Read our feature article “Only Those With the Courage To Fight Have the Courage To Win: Combat and Resist ICE Terror!” here.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents killed Guatemalan construction worker Mario David Coronado-Juarez when his car crashed while fleeing an ICE traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 20.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims in a September 24 social media post that ICE agents attempted a traffic stop because his car was registered to an undocumented immigrant they were targeting, and that Coronado-Juarez was not their intended target. DHS said the agents did not pursue Coronado-Juarez when he drove away.
Security camera footage published by Spanish-language media shows a speeding car hitting a tree and catching fire. About 15 seconds later, an unmarked SUV with emergency lights on stops beside the wreck.
Guatemalan anti-ICE activist Karla Barbari said that his death was a direct result of daily ICE terror against immigrants during a September 22 press conference.
At a City Commission meeting later that day, attendees demanded government action regarding the crash from Democrat-mafia Mayor David LaGrand. Supporters chanted slogans such as “cops and ICE go hand-in-hand, covered up by Mayor LaGrand” and “abolish ICE”, prompting LaGrand to adjourn the meeting early.
During a disruption of a separate ICE kidnapping on September 12, demonstrators heard Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) officers speaking over radio to a DHS supervisor, and later saw officers escorting a van transporting migrants kidnapped by ICE. Five protesters were arrested by GRPD during the disruption.
Coronado-Juarez was a foreign-born worker from the Tuichilupe village in Guatemala. His brother in Tuichilupe told a local news outlet, “Yesterday [September 20th] was his day off. His goals were to get his work done as soon as possible. He was working extra for another employer. He was going to work. He was persecuted by ICE.”
Coronado-Juarez sent almost all of his wages to his wife and three children in Guatemala to build a house, Barbari said at a vigil on September 24. “[Coronado-Juarez] was a good person,” a family friend told local news, “He doesn’t bother people. He just works, goes home. He sends money to his family in Guatemala. His kids”.
Image: Mario David Coronado-Juarez. Taken by Family of Mario David Coronado-Juarez.
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