Undocumented immigrant accused of killing football player has Bay Area ties

President Trump sought to advance his immigration crackdown on Tuesday by singling out an undocumented immigrant with Bay Area ties for allegedly killing an NFL player in a drunken driving wreck.

Manuel Orrego-Savala, 37, of Guatemala, is accused of driving while intoxicated and killing Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and another man in a car crash Sunday in Indiana.

“So disgraceful that a person illegally in our country killed @Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson,” Trump tweeted. “This is just one of many such preventable tragedies. We must get the Dems to get tough on the Border, and with illegal immigration, FAST!”

Studies over the past few decades have not supported Trump’s suggestion that immigrants who are in the country illegally are more likely to commit crimes.

Trump’s tweet — similar to those he wrote about Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old woman killed in 2015 by an undocumented immigrant on a San Francisco pier — made Sunday’s accident national news, but it wasn’t until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a request to ultimately take custody of OrregoSavala that his connection to the Bay Area became known.

Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County’s district attorney, told The Chronicle that OrregoSavala — also known as Alex Cabrera Gonsales — was arrested twice in that county in 2005 on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Over the next year, Wagstaffe said, OrregoSavala was convicted of misdemeanor drug possession and two felony drug possession charges.

“I didn’t know anything about him until I started getting the calls this morning,” Wagstaffe said, adding that OrregoSavala’s case files have been “long destroyed” after the county transitioned to an electronic record-keeping system.

ICE agents arrested Orrego-Savala in San Francisco on Oct. 27, 2006, officials said, leading to his first U.S. deportation. The quick turnaround between Orrego-Savala’s last arrest in San Mateo County and his deportation led Wagstaffe to suspect the two actions may have been connected.

Orrego-Savala had returned to San Francisco by March 26, 2009, when ICE agents arrested him again. He was deported back to Guatemala that spring.

Federal immigration officials declined to comment Tuesday beyond noting in a statement that Orrego-Savala had a 2005 drunken driving conviction in Redwood City and numerous misdemeanor arrests and convictions in California and Indiana.

Josh Koehn is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: josh.koehn@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @josh_koehn