Year following infamous immigrant DUI crash prompts change from lawmakers, Hispanic community, victims’ family
By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
June 08, 2007

Neither Heather Steffek nor Nashville’s entire Hispanic community was ready for life to change the way it did a year ago today.

Nevertheless, soon after a car wreck on Old Hickory Boulevard claimed the life of Steffek’s parents on June 8 of last year, it became clear that the accident was going to transform a young mother into a political crusader, take the Hispanic community by unexpected storm and completely alter the face of Nashville’s immigration policy.

Before the initial grief even subsided, Steffek became the voice for changing the way Nashville dealt with illegal immigrants found here. Even though the immediate cause of the crash that killed her parents was drunken driving, she and the rest of her family blamed their loss on the fact that the drunken driver was an illegal immigrant who filtered through both the justice and the immigration system for years.

Steffek soon hit the campaign trail on behalf of Republican Jim Bryson, who was trying to unseat Gov. Phil Bredesen, who he believed lacked a tough enough immigration policy.

And it was an entirely new role for her.

“Before I couldn’t have told you the difference between the Republican and Democratic party,â€