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.
Start your day with the news you need from the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our new Morning Report weekday newsletter.
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.”
If I had taken law enforcement on a chase and killed myself, would they be writing articles about how evil the police are?
Just askin
What? Just because they're dead? Surely you jest!!
=:-)
Well this story will be in the news for several weeks. We will be slammed with non stop coverage of how the police and ICE a responsible for the deaths of these two wonderful people who only dreamed of wonderful life in America. Democrat politicians will hold Trump responsible and be callingnfor him to call off all immigration enforcement.
On their way to Pennsylvania?
Wow. It did that all by itself? It's getting so SUVs are almost as dangerous as those self-aware guns we keep reading about...
No. They would be writing articles about what a dumbass you were.
“In a statement, Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Southern California”
I wish Jennie had been in the car with them as these criminal invaders endangered the lives of US citizens during their flight from justice.
That’s funny! It’s even funnier because it could actually be true...
Thanks for posting it.
The ACLU took care of that within a couple of hours of the incident.
That kind of “deportation” will prove most effective against re-entry!
Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.
Thanks for the morning smile.
I never jest. And don’t call me Shirley.
Several years ago, I filled out an application for a Sears credit card. They asked me if I had had my name changed. I hadn’t and I asked them what the heck was going on. A gentleman with a Spanish name had used my SSN to open a Sears credit account as well. I was given a website to a Fed agency, ( I forget which one), where I submitted an online form. Credit agencies said there wasn’t anything...
The feel good story of the day.
It depends on a number of variables:
Are you a woman?
Are you a homosexual?
Muslim?
Black?
Misogynistic, homophoobic, racist, Islamaphobic, cis-gendered, gun owning, Christian, Trump voting, rape cultured, white man?
Were you born a male but like to wear dresses and lingerie from Victoria's Secret? etc., etc.
At least his time they didn’t kill any US citizens... just themselves.
Two words...California jury.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.