The Mexican man who was hit and killed by a semi-truck in Florida when running away from federal immigration officials was vacationing in the US with a tourist visa, according to news reports this week.
The 28-year-old, Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, was killed on 14 July after an “encounter” with federal officials, including those with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a state highway patrol spokesperson said last week.
After federal officials approached him and a group of four men at a gas station that Tuesday morning, they all took off running. The Florida highway patrol spokesperson said Coronilla ran into traffic and was hit by a semi-truck.
Coronilla’s death is one of the four ICE-related deaths that took place in less than one week. Two people, one in Texas and one in Maine, were shot and killed by ICE officers. And a fourth person died in ICE custody, while being transferred to an immigration detention center in Georgia. The four deaths have led to renewed calls by the public and lawmakers to reign in ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as they carry out the Trump administration’s aggressive “mass deportation” campaign promise.
According to the Miami Herald, Coronilla, from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, had only been in Florida for two days when he died, having arrived in the US only three weeks prior. Coronilla had traveled to Atlanta at first to see family and friends and went to Florida to enjoy the beaches.
Coronilla’s wife, who flew to the US last week to make arrangements, had not heard from her husband and found out about his death while watching the news, a local immigrant rights group told the Miami Herald. She then contacted the group, Colectivo Arbol, to ask for help. The group said Coronilla left behind a seven-year-old son and seven-month-old daughter.
DHS has not publicly identified Coronilla, but the Associated Press confirmed his identity with a Mexican government official.
Although the Florida highway patrol’s statement said it was an ICE operation, a homeland security source familiar with the case told the Guardian last week that border patrol agents were involved in the incident.
