Feds Nab Illegal Accused Of Ramming ICE Officers

The FBI nabbed an illegal immigrant gangbanger who was shot while trying to run over federal immigration agents as he attempted to evade arrest, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, 36, an 18th Street Gang member who was wanted for questioning related to a murder in El Salvador, is charged with assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon after he allegedly tried to ram Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers with his car, court documents unsealed Tuesday allege. He was arrested Monday after his release from the hospital.

The ICE officers pulled over Mendoza Hernandez in Patterson, California, last week. The Salvadoran national refused to get out of his vehicle despite the officers’ repeated requests to detain him, according to court documents.

That led one of the agents to break a window on his car to force him out, the court documents show.

Mendoza Hernandez then allegedly drove forward, hitting an agent with his car. He then reversed the car, colliding with a law enforcement vehicle parked behind him.

He then accelerated forward toward two of the federal agents, court documents allege. One of the agents jumped out of the way as Mendoza Hernandez allegedly drove over the median and into opposing traffic before stopping on the side of the road.

Agents responded by shooting Mendoza Hernandez, who was hit several times and transported to a hospital for treatment.

At some point, Mendoza Hernandez’s car collided with another vehicle, hit a guardrail, and eventually came to a stop roughly 500 feet from where agents pulled him over, according to court documents.

“Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents, and the public,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said at the time.

ICE has faced an unprecedented level of violent attacks and threats since kicking off President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Trump’s first year in office was marked by a 3,300% increase in vehicular attacks against ICE, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The Trump administration has attempted to take a more targeted approach at making immigration-related arrests following two fatal shootings of anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis. The shootings, which were carried out by federal immigration agents, sparked weeks of protests.

In the wake of the two previous shootings, Trump replaced Kristi Noem with Markwayne Mullin as the new DHS secretary. He also demoted former Border Patrol sector chief Gregory Bovino, who was known for his aggressive roving patrols and has since retired.