an illegal immigrant named Washington G Naula-Ochoa. Local authorities said Naula-Ochoa was in the country illegally but had obtained a driver's license through Connecticut's "drive-only" initiative, which permits illegal immigrants to get licenses.
Moreno's letter to Lamont was direct:
"Horrifyingly, Connecticut not only permits illegal aliens to receive a driver's license, but it encourages it, all while Americans pay the ultimate price. Quite simply, your policies are killing my constituents."
Naula-Ochoa has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, also weighed in. He called the crash "an unconscionable tragedy because it was preventable."
The Lyon and Grimes cases share a grim set of facts. Both victims were young Ohioans. Both were struck by drivers who, according to authorities, had no legal right to be in the United States. In the Lyon case, the suspect had already been caught, ordered removed, and physically deported, and still managed to return.
The system caught Uribe-Gonzalez once. Border Patrol arrested him. A judge ordered him out. The government put him on a plane. He came back anyway, and a 23-year-old teacher who had just started his career and just asked the woman he loved to marry him paid the price.
Andrea Lyon said she refuses to let the man who killed her son consume her. "I'm focused on my son, remembering him, the wonderful person he was, and taking care of Abrielle," she said. "Cameron touched so many lives."
A border that cannot keep out a man it already deported is not a border. It is a suggestion, and Americans are paying for it with their lives.
