A 24-year-old Honduran national was tragically killed after being struck by a vehicle on a Virginia highway while fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers last week.
The incident occurred on Thursday when Josué Castro Rivera was on his way to his gardening job. ICE officers pulled over his vehicle and attempted to detain him and three other passengers, according to his brother, Henry Castro.
Castro Rivera bolted from the scene on foot and ran onto Interstate 264, where he was fatally struck by a 2002 Ford pickup truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene around 11 a.m.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that ICE officers were carrying out a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation and that the passengers were detained for allegedly living in the country without legal permission. According to the DHS, Castro Rivera “resisted heavily and fled” before being hit by a passing vehicle.
Castro Rivera had been living in the US for four years and was sending money back to Honduras to support his family. His devastated brother, Henry, described him as having “a very good heart” and expressed his heartbreak, stating, “He didn’t deserve everything that happened to him.”
Castro Rivera’s family is now planning to raise money to repatriate his body to Honduras for a funeral, calling his death an “injustice.”
The incident adds to a number of similar, high-profile deaths that have occurred during immigration operations in recent years, prompting widespread concern and calls for additional investigations.
These past incidents include a fatal shooting by federal immigration agents during a traffic stop in a Chicago suburb last month, and a farmworker who died in California after falling from a high roof during a raid in July.