Democratic lawmakers in Michigan are calling on state and federal officials to investigate a single-vehicle accident that killed a man police said was being pursued over the weekend by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The man was driving Sunday morning when his vehicle struck a tree and caught on fire, Grand Rapids police said in a statement. The driver was the only vehicle occupant and was declared dead at the scene, according to police.
“Preliminary information indicates at some point prior to the crash Sunday morning, Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel attempted to stop the involved vehicle and the driver fled,” police said in the statement.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the accident.
Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Michigan) identified the man killed in the crash as Mario David Coronado Juarez. Advocates with Movimiento Cosecha Grand Rapids, an immigrant rights group, said Coronado Juarez, who was from Guatemala, was married and had three young children, according to an online video shared by MLive, a Michigan news source.
His family has called for an investigation into his death and for his body to be returned to Guatemala, the advocates said.
Scholten, in a letter to acting ICE director David Venturella, asked the agency to explain the reasons for the pursuit, whether relevant records will be shared with local and state investigators, and whether ICE agents followed department rules and regulations appropriately.
Grand Rapids Police Chief Joseph Trigg has called for an independent investigation by Michigan State Police. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) also ordered an independent review by state police.
The accident occurred the same day Wilber Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old DoorDash delivery driver, was shot in Texas after ICE officers attempted to make a traffic stop. The officers were in an unmarked black SUV. Garcés’s lawyer said ICE sideswiped the man’s car as he attempted to make a U-turn to find a place to pull over. Video then showed an officer exiting the SUV and approaching Garcés’s vehicle before shots were fired.
Michigan is one of several Midwestern states that has seen a surge in federal immigration activity in recent months, resulting in record numbers of arrests. ICE has also stepped up enforcement in Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana.
There has been a pattern of ICE-involved injuries and deaths of people in vehicles since the immigration raids increased. A Washington Post analysis in July found at least 17 shootings of motorists by federal immigration officers since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Six people, including two U.S. citizens, have died in the shootings, which involved personnel from ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations.
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