Previously Deported Illegal Alien Dies After Fleeing ICE Stop, Slams Into Tree at Over 100 MPH — Rashida Tlaib Immediately Claims “ICE Killed Another Man”

by Jim Hᴏft Sep. 25, 2026 10:20 am



Mario David Coronado-Juarez

A previously deported illegal alien from Guatemala is dead after he fled an attempted ICE traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and slammed into a tree at more than 100 miles per hour.

The vehicle burst into flames. Local officials pronounced him dead at the scene.

The Left did not wait for the facts. Michigan Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib immediately blamed ICE and demanded the agency be abolished.

The crash happened around 7:10 a.m. Sunday, September 20, near Century Avenue SW and McKendrick Street SW in Grand Rapids, The Detroit News reported.

The Department of Homeland Security says ICE officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation. They attempted to stop a vehicle registered to a known criminal illegal alien with multiple alcohol-related driving offenses who is also wanted in Guatemala on a drunk-and-disorderly charge.

Officers were trying to confirm who was behind the wheel. The driver took off at a high rate of speed.

DHS says agents immediately broke off the stop “in the interest of public safety.” A short time later they spotted smoke nearly half a mile away.

The car had crashed into a tree and caught fire. Officers tried to put out the flames and render aid until Grand Rapids police and firefighters arrived.

Officials estimated the vehicle was traveling well over 100 miles per hour when it hit the tree.

The dead driver was not the man ICE had been looking for.

DHS identified him as Mario David Coronado-Juarez, an illegal alien from Guatemala who was previously removed by U.S. Border Patrol in 2021.

He later snuck back into the United States, a federal felony, at an unknown date and location. He was driving a car registered to someone else.

“Resisting officers and evading arrest is dangerous for our officers, illegal aliens, and the public,” DHS said. The agency posted the account on X.

That is not the story Democrats and activists are selling.

Squad member Tlaib posted Thursday: “ICE killed another man. His name is Mario David Coronado Juarez. Mario lived and worked in Michigan for 7 years as a construction worker, sending money home to his kids in Guatemala. ICE pursued him in an unmarked car, causing a fatal car crash. These killings have to stop. #AbolishICE.”

DHS’s account directly contradicts her claim that agents “pursued him” until he died. Federal officers say they discontinued the stop and found the wreck almost half a mile from where they tried to pull the car over.

Homeland Security
@DHSgov
·
Follow

On September 20, ICE officers attempted a stop of a vehicle registered to a known criminal illegal alien with multiple alcohol related driving offenses who is also wanted in Guatemala for a drunk and disorderly charge, during a targeted enforcement operation in Grand Rapids,

Show more

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib



@RepRashida

ICE killed another man. His name is Mario David Coronado Juarez.Mario lived and worked in Michigan for 7 years as a construction worker, sending money home to his kids in Guatemala.

ICE pursued him in an unmarked car, causing a fatal car crash.These killings have to stop.




2:02 PM · Sep 24, 2026

Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand, a Democrat, called the dead man “a valued member of our community” and blamed “a national effort to create fear among our immigrant neighbors.”

Far-left Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered the Michigan State Police to review the incident after Grand Rapids Police Chief Joseph Trigg asked for state help because local cops have limited ability to obtain information from federal agents.

Democrat Rep. Hillary Scholten sent ICE a letter demanding answers and claiming publicly available reports showed ICE “initiated a pursuit that led to this crash.”

Family members and activist groups such as Movimiento Cosecha say Coronado-Juarez was a construction worker in his mid-30s who sent money home to a wife and three children in Guatemala.

NBC News reported the Guatemalan consul general in Chicago identified him and said he was originally from Comitancillo in San Marcos.

Those biographical details do not change the legal facts DHS laid out: he had already been removed once, he re-entered illegally, and he fled a lawful attempted stop in a car tied to another criminal illegal alien.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/202...r-fleeing-ice/