An illegal immigrant with multiple drunken driving charges had to kill a 7-year-old boy to finally push law enforcement officials in a North Carolina county to notify immigration authorities.

Hipolito Zamora Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, had already been charged with drunken driving four times when he ran over and killed the boy last week in Johnston County. The boy, Marcus Lassiter, was crossing a street near his grandmother’s house when the drunk illegal alien slammed into him while speeding in a stolen car.

Hernandez should have long ago been deported but local law enforcement agencies rarely contact federal immigration authorities when people suspected of being in the country illegally are arrested, even when they are multiple offenders or violent gang bangers. In this tragic case the popular don’t-ask-don’t-tell immigration policy, practiced by police department’s nationwide, literally allowed a delinquent with a documented history of driving intoxicated murder a young boy.

Hernandez faces second-degree murder and felony hit-and run charges because he fled the scene of the accident on foot. This time federal immigration officials were notified by the Johnston County Sheriff’s Department and a hold was placed on Hernandez which means he will get deported after serving his sentence.

This horrible case marks the third time in just a few months that an illegal immigrant with previous criminal charges murders or critically injures an innocent citizen in North Carolina. In two separate road incidents, drunken illegal aliens killed a man and severely debilitated a woman.

Nearly 300 illegal immigrants were convicted of driving while impaired charges in North Carolina last year alone, motivating state lawmakers to pass a new law that forces local law enforcement agencies to cross reference suspects’ information with immigration records. This could have saved the life of a little boy.