Summary: A mother and father of 6 children were killed in a car crash in an apparent attempt to flee Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who pulled them over after mistaking the father for an arrest target. Santo Hilario Garcia and Marcelina Garcia Profecto were both pronounced dead at the scene after officers arrived. The Delano police department said in a statement that the couple had been stopped by the ICE agents, who turned on their emergency lights to pull them over. However, they fled once the agents exited their vehicle. Police were saying the vehicle was driving at high speeds and eventually lost control, slamming into a power pole. The ICE confirmed that they not only pulled the couple over, but mistook Garcia for a target they planned to arrest.
Analysis: I think the ICE agents were at fault because of their false allegations; however, the parents faced this issue haphazardly. The ICE agents should have payed more close attention to the details of their target. The parents should have faced the agents instead of driving away recklessly, that could have also ended someone else's life. This miscommunication has led to a tragedy, and this problem should be brought to attention by the ICE agents and those affected by this.
Questions:
Who should be blamed for this incident?
Should there be changes in California's sanctuary policies?
6 comments:
I agree that ICE agents are at fault for falsely identifying and targeting Garcia as their target when he shouldn’t have been chased at all. This incident is extremely sad as with six children, Garcia and his wife, as stated in the article, only sought to provide and protect their children, which came to fleeing ICE and unfortunately ended in their death. It tragically shows the desperation and hardship of immigrants living in a country where ICE is increasingly active and deportation, and as a result, their families and stability are on the line. As a result, I do think changes should be made in favor of those who have immigrated to the US.
I agree with you in the view that while the ICE agents should not have targeted the family in the first place, the parents could have been a bit more calm in their reaction. After all, if they had faced the ICE officials, sooner or later the officials would have realized their mistake and everyone would leave this situation harm-free. However, that was not the case, which is unfortunate. I suppose that the panicked reaction of the parents just goes to show how terrifying ICE is to the large number of hardworking, illegal immigrants in the US. ICE has the power to completely destroy the lives of these families which is very frightening. I think that ICE should be a bit more sympathetic to families such as this, and change their practices such that if they are going to catch someone, don't do so while in an unmarked car in the middle of the road without proper evidence.
I disagree with the way this story is being presented by the media as an instance of police brutality. There is no reason the couple should have taken off and sped away from the police since they were not guilty, and their failure to remain calm is what ultimately killed them. People make mistakes, and that includes ICE agents, and it is unfair to extrapolate a relatively routine procedure and transform it into murder guilt. If the couple had remained calm and simply shown the police their drivers licenses they would have been perfectly fine, and there was no reason to go driving into a telephone pole. The claim that they were so afraid of ICE agents that they took off doesn't add up... Legal citizens have nothing to worry about from ICE agents, and they probably weren't living in fear of getting deported if they knew that they were in the States legally. In general, I disagree with a lot of ICE's practices, but stories like these undermine true instances of ICE malpractices in the same way that nobody took the 'Boy Who Cried Wolf' seriously. In order to actually gain support for more fair/humane ICE procedures, people should only protest against true, indisputable instances of mistreatment. While this was truly unfortunate for both the couple and their children, it is not a clear-cut case of wrongdoing
I am in complete agreement with Daniel and disagree with the opinion in the blog post that it is the ICE agents faults for the two peoples deaths. First of all, fleeing from the cops after getting pulled over is a crime so these people are at fault in that sense. Also, reiterating what Daniel said, they didn't have to hit a telephone pole and die that was the fault of them not being able to drive fast and in control. I bet that if this post said "police" instead of "ICE", everyone would say yeah obviously the cops just made a mistake and the people are at fault. But instead by saying ICE, now this event turns into something that some people see as evidence of ICE being bad which makes 0 sense to me.
I agree with the comments above in that it is the couples fault only because their actions lead to death. This is a really sad story, and it could have gone more smoothly if everyone had cooperated. Im confused if the parents were immigrants or not because I'm not sure why they needed to flee from ICE, and I don't think that the post specified if they were or not.
While this was inarguably a tragic accident, I think that Daniel and Matthew present reasonable opinions in that the incident was a result of the parents' behavior. The ICE could've been more careful with attempting to identity people for arrests, but people misidentify others relatively easily. I speculate that the parents sped away as an instinct -- even though they would be legally safe, I think that being targeted by the ICE would be somewhat terrifying to anyone in that position. There are been many accounts of ICE arrests that tear apart families, and I think that's what the parents assumed would happen. However, ultimately, their behavior resulted in an accident that probably wouldn't have occurred if they were able to remain more calm.
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