ICE Crashed a Van Full of Separated Mothers, Then Denied It Ever Happened

https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-crashed-a-van-full-of-separated-mothers-then-denied-it-ever-happened/

On July 18, a cargo van transporting eight Central American mothers separated from their children under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy crashed into a pickup truck in San Marcos. An ICE contractor was taking the women from a detention center near Austin to the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall to be reunited with their kids. Even though police said the van was too damaged to continue driving and the women reported injuries, ICE repeatedly denied the crash ever took place.

According to a police report obtained by the Observer and individual interviews with four of the passengers, the crash occurred as the group was leaving a Sunoco gas station just off Interstate 35. The van’s driver was an employee of Trailboss Enterprises, an Alaska-based company that provides transportation for ICE in Central and South Texas. The driver failed to come to a stop and T-boned an F-250 that was entering the gas station, police said. The mothers told the Observer the impact slammed them against the seats in front of them, resulting in headaches, dizziness, nausea and injury to one woman’s leg, which began swelling immediately.

“The crash was really strong, like maybe we were going to flip,” said Dilcia, a Honduran mom who requested that the Observer not publish her full name, out of fear of angering government officials. “We were all trembling with shock from the accident; my whole body hurt,” added another passenger, Roxana, who also did not want her full name published.

The four women said they were not instructed to wear seat belts. In the accident report, a San Marcos Police Department officer assessed the damage to the van as a 4 on a 1-to-7 scale, and said the vehicle was towed. An ambulance was dispatched to the scene, but no one was taken to the hospital. (The mothers said they refused to go to the hospital because they feared it would delay or prevent them from being reunified with their children).

ICE denied the crash happened for 3 weeks and ignored repeated requests for information by immigrant rights activists.