The Delano Police Department has forwarded a report to the Kern County district attorney’s office asking prosecutors to review whether federal immigration agents gave false information to police investigating a traffic crash that killed a couple who were in the country illegally.
Santos Hilario Garcia and Marcelina Garcia Profecto were killed while fleeing from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 13. The couple had initially stopped, but then fled before crashing into a utility pole at high speed.
According to a report, an ICE deportation officer told police that, after the initial stop, he was not in “pursuit with emergency lights/sirens.” But surveillance video showed the immigration officers’ cars traveling in the same direction as the couple’s vehicle with their emergency lights activated.
“Based on the discrepancy the report was forwarded to the Kern County District Attorney’s Office for review since they have jurisdiction,” Delano’s interim police chief, Raul Alvizo, said in a statement. “The charges requested are according to California Vehicle Code Section 31, ‘No person shall give, either orally or in writing, information to a peace officer while in the performance of his duties under the provision of this code when such person knows that the information is false.’ ”
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