On a Thursday morning in Norfolk, a 24-year-old man, identified as Jose Castro-Rivera, lost his life after he attempted to flee from agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a stop on Interstate 264 and was struck by a vehicle.
ICE says its officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation when they stopped a vehicle and sought to detain its occupants. After determining that Castro-Rivera and others in the car were in the country illegally, the officers began the detention process — at that moment, Castro-Rivera broke away, ran into oncoming traffic and into the path of a passing vehicle.
At the scene, ICE agents performed CPR on Castro-Rivera in an effort to save him. Despite their efforts, he was pronounced dead at the scene. The agency said that this tragic outcome “could have been prevented had Castro-Rivera complied with our officers.”
Advocates and attorneys in the region say this event underlines the deep fear many immigrants are currently living with as enforcement actions expand. In Virginia Beach, immigration attorney Andrew Reigel said it’s “just tragic that someone is going to risk their life because of something that’s going on of that degree.”
At the same time, organizations that work with immigrant communities are sounding the alarm. Eduardo Zelaya of We Are CASA stated, “We are being targeted… Just because of the way we look or if we have an accent, we are being targeted.”
Reigel also urged people in immigrant communities—whether undocumented or here legally—to understand their rights. “Knowledge is power. Knowing what you can and can’t do, and what’s going to happen if you are detained, puts you in a better position to make wiser choices,” he said.
Meanwhile, ICE released a detailed statement describing the sequence of events: that on October 23 the enforcement officers made a vehicle stop as part of a targeted, intelligence-based operation; after identifying occupants as being unlawfully present, officers attempted to detain them; Castro-Rivera “resisted heavily” and fled onto a busy highway, creating a “significant safety risk.” Sadly, the passing vehicle struck him.
The fallout from this incident has reignited discussions around immigration policy, the risks of evading law enforcement, and the impact on immigrant communities who say they increasingly live in fear of being targeted. The human cost of enforcement is becoming ever more visible in Norfolk and beyond.
