MIAMI - Hilda Esperanza Lopez-Hernandez was driving a bright red Ford Mustang when she collided with a vehicle operated by 63-year-old Florida resident David Hayes in 2021. The fatal hit-and-run should never have happened; Lopez-Hernandez had no driver's license, and she wasn't supposed to be in this country. She was ordered deported in 2018 during an immigration hearing she failed to attend.

Lopez-Hernandez left the scene of the fatal Okaloosa County accident, pulled into a nearby restaurant, called her boyfriend, and swapped vehicles with him to cover up her crime. Neither she nor her boyfriend bothered to call police to report the accident. The victim was discovered and pronounced dead at the scene.

Lopez-Hernandez was convicted in Okaloosa County of hit-and-run, operating a motor vehicle without a license and hiding evidence Jan. 9, 2023, and sentenced to four years in prison.

ICE Miami arrested her upon her release from jail pursuant to an honored immigration detainer and deported her April 12.

"Hilda Esperanza Lopez-Hernandez entered the country as a teenager, but she was an adult when she fled the scene of an accident without bothering to check on the other driver," said ICE Director Todd M. Lyons. "Not only did she choose to remain in the U.S. illegally, drive without a license and leave the scene of an accident - she was prepared to let her boyfriend take the blame."

Lopez-Hernandez entered the country in 2014 with her mother and another child. They were apprehended by Border Patrol on their way to Fort Walton Beach to live with a family member and released under the Obama administration with a notice to appear in immigration court. Almost four years later, on May 10, 2018, she failed to show up for her immigration hearing. The judge ordered her removed in absentia.

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