Recent crashes raise questions about chase rules for immigration agents : NPR

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A Guatemalan man faces vehicular homicide charges after immigration officials said he was walking away from them last week in Georgia. They say he crashed into a car, killing a special education teacher who was on her way to school. This is part of a series of accidents linked to immigration controls. And as NPR’s Martin Kaste reports, it raises questions about federal agents’ aggressive driving tactics.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: The fatality happened in Georgia, but most of the recent accidents have happened – not surprisingly – in Minnesota. Brandon Reader remembers sitting in his car in St. Paul on Feb. 11 and seeing a red Prius speed through a stop sign at more than 80 miles per hour, hitting a gray sedan.

BRANDON READER: He hit that car with enough force that it hit the driver’s side and spun and almost did a U-turn.

KASTE: Chasing the Prius was an unmarked car with lights and a siren. Federal immigration agents arrested the driver of the Prius. Authorities later said he was from Honduras and, quote, “tried to evade law enforcement.” Reader says he was surprised no one was seriously injured, and as ICE agents gathered at the scene, he asked them this…

READER: Do you have a standard operating procedure for prosecution? Because if you do, it seems to be outside of that. And the agent made fun of me and told me I was a [expletive] stupid, and I had to leave.

KASTE: But it’s a legitimate question. Pursuit policies have become the norm, especially for urban law enforcement.

IAN ADAMS: We’ve actually made a lot of progress here over the last 30 years.

KASTE: Ian Adams studies law enforcement at the University of South Carolina. According to him, the aim of these policies is to balance the risk of a chase against the desired objective.

ADAMS: Unless it’s important to arrest this person to avoid, for example, an immediate risk of death or serious injury to someone else, we probably shouldn’t prosecute them. And this is not a controversial statement within the police force. This is the norm within the police.

KASTE: Many urban police departments establish specific guidelines. St. Paul police, for example, are not authorized to pursue any crime other than a violent crime or stop an imminent life-threatening danger. But the federal government has greater latitude. ICE’s conduct manual asks agents to consider public safety, but it allows them to choose whether or not to pursue a suspect. Customs and Border Protection recently got rid of a restrictive pursuit policy adopted under President Biden. The updated policy now tells officers that they are, quote, “responsible for determining when the immediate danger created by emergency conduct outweighs the benefits of law enforcement,” unquote.

KYLE DEKKER: They violate traffic laws at will.

KASTE: Kyle Dekker is one of the activists who follows federal vehicles around the Twin Cities. He says that at one point, one of the immigration officers tried to hit him.

DEKKER: I have dashcams in the front and back, where he tried to hit me in the rear panel, my vehicle, to make me turn.

KASTE: Dekker accuses federal agents of attempting a PIT maneuver. This is a tactic for hitting the rear of a fleeing car to cause it to lose control and stop. PIT maneuvers were prohibited by the CBP pursuit policy approved under Biden, but that prohibition is no longer visible in the current, partially redacted policy. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to NPR’s questions about its pursuit policies, but in an email it called the PIT maneuver a, quote, “specific tactic for de-escalating a dangerous pursuit situation.”

(soundbite of car horn)

KASTE: In Minneapolis, people report seeing aggressive driving tactics for much less money.

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CHRISTIAN MOLINA: (speaking Spanish).

KASTE: For example, it was Christian Molina in January. He showed reporters the crumpled rear corner of his car. He said federal agents hit him when he didn’t stop for them. He said he was a citizen, so they finally let him go.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MOLINA: (speaking Spanish).

KASTE: “They had no reason to arrest me, I think, and they’re not police officers,” he said.

And for immigration officials, that’s part of the problem. People who don’t see them as legitimate police officers and who feel justified in refusing to stop or, if they fear deportation, running away at full speed. Geoff Alpert says it’s understandable why the Border Patrol would be inclined to give chase.

GEOFF ALPERT: That’s the mission. Their mission is different.

KASTE: Alpert is a police prosecution expert who was hired to update CBP policy under President Biden. Alpert said he pushed the agency to raise the bar to limit prosecutions to imminent violent crimes, but he said the agency pushed back because along the border its focus was immigration and smuggling.

ALPERT: You can’t stop them from chasing a smuggler if you know someone has a bunch of drugs in the back of their car. This is a pretty serious offense. Now, are you going to pursue it in downtown Tucson? No. But will you chase it down the dirt roads? Probably.

KASTE: He’s concerned that these agents are now bringing that mindset at the border into heightened control measures in the rest of the country. DHS, in its email response to NPR, highlighted the reckless conduct of, quote, “violent agitators.” It included a list of what he called vehicular attacks on his agents with photos of damaged cars, and he added, quote, “the brave men and women of DHS will not be deterred.”

Martin Kaste, NPR News.

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