Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,
A 28-year-old man died early on July 14 after he ran into the path of a tractor-trailer on State Road 16 in St. Augustine, Florida, moments after running from federal immigration agents at a nearby gas station.
Florida Highway Patrol Master Sgt. Dylan Bryan said the sequence of events started in the parking lot of a convenience store just before 7 a.m.
Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were at the scene when four people ran off.
One of them ran across the road straight into oncoming traffic when he was hit by a semi-truck.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. The truck driver was uninjured.
State troopers are handling the investigation. The man’s name hasn’t been released.
Authorities have not shared much information about the four people who tried to flee on Tuesday morning or exactly why agents contacted them in the first place.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
It was the third death in a week during ICE incidents, following fatal shootings in Texas and Maine.
In Texas, an ICE officer fatally shot an illegal immigrant from Mexico during a targeted enforcement operation in Houston after the man used his vehicle to try to run over an agent.
In Maine, an illegal immigrant with a final order of removal was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Biddeford after he attempted to flee in his vehicle during a traffic stop.
A day later, border czar Tom Homan told Fox News on Tuesday that ICE is temporarily suspending most vehicle stops nationwide.
“It’s not a policy change. It’s a temporary pause,” Homan said.
“ICE leadership along with DHS believes they want to look at these last couple incidents and look: Is there something that could have been done better? Is there any training that can be improved? Or is it simply ICE doing a job, and bad things happen when people don’t comply with law enforcement officers?”
Homan stressed that the pause on most vehicle stops will not reduce the frequency of arrests ICE agents make of illegal immigrants. Officers can still apprehend individuals as they exit their homes before getting into a vehicle, or after they arrive at their destination, the border czar said. He cited a surge in vehicle assaults on federal agents since President Donald Trump returned to the White House as the reason for the change.
“If we can arrest that alien outside that vehicle and take that two-ton weapon away from them, that’s good in some instances,” Homan said. “Other instances, we’re still going to need to do vehicle stops for a significant criminal.”