ICE Continues Keeping St. Paul Safe With High-Speed Pursuit Causing Multi-Vehicle Crash

Minneapolis-St. Paul residents continue to pay the price for Operation Metro Surge. A high-speed pursuit involving an ICE agent resulted in a three-car wreck just outside Nina's Coffee Cafe, reports the Minnesota Reformer. The incident took place in St. Paul's Cathedral Hill neighborhood, a residential area with several restaurants and a great deal of foot traffic. 

Witnesses reported a red Toyota Prius speeding by, pursued by a federal agent in a sedan. "If I wasn't so slow just getting out of my own vehicle, I'd have been hit," witness Brandon Reader told the Minnesota Reformer. The Prius crashed into two cars at an intersection before coming to rest in a snowbank. The driver, who witnesses said looked "Arab or Latino," climbed out the window, ran, and jumped over a fence. The agent ran after the suspect, without checking on anyone else involved in the crash, and caught him quickly.

Additional ICE agents poured into the area, as well as impromptu protesters, while St. Paul police performed crowd control and took statements from witnesses. An ambulance arrived about 20 minutes later, and wheeled the man who ICE had detained away on a gurney completely covered by a sheet. Although ICE doesn't have a great track record when it comes to detainee safety, police and firefighters say the man had non-life-threatening injuries.

Mayor Kaohly Her had some strong words about the latest incident, reports KARE 11:

"Because of the reckless way that ICE is running their operation, one person ended up in the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, and several bystanders had their cars damaged. This is just another incident that tells us loud and clear: Operation Metro Surge needs to end immediately."

St. Paul Council Vice President Hwa Jeong Kim had a similar reaction, according to the Minnesota Reformer:

"Are you effing kidding me? They're going on car chases, going 80 down residential streets, to do what? How do they know that's even the person that they're looking for?"

Police pursuits are dangerous. New York State has even proposed a ban on most chases, calling on officers to terminate pursuits unless the threat to public safety would be greater than the pursuit itself. Over the past year, less than 14 percent of people ICE has arrested have had violent criminal records, according to CBS News. An ICE agent on the scene told the crowd that the suspect had been involved in a hit-and-run crash. Assuming this is true, which is far from a safe assumption, it's far from the "worst of the worst" that the White House said would be the focus of ICE operations. Add unnecessary car chases to the ever-growing list of ways that ICE is putting everyone in danger, immigrant and citizen alike.