Jorge Sanchez-Tzanahua admitted that he was in the country illegally. He is accused of causing an accident that resulted in the death of a father of three, Steven Nasholm. Sanchez-Tzanahua’s driver’s license status was revoked due to a prior OWI-related conviction on 02/28/2023.
“A lot of lives were changed in an instant when my brother-in-law was involved in an accident on his way to work, his last-minute decision saved the other driver’s life but unfortunately cost him his,” a GoFundMe page set up to help Nasholm’s heartbroken family says. “That being said my sister and her 3 daughters, 13,10, and 7 are now facing a life-changing experience and I am wanting to help as much as I can to ease what pain I can.”
Each day, from Sept. 25 through the presidential election, we tell you about a non-citizen currently in a Wisconsin jail who is accused of committing a horrific crime. ICE placed immigration detainers on each of them. We are highlighting a range of serious crimes.
Real victims, communities, and taxpayers are paying the price of weak Biden/Harris border policies, which are abetted by politicians like U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Every state is a border state.
FILE #8
The Defendant: Jorge Sanchez-Tzanahua
The Jail: Rusk County, Wisconsin
Country of Origin: Mexico
Date of Offense: 1/30/2024
The Charges: Homicide by Intoxicated Use of a Vehicle While Having a Prior Intoxicant Related Conviction; Knowingly Operate Motor Vehicle While Revoked – Cause Death of Another; Misdemeanor Violating a Court Order Restricting Operating Privilege Ignition Interlock Device.
Past Cases in Wisconsin: OWI conviction on 02/28/2023 in Rice Lake, WI
ICE detainer: According to Breibart.com, ICE agents have placed a detainer on him. He is currently in the Rusk County Jail. Sanchez-Tzanahua “allegedly admitted he is not legally in the United States and that he has been in the U.S. for approximately three years,” DrydenWire reported.
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) told Breitbart News “Day in and day out, we see the tragic consequences of illegal immigration in America, and the Biden administration’s open border policies have only made it worse, ‘How many more Americans have to die before Democrats secure the border?’”
The Details:
The following details are reprinted by WRN courtesy of DrydenWire:
On Tuesday, January 30, 2024, at approximately 3:30 p.m., a Rusk County Sheriff’s Office Deputy was dispatched to a motor vehicle accident on Highway 8 near the intersection of Olesiak Road, in Strickland Township, Rusk County.
Fire personnel were tending to the driver and lone occupant of the semi, identified as Steven Nasholm in a press release from the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office. Nasholm was unresponsive, but breathing, however, his breathing was labored and almost sounded as if he was gargling. Nasholm’s condition appeared to be critical due to his injuries.
A helicopter and an Advanced Life Support ambulance were requested to respond to the crash scene to assist with patient care.
During his initial contact with Sanchez-Tzanahua, the Deputy allegedly observed Sanchez-Tzanahua swaying while standing in place, his eyes were bloodshot and glossy, and his face and eyelids appeared droopy. The Deputy also allegedly detected a strong odor of intoxicants emitting from the area where Sanchez-Tzanahua was standing. The Deputy determined that Sanchez-Tzanahua was likely intoxicated.
The Deputy walked by Sanchez-Tzanahua’s vehicle, a green 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and observed that the driver’s door was missing as a result of the accident. The Deputy also detected a strong odor of intoxicants emitting from Sanchez-Tzanahua’s vehicle and observed both airbags had deployed. The driver’s seat belt was also found to be retracted into position indicating the Defendant was not wearing his seat belt.
The Deputy learned that Sanchez-Tzanahua’s driver’s license status was revoked due to a prior OWI-related conviction on 02/28/2023 in Rice Lake City Municipal Court, that he held a .02 PAC restriction, and was required to operate a vehicle with an ignition interlock device (IID). The criminal complaint filed against Tzanahua states that in March 2023, a notice of his revocation was mailed to him.
While examining the crash scene, the Deputy was able to determine that Sanchez-Tzanahua’s green Jeep Grand Cherokee had been traveling west on Highway 8. The Victim had been operating a 2018 Kenworth semi that had been traveling east on Highway 8.
The Jeep was located approximately 100 yards west of the semi and there was a large debris field between the vehicles indicating the initial point of contact was likely between the two vehicles. The Deputy observed the primary damage to both vehicles was on the front driver quarter panels indicating that one of the vehicles likely crossed the center line into opposing traffic, causing the accident.
The Jeep had sustained a substantial amount of damage to the front of the vehicle primarily near the front driver-side tire. The damage continued down the entire driver-side of the vehicle. There was also minor damage to the rear passenger bumper, likely from striking the guard rail.
