Investigate car crash of couple who died while fleeing ICE agents

On the morning of March 13, Santos Hilario Garcia and Marcelina Garcia Porfecto, husband and wife farm workers, died in a car crash while fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Dear MoveOn member,

A tragedy recently unfolded in the small farm-worker town of Delano, California.

On the morning of March 13, Santos Hilario Garcia and Marcelina Garcia Porfecto, husband and wife farm workers, died under suspicious circumstances while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were in pursuit.¹ Their six children, now without parents, are casualties of the Trump administration's targeting of hardworking immigrant farm workers who sacrifice to feed all of us.

Sign the petition requesting that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra launch an investigation into the crash.

I'm standing with the Garcia family's request for an investigation of the death of Santos Hilario Garcia and Marcelina Garcia Porfecto, who died in a car crash while fleeing ICE agents. 

It is deeply distressing that ICE agents' statements are contradicted by surveillance video footage from the Delano police. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, please launch an investigation so that this farm worker family can receive justice. Thank you.

The Delano police report states that the family's SUV was traveling at a high speed while desperately trying to evade ICE agents. The family lost control, hit a utility pole, and their vehicle overturned onto its roof.

However, the ICE agents claim that they were not following behind the farm-worker couple with their emergency lights on. It is deeply distressing that ICE agents' statements are contradicted by a surveillance video showing two ICE SUVs traveling behind the couple's vehicle with emergency lights activated.²

Why did the two ICE agents choose to misrepresent whether they were following the couple with their emergency lights on? And why did ICE agents follow the couple if they were not ICE targets? Despite the report, the Kern County district attorney refused to file charges against ICE. We need to take it to the next level and ask California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to launch an investigation. Please sign the petition today! We will turn the petition in later this month.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Jocelyn Sherman, United Farm Workers

Sources:

1. "Family and community mourn couple killed in Kern County crash while fleeing ICE," Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2018
http://act.moveon.org/go/39093?t=17&akid=206180%2E10220574%2EUIR3fY

2. "Police report sheds light on fatal crash involving immigrant couple and ICE," Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2018
http://act.moveon.org/go/39118?t=19&akid=206180%2E10220574%2EUIR3fY

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