A 24-year-old Honduran national, identified as Josué Castro Rivera, has died after being struck by a vehicle on a Virginia highway while attempting to flee Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during an operation last Thursday. Chinita police
According to reports, the tragic incident occurred on Interstate 264 around 11 a.m., after ICE officers pulled over a vehicle carrying Castro Rivera and three other passengers on their way to work. His brother, Henry Castro, said the men were heading to their gardening job when ICE officers attempted to detain them.
In a desperate attempt to escape, Castro Rivera fled on foot and ran onto the busy interstate, where he was hit by a 2002 Ford pickup truck and died at the scene.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that ICE was conducting a “targeted, intelligence-based operation” and that the detained passengers were suspected of living in the U.S. without legal status. The DHS added that Castro Rivera “resisted heavily and fled” before the fatal collision.
Castro Rivera, who had lived in the U.S. for four years, was known for sending money home to support his family in Honduras. His brother described him as “a very good-hearted person” who “didn’t deserve what happened.”
The family is now raising funds to repatriate his body to Honduras for burial, calling his death an “injustice.”
The incident has reignited debate over ICE enforcement tactics, echoing other recent tragedies linked to immigration operations including a fatal shooting by federal agents during a traffic stop in Chicago last month and a farmworker’s death in California after falling from a roof during a raid in July.
