TRAGIC

Feds Deport Uncle of Six Orphans Whose Parents Died Fleeing ICE

The couple crashed their car into a pole after being stopped by ICE agents.

The closest relative of six children whose parents died while fleeing immigration officials was deported on Wednesday, The Bakersfield Californian reported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Celestino Hilario Garcia, the children’s uncle and a father of four, at his Delano, California, apartment this week, according to the United Farm Workers Foundation. ICE has not released details on Garcia. The orphans’ undocumented parents, Santos Hilario Garcia and Marcelina Garcia Profecto, died in March. They were searching for farm work when they were stopped by ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle. They fled the scene and fatally crashed their car into a pole. Delano Police said they obtained footage that showed the agents following the couple’s car with sirens before they crashed into the pole, but ICE said agents were not “in pursuit” of the vehicle. In April, the Kern County District Attorney decided not to press charges against the two agents involved in the crash. The couple’s 18-year-old daughter will reportedly try to gain custody of her younger siblings, according to UFW Director Diana Tellefson Torres. “Can ICE be more callous in visiting even greater anguish upon this family that has already suffered so much?” Torres said in a statement.