A couple fleeing ICE agents were killed in a crash in California, sparking anger in the central valley farm workers community.
Authorities said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped a sports utility vehicle they thought contained a suspected illegal immigrant on Tuesday morning near Delano but it sped away, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed when it drifted onto a dirt shoulder and the driver lost control, the Delano Police Department said on Facebook. The SUV slammed into a utility pole and overturned.
Santos Hilario Garcia, 35, and Marcelina Garcia Profecto, 33, were declared dead at the scene, the Times said. Garcia, who voluntarily returned to Mexico three times from 2008 to 2017, had been convicted in 2014 for driving under the influence. Profecto had no prior contact with ICE.
ICE told the Times that Garcia was not the person the agency was looking for, but he matched the suspect's description.
The United Farm Workers of America said the couple lived in the country illegally since 2003 and left behind six children, ranging in age from 8 to 18.
"When they learned they were ice agents, because of their legal status, they became very scared and as a result they took off and eventually had a crash here on Cecil Avenue," said Arturo Rodriguez, UFW president, per KGET-TV, adding that the couple was looking for work when ICE agents spotted them.
"As far as we know right now, Santos and Marcelina were law abiding folks. They just came here to work. They had not committed any crimes any major crimes other than the fact that they came here because they could not gain legal status in any other particular way. Who knows if this accident could've been prevented if these ice agents weren't so aggressive with this family," Rodriguez said.
The Times said at least 26 Kern County farm workers have been detained earlier this month by law enforcement as part of a mass sweep across Central and Northern California. Some 232 people were arrested in the statewide operation targeting "individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security," according to a statement from ICE, per the Times.
The accident came just days after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a federal lawsuit against California and attacked its elected officials for sanctuary city laws in the state that reportedly limit local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents, CNN reported.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said the crash was an example of ICE "inhumane tactics" in arresting illegal immigrants.
"In recent weeks, we have received numerous reports from Kern County and other parts of the Central Valley of ICE staking out the roads farmworkers travel to get to work and pulling them over during early morning hours without any lawful basis, resulting in numerous unlawful arrests of residents," said Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants' rights at the ACLU of Southern California.
"This incident demonstrates just how dangerous ICE's unlawful practices are to our communities. This horrible tragedy is the direct result of ICE's inhumane tactics and the fear it provokes in hardworking people who stand to lose everything if they are deported."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.