Recent crashes raise questions about chase rules for immigration agents

+ Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music The Best Music of 2025 All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop The Best Music of 2025 All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Recent crashes raise questions about chase rules for immigration agents The Trump administration's mass deportation effort has given people more reason to flee immigration officers.

+ National Recent crashes raise questions about chase rules for immigration agents February 25, 20264:41 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition Martin Kaste Recent crashes raise questions about chase rules for immigration agents Listen &middot; 5:09 5:09 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5716296/nx-s1-9662746" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript The Trump administration's mass deportation effort has given people more reason to flee immigration officers. ICE and CBP have responded with aggressive driving and risky vehicular pursuits that would be banned for local police. The result is multiple crashes, and at least one death. Sponsor Message LEILA FADEL, HOST: A Guatemalan man faces vehicular homicide charges after immigration officials say he was racing away from them last week in Georgia. They say he smashed into a car, killing a special education teacher who was on her way to school. It's part of a string of crashes tied to immigration enforcement. And as NPR's Martin Kaste reports, it's raising questions about aggressive driving tactics by federal agents.

+ MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: The fatality was in Georgia, but most of the recent crashes have happened - no surprise - in Minnesota. Brandon Reader recalls sitting in his car in St. Paul on February 11 and watching a red Prius blow through a stop sign at 80-plus miles an hour, hitting a gray sedan. BRANDON READER: He hit that car with enough force that it was struck on the driver's side and spun and did almost a full 180. KASTE: Chasing the Prius was an unmarked car with lights and a siren. Federal immigration officers arrested the driver of the Prius. Officials later said he's from Honduras and, quote, "tried to evade law enforcement." Reader says he was amazed that no one got seriously hurt, and as ICE agents gathered at the scene, he asked them this... READER: Do you guys have any standard operating procedure for pursuit? Because if you do, this seems like it was outside of it. And the agent snapped at me and said that I was a [expletive] idiot, and I needed to walk away. KASTE: But it is a fair question. Pursuit policies have become standard, especially for urban law enforcement. IAN ADAMS: We've actually made a lot of progress here in the last 30 years. KASTE: Ian Adams studies policing at the University of South Carolina. He says the point of these policies is to weigh the risk of a chase against the purpose. ADAMS: Unless stopping that person is important to prevent, like, immediate risk of death or serious injury to someone else, we probably shouldn't be pursuing them. And that's not a controversial statement within policing. That is the norm within policing. KASTE: Many urban police departments set specific guidelines. St. Paul police, for instance, are not allowed to give chase for anything less than a violent felony or to stop an imminent life-threatening danger. But the feds are allowed more discretion. The ICE driving manual tells agents to consider public safety, but it lets them choose whether to chase 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're, quote, "responsible for determining when the immediate danger created by emergency driving outweighs the law enforcement benefit," unquote. KYLE DEKKER: They violate traffic laws at will. KASTE: Kyle Dekker is one of the activists who've been following federal vehicles around the Twin Cities. He says at one point, one of the immigration agents tried to hit him. DEKKER: I have dashcams front and rear, where he tried to hit me in the rear panel, my vehicle, to spin me out. KASTE: Dekker accuses federal agents of trying a PIT maneuver. That's a tactic for hitting the back end of a fleeing car to make it lose control and stop. PIT maneuvers were banned by the CBP pursuit policy that was approved under Biden, but that ban is no longer visible in the current partially redacted policy. The Department of Homeland Security did not answer NPR's questions about its pursuit policies, but in an email, it called the PIT maneuver a, quote, "specific tactic to diffuse a dangerous pursuit situation." (SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORN HONKING) KASTE: In Minneapolis, people report seeing aggressive driving tactics for much less. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) CHRISTIAN MOLINA: (Speaking Spanish). KASTE: For instance, this was Christian Molina in January. He was showing reporters the crumpled back corner of his car. He said federal agents had crashed into him when he didn't stop for them. He said he's a citizen, so they eventually let him go. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) MOLINA: (Speaking Spanish). KASTE: "They didn't have a reason to stop me, I think, and they're not police," he said. And to immigration officers, that's part of the problem. People who don't see them as legitimate police and who feel justified in refusing to stop or, if they fear deportation, in speeding away. Geoff Alpert says you can see why border police would tend to give chase. GEOFF ALPERT: It's the mission. Their mission is different. KASTE: Alpert is an expert in police pursuits who was hired to update CBP's policy under President Biden. Alpert says he pushed the agency to set a higher bar to limit pursuits to imminent violent crimes, but he said the agency pushed back because along the border, its focus is immigration and smuggling. ALPERT: You can't preclude them from chasing a smuggler if you know that someone has a bunch of drugs in the back of their car. It's a pretty serious offense. Now, are you going to chase him downtown Tucson? No. But are you going to chase him out in the dirt roads? Probably. KASTE: He worries these officers may now be bringing this border mindset to enforcement surges in the rest of the country. DHS, in its email response to NPR, pointed to reckless driving by, quote, "violent agitators." It included a list of what it calls vehicular attacks against its officers with photos of damaged cars, and it added, quote, "the brave men and women of DHS will not be deterred." Martin Kaste, NPR News. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor MessageBecome an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{1167:function(e,n,c){e.exports=c(323)},323:function(e,n,c){"use strict";c.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([c.e(1),c.e(2),c.e(3),c.e(4),c.e(84)]).then(function(e){c(3),c(1140),c(116),c(94),c(52),c(493),c(239),c(102),c(104),c(1141),c(143),c(1142),c(238),c(48),c(1143)}.bind(null,c)).catch(c.oe)}},[[1167,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();