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.”
2 killed in crash while fleeing from ICE agents
A video of the crash scene at the source.. A UFW spokeswoman said, “ They left behind 6 children.”
They also left the scene in an attempt to evade law enforcement, they chose poorly.
You missed my point. It will never get to a jury, there is no case here.
I am sorry for the children, but am thankful that they did not take out any citizens in their flight from the ICE agents
Two words...California court.
The couple had been living in the U.S. illegally since 2003, according to UFW.
6 children. This is normal.
We're losing.
Cost effective self deportation to the universe without borders. Just hope the illegal’s SUV that hit the power pole didn’t knock out power to a neighborhood.
You are thinking logically...
They don’t do that in CA court rooms.
great...
6 anchor babies that will likely hate america their whole life while cashing welfare checks.
What ever works to get rid of them.
AMF.
Tough. The criminals are no longer here. Whatever it takes.
ay least no one was harmed but the invaders. Good job ICE!
I am surprised it took THAT long.
Remember in the 1990s Rush had ‘In a Yugo’ when libs talked about SUVs killing drivers? I guess SUVs are killing drivers again...
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