Josué Castro Rivera, Honduran national living illegally in the United States killed while fleeing ICE after struck on Virginia Highway. Man’s family calls his death an ‘injustice’.
A 24-year-old Hondurian national was struck and killed by a vehicle along a Virginia highway while fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers last week.
Josué Castro Rivera was on his way to his gardening job Thursday when ICE officers pulled over his vehicle and tried to detain him and three other passengers, according to his brother, Henry Castro.
Honduran national was on way to gardening job when car he was in was targeted by ICE
Castro Rivera in turn ran from the scene and attempted to cross Interstate 264 in Norfolk — where a 2002 Ford pickup fatally struck him, late Thursday morning, according to state and federal authorities.
He was pronounced dead on the scene around 11 a.m., according to Virginia State Police.
Virginia State Police said officers responded to a report of a vehicle-pedestrian crash on eastbound I-264 at the Military Highway interchange in Norfolk. Police said Rivera was hit by a 2002 Ford pickup and was pronounced dead at the scene.
At the time of the fatality, Castro Rivera had been heading to a gardening job.
‘He had a very good heart,’ his devastated brother said Sunday according to ABC News.
Adding, ‘He didn’t deserve everything that happened to him.’
Castro Rivera had been living in the US for four years and was sending money back to Honduras for his family, Henry said. It remained unclear if the victim was an illegal immigrant or a legal resident.
ICE officers had been carrying out a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation, and that the passengers were detained for allegedly living in the country without legal permission, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
Castro Rivera ‘resisted heavily and fled’ and died after a passing vehicle hit him, the DHS said.
Castro Rivera’s family plans to raise money to send his body back to Honduras for a funeral, decrying his death as an ‘injustice’, WTKR reported.
A GoFundme for Castro Rivera late Monday had raised $11,123.
DHS blames propaganda and misinformation for illegal migrant’s death
The DHS said the garden-worker’s death was ‘a direct result of every politician, activist, and reporter who continues to spread propaganda and misinformation about ICE’s mission and ways to avoid detention.’
Similar deaths amid immigration operations elsewhere have triggered protests, lawsuits and calls for independent investigations into how agents conduct arrests. Demands for investigations come amid claims that the Trump administration’s initial accounts are misleading.
Castro Rivera is at least the fourth immigrant to be killed during an immigration operation under the Trump administration.
The fatality comes as demonstrators in Chicago continue to resist ongoing ICE raids leading to clashes and threats of the military incursion in the beleaguered city that Trump officials have decried as being full of crime from illegals.
