Why We Don’t Talk About These Deaths—and Why That Has to Change
Nathaniel “Nate” G. Baker was just 21 years old. A student at the University of South Carolina. Bright. Driven. Full of promise. The kind of kid who should’ve been thinking about internships and graduation—not dying alone on the pavement after being struck by a truck near his campus.
On April 2, 2025, Nate was riding his motorcycle when he was hit in a brutal hit-and-run. The driver fled. Nate didn’t survive.
The suspect, now in custody, is 24-year-old Rosali Fernandez-Cruz—a woman from El Salvador who was in the United States illegally. At the time of the crash, she was already wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Already a fugitive. Already someone who shouldn’t have been here.
Now Nate is gone. And outside of a few outlets and local news stations, barely anyone’s talking about it.
Why?
Because his death is politically inconvenient. Because it forces uncomfortable conversations.
Because it challenges the carefully constructed narratives about immigration that corporate media, activist groups, and even elected officials are desperate to protect.
Let’s be honest—if the roles were reversed, this story would be everywhere. Protest marches. Prime-time outrage. Op-eds stacked sky-high. But when an American kid dies at the hands of someone who wasn’t supposed to be in the country in the first place?
Silence.
No hashtags. No statements. No national conversation. Just another life swept under the rug to keep the immigration narrative tidy.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about hating immigrants. It’s not about race. It’s not about fear. It’s about the truth.
Borders matter. Laws matter. Lives matter (yep, not just the darker ones)
And if we can’t even say his name because it makes some people uncomfortable, then we’ve already lost our moral compass.
Nate Baker deserved better.
Nate Baker’s family deserved better.
And if you believe in justice, in basic human decency, then you have to be willing to say what too many are afraid to say:
He should still be alive.
And he would be—if our system had done its job.
Stop ignoring these stories. Start asking why they keep happening.
Because if we can’t even mourn our own without political permission, then what the hell are we even doing?