Car crashes and rammings take center stage in immigration crackdown
By Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration often looks like a car crash.
Literally.
There have been car crashes between federal agents and suspects trying to flee. There have been alleged “rammings” involving pro-immigrant activists. There have been dramatic traffic stops featuring smashed windows and law enforcement shootings. Even the standoffs outside ICE facilities have focused on tense moments around the arrival or departure of federal vehicles.
These incidents, many captured on video, have provided some of the most dramatic visuals of the immigration crackdown this year.
“They’re the most highly visible, and I think they’re so unusual that it shocks the psyche to see federal agents making administrative warrant arrests and using potential deadly force tactics,” said Thaddeus Johnson, a former law enforcement official in Tennessee and a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank.
The crashes show federal law enforcement’s use of aggressive tactics in busy city streets, such as dangerous “PIT” maneuvers, unmarked cars and masked officers, law enforcement and immigration experts said.
The collisions also reflect the desperate fear of the immigration targets, who in some cases have tried to flee when faced with the potential end of their freedom.
“Often people in their cars get scared and they try to drive away, knowing that stopping and talking to ICE might end up in a severe violation of their constitutional rights and arrest and detention,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director of the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration nonprofit group.
“This kind of interaction on the streets – using traffic stops, people fearful when ICE or federal agents are following them – leads to the kinds of accidents and crashes that we’re starting to see in the news.”
Bill Essayli, acting US attorney for the Central District of California, noted in a post on X on Tuesday that “encouraging resistance to federal agents can lead to deadly consequences.”
“PSA: A vehicle is a deadly weapon,” Essayli said. “Using it against law enforcement justifies their use of deadly force in self-defense. If you wish to challenge law enforcement actions, do so in court, not on the streets.”
CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.
Vehicles used as arrest tactic
Some of these car crashes have been initiated by federal agents and show a willingness to use aggressive and potentially dangerous tactics.
In Chicago on October 14, US Border Patrol agents pursued and crashed into a vehicle as part of an immigration enforcement operation, leading to an angry response from community residents.
The incident unfolded when a white SUV hit the side of a red SUV, sending it backward through the intersection before it crashed into another vehicle, video captured by a nearby resident showed. What appeared to be federal agents can then be seen exiting the white vehicle and chasing two people.
The red SUV was driven by a person in the country illegally who rammed a Border Patrol vehicle before trying to flee the scene, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to CNN. Agents used “an authorized precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver,” which forces a vehicle to spin out and stop, said DHS.
Border Patrol agents eventually arrested the two individuals, according to DHS.
A PIT maneuver is considered a use of deadly force and is justifiable in certain situations, depending on the suspect’s risk to the public, the risk to the officer and the potential collateral damage of a crash, according to Jerry Robinette, a former special agent in charge of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations.
“There are a series of factors that agents have to take into account before they even become involved in a high-risk pursuit,” he said. “When you’re involved in a high-risk pursuit, one of your main responsibilities is the general public, along with yourself and the violator.”
Video of an October 16 crash in Oxnard, California, also shows federal agents performing what appears to be an intentional crash.
Video of the incident shows a dark gray truck driving in circles with an unmarked beige SUV closely following him around. Once the truck begins driving straight, the beige SUV speeds up and slams into the truck’s back-left side. It is not immediately clear what happened before the video starts.
Leo Martinez, the driver of the truck, is a US citizen and an immigration rights volunteer. He told CNN’s Erin Burnett last week he is one of multiple volunteers who have been patrolling neighborhoods in Ventura County to document ICE detentions and was shocked when the SUV he says was driven by federal agents drove into his truck.
Martinez told CNN he was temporarily detained him and then released from custody pending charges.
The Department of Homeland Security responded to the incident in a statement, calling it a “targeted enforcement operation.”
Crashes and traffic stops have led to shootings
Traffic stops and car chases have long been considered some of the most dangerous of law enforcement activities, and indeed some of these crashes have led to injuries and death.
Last month, an ICE officer fatally shot a man who DHS said resisted arrest and dragged the officer during a vehicle stop in a Chicago suburb, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The man, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, was an undocumented immigrant, according to DHS. The officer, who was not immediately identified, was released from the hospital after suffering injuries, an ICE spokesperson said.
In another incident, Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old US citizen, was shot five times by a US Customs and Border Protection agent after her vehicle and a federal law enforcement vehicle collided on October 4 in Chicago.
A federal criminal complaint accuses Martinez of ramming her car into the federal vehicle, and a DHS official referred to her as a “domestic terrorist.” However, her attorney has disputed this, saying unreleased body camera footage shows the federal agent swerved into her vehicle.
Martinez has pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting, resisting, and impeding officers.
In Los Angeles earlier this week, a federal marshal and an undocumented immigrant were injured after an agent’s weapon discharged during an immigration enforcement operation, officials said.
Federal prosecutors allege Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a TikTok influencer, rammed law enforcement vehicles in an attempt to dislodge his car during an immigration arrest. Authorities said Parias is a 44-year-old Mexican national living illegally in the US.
Parias been charged with assault on a federal officer, according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California.
“He’s a very pacifist man. He’s very calm,” his lawyer Carlos Jurado told CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS. “A lot of the police officers here know him. They know that he’s very respectful.”
Investigators believe gunfire erupted after an ICE officer confronted the suspect’s vehicle and smashed a window with their service weapon, a law enforcement source said. While attempting to grab the suspect, authorities believe the agent’s weapon discharged, striking both the suspect and a deputy US marshal. They are both expected to recover, prosecutors said.
Ultimately, the mistrust of immigration enforcement can be dangerous for both suspects and officers, said Johnson, the senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice.
“People are afraid,” he said. “If you’re afraid and you don’t trust the authorities – fight, flight or fear. Those responses to fear can get you killed or get officers hurt.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Cindy Von Quednow, Omar Jimenez, Whitney Wild, Bill Kirkos, Michelle Watson, Zoe Sottile, Priscilla Alvarez, Josh Campbell, Alex Stambaugh, Taylor Romine and Alaa Elassar contributed to this report.
