Blue state lawmaker demands 'accountability' after illegal immigrant's planned early release exposed

California state Sen. Tony Strickland believes policy reforms are warranted after federal authorities intervened in the planned early release of an illegal immigrant convicted in a 2021 DUI manslaughter that killed two Orange County teenagers in his district in Seal Beach.

The Republican told Fox News Digital that changes are needed to programs like the in-prison credit system that may have allowed Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano to be released back into the community in July if the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not quickly get involved.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said last week that California will "coordinate" with ICE to "transfer him before release," as he is slated to only spend three and half years of his 10-year sentence behind bars at the state level.

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Mugshot of manslaughter convict Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

"We need to reform these programs. We need to reform some of this. Again, I think the most essential role of government is public safety, and we need to bring accountability back into our system here in California. If you make a mistake, you can commit a crime. You should do the time. And again, we are not more safe by these programs, we're less safe," Strickland told Fox News Digital in an interview.

The senator said the plan for early release was "a slap in the face of the parents and everybody who loved those children who ended up passing away."

Ortega-Anguiano, 43, was driving drunk and high, and speeding at nearly 100mph on the 405 freeway in Orange County in November 2021, when he crashed into a car being driven by a young couple, 19-year-olds Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin, killing them both as they burned alive. In spring 2022, he was convicted of two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

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New sections of the steel bollard-style border wall, comprising primary and secondary barriers, stands along the U.S.-Mexico border between San Diego and Tijuana during a tour with U.S. Customs and Border Protection on May 10, 2021 in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego County, California. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Fox News reported that the victim's families were informed on Easter Sunday about an early release. However, following the report, the DOJ said they would be prosecuting Ortega-Anguiano on federal charges to keep him behind bars longer.  

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"For safety and security reasons CDCR cannot provide information on an incarcerated person's release date or location in advance of their release. Incarcerated persons may earn credits for participating in rehabilitative programming, which may move their parole dates to an earlier date," the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation stated last week.

ICE told Fox News Digital that Ortega-Anguiano had entered the country illegally twice before and had a prior criminal background before the two teens were killed in the fatal crash.

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Anya Varfolomeeva and Nicholay Osokin were killed in an Orange County, California, car crash in 2021. (Courtesy of the Varfolomeev and Osokin families)

"I was moved by the story and the fact this should never happen," Strickland said.

However, he said Democrats in Sacramento are mum about early release concerns.

"I haven't heard anything. The supermajority is tone-deaf, and the governor, Newsom, is so busy about running for president, he's not doing his job as governor of California. He's so interested in what's going on in the Trump administration," the senator said.

Strickland said Golden State residents are becoming more aware of problems in Sacramento – and the Orange County lawmaker said that awareness is cause for optimism.

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"The good news is people are now waking up to the lack of leadership and they're waiting to hear leaders to come forward to help turn the state around. I do believe California will be golden again, but it takes leadership and people like myself and others in the legislature to point this out," Strickland said.