Posted on 03/15/2018 5:29:24 AM PDT by csvset
DELANO, Calif. — A couple died in a crash Tuesday as they tried to flee from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officers in the Central Valley, police said.
The Delano Police Department identified the couple as 35-year-old Santo Hilario Garcia and 33-year-old Marcelina Garcia Profecto.
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The collision was reported shortly before 7 a.m. on the 3000 block of West Cecil Avenue, near Kern Valley State Prison. Police said the couple pulled over when the officers activated their emergency lights but raced away when the officers exited their vehicle.
Moments later, the couple’s SUV veered onto a dirt shoulder, overturned and hit a power pole, according to police.
Garcia and Profecto were declared dead at the scene.
ICE spokeswoman Lori K. Haley confirmed the police account, adding that deportation officers initially went to the couple’s home because they believed it belonged to a previously removed Mexican citizen. They then saw a man matching his description leave the residence and get in an SUV.
“Officers performed a vehicle stop by activating their emergency equipment and as they attempted to engage the driver, the vehicle drove away at a high rate of speed,” Haley said in an email. “As the officers departed the location of the attempted engagement, they came across the overturned vehicle and immediately called 911 for assistance.”
While Garcia matched the description of the man sought by the officers, he was not the same individual, according to ICE.
Garcia, however, was a citizen of Mexico who was voluntarily returned to Mexico three times between 2008 and 2017, and he was removed under the provisions of expedited removal in 2017, Haley said. His criminal history included a 2014 driving under the influence conviction. Profecto, meanwhile, had no prior encounters with ICE.
In a statement, Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Southern California, said her organization has received reports from Kern County and other Central Valley locations of ICE staking out roads farm workers use to get to work and pulling them over in unmarked vehicles during early morning hours “without any lawful basis.”
The tactic, she added, has resulted in “numerous unlawful arrests
“As in this case, drivers and passengers stop, after being signaled to pull over, believing the officers to be police, but only come to learn after being approached, questioned, and arrested that the officers are actually ICE,” Pasquarella said.
“This incident demonstrates just how dangerous ICE’s unlawful practices are to our communities,” she continued. “This horrible tragedy is a direct result of ICE’s inhumane tactics and the fear it provokes in hardworking people who stand to lose everything if they are deported.”
Yo, VIP, let’s kick it.
Whatever it takes.
L
If he had stayed home in Mexico, he would be alive today. Our laws are not responsible for his death.
I love a happy ending.However,their filthy Third World families have probably now won the lottery...particularly if the case goes before a California jury.
Did they call the ICE agents racists yet?
Hey Lori, if you like parasites so much, move to North Korea and become the perfect host.
good
they were undoubtedly criminals as well as illegals
no mercy, no quarter
Drivin While Illegal is no way to drive.
Too bad there were empty seats in that car.
The only sad thing about this case is that there is even a complaint from an American of any stripe about this. He chose poorly...
Gee, I thought it was due to the repeated offense of illegally entering the United States. In the words of Billy Boy Clinton, "Better put some ICE on that".
Doesn’t sound like it was a police chase. It sounds like they crashed before it became one.
I feel sad for these people, but the law is the law. Maybe if we actually enforced the law this guy would either have never come here or would have stayed in Mexico the first time we sent him back.
Some problems just solve themselves.
But not the SS# they used.
That will live on.
If they hadn’t run. If they were still in Mexico. If, if, if....
Deported from planet Earth.
I love a happy ending.However,their filthy Third World families have probably now won the lottery...particularly if the case goes before a California jury.
They were fully stopped and waited for the officer to exit their vehicles then took off at high speed and lost control.
How is anyone other themselves at fault here?
That’s two fewer Democrat voters.
PR0FECTO!
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