The federal government said Wednesday it will seek to deport Manuel Ernesto Hernandez-Umana after a New York Harbor boat capsized and killed Sara Sanchez and her 5-month-old daughter, Antonella Garcia. The move adds an immigration fight to a criminal case already built around a fatal crash near Liberty Island.
Hernandez, 46, of Manville, New Jersey, was charged with two counts of misconduct and neglect of a ship officer resulting in death after the Aug. 8 capsizing. Prosecutors say he was released on $50,000 bail two days later and was not required to enter a plea at that hearing, leaving him free while both cases move forward.
The deportation effort matters now because the Department of Homeland Security says Hernandez is a native of El Salvador who entered the United States through Texas in 2007 after falsely telling a Customs and Border Protection officer that he was a U.S. citizen. Federal officials are not just treating him as a defendant in a boating death case; they are treating him as someone they want out of the country once the criminal matter is handled.
The criminal complaint describes a tour that should never have left the dock. Hernandez had not registered the boat, did not have certification to operate it in the harbor with paying customers and had no infant-sized flotation devices on board. Fourteen people were aboard a vessel with a maximum capacity of 10, and prosecutors say he was using a friend’s boat because his needed repairs. Before boarding, Sara Sanchez and Antonella Garcia’s parents said they did not have an infant-sized flotation device for the baby. Hernandez replied that the boat also did not have one and that one of them would need to wear a flotation device and hold the child during the tour.
About 20 minutes into the ride, Hernandez made a U-turn that sent the boat into a swell and caused it to capsize. Hernandez and 11 passengers were rescued. Sanchez and Antonella were pulled from the water unresponsive and later pronounced dead at a Brooklyn hospital. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Hernandez showed a complete disregard for passenger safety, and the facts laid out in the complaint point to a crash that was not just tragic but avoidable.
That leaves the hardest question still in front of the case: whether Hernandez will remain in the United States long enough to face both the criminal charges and the deportation effort. For now, the government is trying to do both, while Sanchez’s family mourns a mother and infant lost in a capsize that should not have happened.
