Man Dies After Fleeing ICE Agents in Florida

A pre-dawn immigration operation in Florida ended with a man dead on a highway Tuesday, adding to mounting questions over federal enforcement tactics. Authorities say four people bolted from a vehicle during an encounter with Homeland Security Investigations and ICE agents in St. Augustine around 6:40am; one ran across State Road 16 and into the path of a tractor-trailer, per the Florida Highway Patrol. The truck driver stopped and tried to help, but the man died at the scene, CNN reports. Homeland Security later said the operation involved a Mexican national and that HSI is investigating alongside state troopers.

Similar deaths have occurred over the last year as people fled immigration agents in Los Angeles and Virginia. The crash follows two deadly ICE-involved shootings in the past week. Officials say neither man killed was the subject of the immigration operations underway. Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon called ICE an "out-of control" agency, the AP reports. "Whether it's ICE agents gunning down a father in the streets of Houston, shooting a young man in Maine or conducting operations right here in Northeast Florida that result in a deadly crash, the outcome is the same: fear, chaos and death," she said. ICE reportedly halted most of its traffic stops nationwide after the Maine and Texas shootings.