At least 250 were injured and 22 died in the past four years after Border Patrol pursuits along the American side of the border, a latimes and propublica investigation has found.
Three were killed and eight were injured after a high-speed chase involving the Border Patrol ended in a crash on Nov. 29.
Border Patrol chases happened in thick fog and rain, and on treacherous mountain roads. They happened on unpopulated stretches of desert highway, but also miles from the border, on interstates at rush hour, in school zones and residential areas, and through strip mall parking lots, forcing pedestrians to run out of the way.In one case, an agent pushed 110 mph trying to keep up with a sedan, noting “the Nissan was operating at above their performance capabilities.
While the devices are generally seen as effective, they can be lethal at high speeds, especially above 70 mph, experts said. Even the Los Angeles Police Department, which has a policy most experts consider permissive, discourages officers from deploying spike strips above 65 mph. The Border Patrol has no official cutoff speed, though agents first have to get approval from a supervisor to deploy the devices.
Oyiza Pearson, 33, was heading to pick up her son from the babysitter when she turned onto California 125 in La Mesa on May 2, 2018. But in at least five cases, the ProPublica-Times analysis found, Border Patrol agents attempted to use a PIT or box maneuver when a car was going faster than 40 mph. Some instances occurred in places where pedestrians or other cars were in danger of getting hit.
A Border Patrol vehicle traveling on Shockey Truck Trail, a route used by the Chevrolet Silverado pickup to cross the border.Before he climbed into the bed of that pickup truck last November, Santiago Ruvalcaba Medina, who was 20 at the time, had tried to enter the United States legally. Back in Mexico, Ruvalcaba tried to apply for a visa through a middleman but was scammed out of $785. As Christmas neared last year, he longed to be with his mother, who was about to undergo surgery.Downtown Acatic, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, on March 6.
He lives near Guadalajara, with relatives who know him as a different person. There’s the Ruvalcaba before the accident, who had studied to be a mechanic and taught himself Portuguese. And the one after, who can’t remember the word for “rice.” “Clearly the policy needs to be rethought,” he said. “You think about the issues, the injuries, the humanitarian issues, but there is also an incredible cost of medical care and treatment.”
The Border Patrol’s policy calls for “aerial surveillance and assistance” to be used to the “maximum extent available” during pursuits, yet the ProPublica-Times investigation found Border Patrol agents used helicopters to track cars in only 22 cases from 2015 to 2018. Twice, agents called for helicopters but none were available. In 16 cases, agents called for helicopters only after the fleeing car came to a stop, to track migrants running away on foot.
The Border Patrol can introduce more technological solutions. Alpert advocates StarChase, a GPS tag that shoots out to attach to a fleeing car, allowing officers to fall back and track it remotely. Many police departments use it, including the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which pursues heavily occupied vehicles along the border.
Agents said it was a safer option for them than spike strips, because it doesn’t require agents to stand on the road. Independent experts interviewed for this story said the device has not been used enough in the field to assess its safety for those in the pursued car.
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