SANTA ANA, California — A 44-year-old Mexican national, Oscar Eduardo Ortega, of Garden Grove, California, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for illegally reentering the United States after deportation. Ortega’s criminal history includes a vehicular manslaughter conviction for a crash that killed two teenagers in Orange County.
Ortega was sentenced by United States District Judge John W. Holcomb after pleading guilty in October 2025 to being an illegal alien found in the United States following removal. “Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state of California failed the families of the two victims this defendant killed in a DUI accident,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “The federal government under this administration delivered justice where the state would not.”
According to court documents, Ortega was deported in December 2016 and June 2018. In November 2021, he caused a fatal crash on the 405 freeway in Seal Beach while under the influence of alcohol and drugs, driving at speeds of 100 mph. In 2022, he was convicted of two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and sentenced to 10 years in California state prison, serving less than four years…