ICE car chase through Newark injures three children riding to school

On Feb. 25, 2026, ICE agents pursuing a van in Newark, 🏖️New Jersey triggered a chain-reaction crash around 8:20 a.m. at Clinton Avenue and 10th Street. Three siblings — two 15-year-olds and a 12-year-old — were riding in a Lyft to school when the fleeing van struck their vehicle. All three were transported to University Hospital. No life-threatening injuries were reported.

DHS identified the target of the operation as COChristian Oswaldo Guevara-Guerra, who had been charged with receiving stolen property and had a final removal order issued in October 2017. DHS said he rammed his vehicle into federal law enforcement vehicles during the pursuit. He was taken into ICE custody after the crash and was also hospitalized.

🏖️New Jersey state law bars law enforcement from initiating vehicle pursuits unless the suspect poses an immediate threat to public safety or the lives of others. ICE is a federal agency and is not bound by state law, but the crash immediately raised questions about whether the pursuit was necessary for a civil immigration matter involving a non-violent prior offense.

Mayor RBRas Baraka said Newark police were not involved in the ICE operation and only responded to the crash. He said the city plans to submit police reports to the 🏖️New Jersey attorney general's office and asked Gov. Phil Murphy and AG MPMatt Platkin to investigate whether ICE violated state pursuit law.

Hours after the crash, Baraka signed an executive order restricting ICE operations in Newark. The order prohibits ICE agents from entering city-owned buildings without a judicial warrant, requires city employees to report unconstitutional enforcement activity to department directors, and restricts city agencies from cooperating in civil immigration enforcement without a court order.

Sen. CBCory Booker (D-NJ) posted on social media that the incident reflects a national pattern of dangerous ICE pursuit tactics that most municipal police departments have banned. 'I will not vote for another dollar to fund an agency that operates like this in our communities,' Booker wrote. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who was herself arrested at Newark's Delaney Hall ICE detention center in May 2025, called the crash further evidence that ICE was harming local communities.

A similar immigration-related vehicle pursuit in Savannah, 🍑Georgia earlier in February 2026 ended in a fatal crash that killed a local schoolteacher, according to city officials who cited the Georgia incident in their criticism of ICE's pursuit tactics.

About eight to nine ICE agents were present at the scene, according to witnesses. A crowd of 30 to 40 residents gathered after the crash. Witness JAJavon Alleyne, the stepfather of the injured children, said ICE agents were uncooperative when he arrived at the scene. 'I'm a father trying to make sure my kids are OK and I'm getting treated like a criminal,' he said.