The semi’s front driver-side bumper was slightly bent. The front driver-side steer tire was missing and there appeared to be damage to areas of the engine bay behind where the steer tire was. Inside the cab, the Deputy observed the passenger window was broken out and the windshield on the passenger side of the vehicle was smashed.
Further examination of the crash scene, including tire marks on the road, indicated that the semi had been traveling east approaching a slight left curve. The Jeep had been traveling west after completing a slight right curve. The Jeep crossed the center line traveling into the eastbound, opposite lane of travel causing a collision with the semi.
After the collision, the semi continued traveling east for approximately 50 yards before losing control due to the driver-side steer tire being compromised from the accident. This appeared to cause the semi to enter the north ditch and go through an embankment before coming to rest in a driveway coming off Highway 8 to the north. After the collision, the jeep appeared to have somehow struck the guardrail located on the south shoulder of Highway 8 before rolling backward onto the north shoulder of Highway 8 where it came to rest.
Sanchez-Tzanahua was taken into custody for operating while intoxicated. During a search of his vehicle, several beer bottle caps were found spread throughout the vehicle. An empty Corona box was also found.
Sanchez-Tzanahua agreed to take a Preliminary Breath Test and the results of that test indicated a breath alcohol content of 0.176.
Sanchez-Tzanahua was transported to a medical facility for a legal blood draw. During transport, the Deputy learned that Nasholm had passed away while en route to the hospital. The Deputy allegedly heard Sanchez-Tzanahua utter “sorry” and burp from the rear passenger area.
Sanchez-Tzanahua allegedly admitted he is not legally in the United States.
Nasholm’s family has set up a GoFundMe page to support his wife and daughters.
ICE Detainers Plunge Under Biden-Harris
Illegal immigrants committing crimes is not a story that the corporate media and Vice President Kamala Harris want to tell, especially as border crossings have surged.
Under Biden/Harris, the number of U.S Border Patrol “encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico in December 2023” hit “the highest monthly total on record,” according to Pew Research Center.
The Biden administration issued just under 300,000 detainers from 2021 through the first quarter of 2024, a rising number, according to Trac Immigration, a project of Syracuse University. However, “overall 50 percent more ICE detainers were issued during the Trump presidency (FY 2017 – FY 2020),” Trac says.
Detainers “are critical for ICE to be able to identify and ultimately remove criminal aliens who are currently in federal, state or local custody,” ICE says. ICE detainers ask local law enforcement to hold a non-citizen inmate for 48 hours before release into the community so ICE can pick them up.
Inmates with detainers are only the people that ICE discovers and where ICE decides to act. Some jails, such as Dane County’s, don’t honor all ICE detainers and don’t give ICE 48 hours to pick up the inmates before release. At the other end of the spectrum stands a jail like Waukesha County, where the sheriff received federal immigration authority through a program called 287g.
ICE detainers “are often used as one indicator of the intensity of what is called ‘interior enforcement’ in contrast to ‘border enforcement,’ Trac writes.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “has long claimed that detainers, often called ‘immigration holds,’ are an essential tool needed to apprehend and deport individuals not authorized to remain in the U.S.,” the site says. “Detainers are supposed to be targeted at noncitizens who have committed crimes here in the U.S.”
In addition, the U.S. Border Patrol has arrested more than 15,000 criminal non-citizens in 2024 alone, including 27 murderers and 202 people for sexual offenses. But those are just the people they catch.
From 2006 to 2023, ICE placed detainers on more than 14,000 non-citizens living in Wisconsin, Trac says.
The first year of Biden-Harris saw the lowest numbers of ICE detainers issued since at least 2006. The Milwaukee and Dane County Jails had the most ICE detainers issued of any jurisdictions in Wisconsin during the time frame below, according to Trac.
The corporate media tend to focus on studies that show illegal immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than non-citizens or they focus mostly on the other side of the coin – say, illegal immigrants whose labor helps keep dairy farms alive. The citizens who committed crimes had a right to be here; illegal immigrants did not. A tougher border policy might have prevented illegal immigrant crimes from occurring in the first place. The stories are worth telling.
“Although no federal law requires cooperation with ICE, many state and local laws, and sometimes court rulings, regulate compliance with ICE detainers,” The Immigrant Legal Resource Center says. Some states have made compliance mandatory, but Wisconsin is not one of them.
“Legally, the requirement of probable cause means ICE can only issue a detainer against (a) a noncitizen, who (b) is already ‘removable.’ A removable noncitizen is someone who can be put in removal proceedings for possible deportation,” the center says.
“ICE describes a detainer as a request to a ‘law enforcement agency to notify ICE before a removable individual is released from custody and to maintain custody of the noncitizen for a brief period so that ICE can take custody of that person,'” Trac says.
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