A site visitors cease exterior of Baltimore Wednesday ended with an undocumented man shot and one other injured after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents allege the driving force of a van drove instantly at officers, prompting them to open fireplace.
It is the second incident publicized this week the place ICE agents shot at an undocumented individual throughout an operation after the individual allegedly attempted to harm agents, though that individual wasn’t hit by gunfire.
In Wednesday’s incident, the driving force of the van was shot and one other undocumented migrant in the van was injured, however each are in steady situation and are anticipated to recuperate, the Department of Homeland Security stated.
After a yr of violent encounters between DHS and the general public, the confrontation supplies one other instance of how automobile crashes and rammings are taking middle stage in encounters with federal agents as immigration enforcement has ramped up throughout the nation.
ICE officers have been in Glen Burnie, Maryland, Wednesday conducting “a targeted immigration enforcement operation” when they attempted to cease the 2 males, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated in an announcement.
The undocumented migrants have been recognized as Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a Portuguese man who was driving the van, and Solomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, a man from El Salvador who was a passenger, McLaughlin stated.
Officers approached the van and requested Sousa-Martins to flip off the engine, however he refused and attempted to depart the scene, she stated. He began ramming ICE autos and “then drove his van directly at ICE officers” as “it appeared he was trying to run them over,” McLaughlin stated.
“Fearing for their lives and public safety, (officers) defensively fired their service weapons, striking the driver,” she stated. Sousa-Martins then wrecked his automobile between two buildings, McLaughlin stated, though images shared by the agency on X present a white van crashed right into a tree. NCS has reached out to DHS for clarification.
In the method of the crash, Serrano-Esquivel was additionally injured, she stated.
Officers instantly gave medical care to the 2 males and took them to the hospital, McLaughlin stated, including no ICE agents have been injured.
Sousa-Martins got here to the US from Portugal in December 2008, however didn’t depart the nation when his visa expired in February 2009, DHS stated. The company didn’t present further info on Serrano-Esquivel’s immigration historical past.
It just isn’t instantly clear if the 2 males obtained authorized illustration.
NCS has reached out to native regulation enforcement in the realm to see if they responded to the incident.
As pictures of dramatic immigration operations have risen throughout the nation during the last yr, incidents involving automobiles has become a common occurrence.
“Aggressors are now purposefully running into officers, boxing in law enforcement vehicles, running ICE law enforcement off the roads, and ramming their cars into law enforcement vehicles,” Emily Covington, ICE Assistant Director of Public Affairs, told NCS in October.
But the company has been criticized for utilizing the tactic itself, together with controversial “precision immobilization technique” or “PIT” maneuvers, which drive a automobile to spin out and cease. Experts have informed NCS the maneuver is taken into account a use of lethal drive.
In October, Marimar Martinez was shot by a Customs and Border Patrol agent after the company alleged she purposefully rammed into an agent’s automobile. US District Judge Georgia Alexakis, who presided over the case, in the end dropped the fees after repeatedly elevating considerations on how the investigation was dealt with and discrepancies that appeared.
Other incidents in Chicago, together with a man that was fatally shot throughout a site visitors cease, have infuriated the group and prompted widespread condemnation as agents beneath the DHS umbrella have been accused of lying in court and presenting completely different eventualities in public statements versus court documents.