The federal government will look to deport a man accused of illegally operating a boat that capsized in New York Harbor this month, killing a woman and her infant daughter.
Manuel Ernesto Hernandez-Umana, a native of El Salvador, illegally entered the U.S. through Texas in 2007 after having falsely told a Customs and Border Protection officer that he was a U.S. citizen, the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release Wednesday.
Hernandez, 46, of Manville, New Jersey, was charged with two counts of misconduct and neglect of a ship officer resulting in death after the boat capsized near Liberty Island on Aug. 8. Sara Sanchez, 27, and her 5-month-old daughter, Antonella Garcia, were killed.
“Once he faces justice for his crimes, we will make sure that he is swiftly removed from our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement accompanying the news release.
Hernandez’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday night. Hernandez was released on $50,000 bail following a hearing Aug. 10, at which he was not required to enter a plea, NBC New York reported.
According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Hernandez had not registered the boat he was captaining, did not have the certification to operate it in the harbor with paying customers and did not have infant-sized flotation devices on board.
Prosecutors allege Hernandez was using a friend’s boat to pilot a tour around the harbor near the Statue of Liberty because his needed repairs. Fourteen people were on board, including him — exceeding the vessel’s maximum capacity of 10 people — according to the complaint, which noted that Hernandez did not know the boat’s maximum capacity.
The complaint alleges that Antonella’s parents told Hernandez before boarding that they did not have an infant-sized flotation device for the baby, to which he replied that the boat also did not have one and that instead, one of them would need to wear a flotation device and hold the baby during the tour, which Sanchez did.
About 20 minutes into the tour, Hernandez made a U-turn, which sent the boat into a swell and caused it to capsize, throwing everyone overboard, according to the complaint.
Hernandez and 11 passengers were rescued, but Sanchez and Antonella were unresponsive when they were pulled from the water, and they were pronounced dead upon arrival at a Brooklyn hospital.
“As alleged in the complaint, Manuel Hernandez showed a complete disregard for the safety of his passengers when he piloted an over-capacity boat without a license that capsized in the New York Harbor,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement included in Wednesday’s DHS news release.
Co-workers of Andres Garcia, Antonella’s father and Sanchez’s partner, said he had expressed excitement about going on the tour with his family. They said he worked hard to provide for his family in the U.S., which also includes a 6-year-old child, as well as his family in Colombia.
“This tragedy could have been prevented,” Tisch said, “and now a family is left to grieve the unimaginable loss of a mother and her 5-month-old daughter because of [Hernandez’s] negligence.”
