pressdemocrat.com
A couple fleeing immigration officials in a rural California farm town died after losing control of their sport utility vehicle and crashing into a power pole, police said.
The deaths on Tuesday happened as advocates for immigrants say U.S. immigration agents are increasingly using unmarked cars to pull over farmworkers in the state's agricultural heartland as part of the Trump Administration's heightened immigration crackdown in California.
Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents put on emergency lights in their car to pull over the couple's SUV, according to a statement from the Delano Police Department.
he SUV raced away when the agents exited their vehicle, and minutes later veered onto a dirt shoulder, overturned and crashed into a power pole, killing the couple, the statement said.
The victims were identified as 35-year-old Santos Garcia and 33-year-old Marcelina Garcia.
The couple, originally from the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, mainly spoke Mixtec, an indigenous language.
"The fact that they could not speak English or Spanish likely added to the fear they felt when they realized it was ICE stopping them," Tellefson said.
She said the couple left behind six children, ages 8 to 18, and a 1-year-old granddaughter.
Tellefson wouldn't say whether the children are in the country illegally or if they plan to stay in California.
Santos Garcia, who had a 2014 DUI conviction, had voluntarily returned to Mexico three times between 2008 and 2017 and was removed once more in 2017, Haley said.
