A Mexican national accused of causing the crash that killed “A Christmas Story” director Bob Clark and his son will face deportation proceedings once the charges against him are resolved, officials said Thursday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement put an immigration hold Wednesday on Hector Velazquez-Nava, a 24-year-old illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles, said agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice.
The action means Velazquez-Nava will be turned over to federal immigration officials and placed in deportation proceedings once his local case is completed. He was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol and gross vehicular manslaughter, and was being held on $100,000 bail in a county jail.
If he posts bail, Velazquez-Nava would be taken into federal custody on the immigration hold, Kice said.
Police say Velazquez-Nava steered his sport utility vehicle into the wrong lane of Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades early Wednesday, striking Clark’s sedan head-on. The filmmaker and his son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, died at the scene.
It was unclear whether Velazquez-Nava had retained an attorney. There was no phone listing under his name.
Clark had a prolific movie and TV directing career, including the 1981 sex farce “Porky’s,” a coming-of-age romp that he followed two years later with “Porky’s II: The Next Day.”
In 1983, he directed, co-produced and co-wrote “A Christmas Story,” an adaptation of Jean Shepherd’s childhood memoir of a boy in the 1940s.