By Taylor Romine, CNN
(CNN) — A traffic stop outside of Baltimore Wednesday ended with an undocumented man shot and another injured after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents allege the driver of a van drove directly at officers, prompting them to open fire.
It is the second incident publicized this week where ICE agents shot at an undocumented person during an operation after the person allegedly attempted to hurt agents, although that person wasn’t hit by gunfire.
In Wednesday’s incident, the driver of the van was shot and another undocumented migrant in the van was injured, but both are in stable condition and are expected to recover, the Department of Homeland Security said.
After a year of violent encounters between DHS and the public, the confrontation provides another example of how car crashes and rammings are taking center stage in encounters with federal agents as immigration enforcement has ramped up across the country.
Stop by ICE agents leads to shooting
ICE officers were in Glen Burnie, Maryland, Wednesday conducting “a targeted immigration enforcement operation” when they attempted to stop the two men, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
The undocumented migrants were identified as Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a Portuguese man who was driving the van, and Solomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, a man from El Salvador who was a passenger, McLaughlin said.
Officers approached the van and asked Sousa-Martins to turn off the engine, but he refused and attempted to leave the scene, she said. He started ramming ICE vehicles and “then drove his van directly at ICE officers” as “it appeared he was trying to run them over,” McLaughlin said.
“Fearing for their lives and public safety, (officers) defensively fired their service weapons, striking the driver,” she said. Sousa-Martins then wrecked his car between two buildings, McLaughlin said, although photos shared by the agency on X show a white van crashed into a tree. CNN has reached out to DHS for clarification.
In the process of the crash, Serrano-Esquivel was also injured, she said.
Officers immediately gave medical care to the two men and took them to the hospital, McLaughlin said, adding no ICE agents were injured.
Sousa-Martins came to the US from Portugal in December 2008, but didn’t leave the country when his visa expired in February 2009, DHS said. The agency didn’t provide additional information on Serrano-Esquivel’s immigration history.
It is not immediately clear if the two men obtained legal representation.
CNN has reached out to local law enforcement in the area to see if they responded to the incident.
Rising car incidents over the last year
As images of dramatic immigration operations have risen across the country over the last year, incidents involving cars has become a common occurrence.
“Aggressors are now purposefully running into officers, boxing in law enforcement vehicles, running ICE law enforcement off the roads, and ramming their cars into law enforcement vehicles,” Emily Covington, ICE Assistant Director of Public Affairs, told CNN in October.
But the agency has been criticized for using the tactic itself, including controversial “precision immobilization technique” or “PIT” maneuvers, which force a car to spin out and stop. Experts have told CNN the maneuver is considered a use of deadl