A tragic incident unfolded in Virginia when a 24-year-old man from Honduras lost his life on a highway after being hit by a vehicle while trying to escape federal immigration officers.
Josué Castro Rivera’s untimely death adds to a series of fatalities involving immigrants in Chicago and California during enforcement actions, which have intensified under the Trump administration’s policies.
According to his brother, Henry Castro, Josué was en route to a gardening job on Thursday when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers stopped his vehicle.
Authorities reported that when agents attempted to detain Josué and the three other occupants, he fled on foot and tragically died while attempting to cross Interstate 264 in Norfolk.
Having arrived in the United States four years ago, Castro Rivera was striving to support his family back in Honduras, shared his brother.
“He had a very good heart,” Henry Castro reflected on Sunday.
The Department of Homeland Security said Castro Rivera’s vehicle was stopped by ICE as part of a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation and passengers were detained for allegedly living in the country without legal permission.
DHS said in a statement that Castro Rivera “resisted heavily and fled” and died after a passing vehicle struck him. DHS officials did not respond Sunday to requests for further comment.
Virginia State Police said officers responded to a report of a vehicle-pedestrian crash around 11 a.m. Thursday on eastbound I-264 at the Military Highway interchange. Police said Rivera was hit by a 2002 Ford pickup and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The crash remains under investigation.
Federal authorities and state police gave his first name as Jose, but family members said it was Josué. DHS and state police did not explain the discrepancy.
Castro called his brother’s death an injustice and said he is raising money to transport the body back to Honduras for funeral.
“He didn’t deserve everything that happened to him,” Castro said.
DHS blamed Castro Rivera’s death on “a direct result of every politician, activist and reporter who continue 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 investigation amid claims that the Trump administration’s initial accounts are misleading.
Last month in suburban Chicago, federal immigration agents fatally shot a Mexican man during a traffic stop. DHS initially said a federal officer was “seriously injured,” but police body camera video showed the federal officer walking around and describing his own injuries as “ nothing major.”
In July a farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid at a California cannabis facility died of his injuries. And in August a man ran away from federal agents onto a freeway in the same state and was fatally struck by a vehicle.
