People showed up before dusk, carrying flowers across the service road to the tree with fresh scars on its trunk. To the tree where the life of Mario David Coronado-Juarez came to an end, in a fiery crash after fleeing a stop by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I would like to thank you for being here tonight,” said Karla Barberi, who offered words in both Spanish and English on behalf of Coronado-Juarez’s family. “With your presence, you’re helping us give the family far away some love, embrace them, and let them know they’re not alone.”
Coronado-Juarez was living in the U.S. without authorization, working in construction. Barberi told the gathered crowd that he sent nearly all of his money back to Guatemala to support his three children and his wife so that they could build a home. A photo of the family rested in the corner of a poster on display beneath the tree. They gathered outside a small structure, with pieces of corrugated aluminum for walls.
Yeah, he did cross the border like many of us. But that doesn’t make him a disposable person.Karla Barberi
Barberi said Coronado-Juarez came from an impoverished part of Guatemala, and was working to give his family a life of dignity.
“Yeah, he did cross the border like many of us. But that doesn’t make him a disposable person that you can chase down the street just because he looks undocumented,” Barberi said.
In a statement posted to X on Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said ICE agents originally stopped Coronado-Juarez’s vehicle because it was registered to another person “with multiple alcohol related driving offenses.”
“As officers attempted the stop to confirm the identity of the driver, the driver of the vehicle fled at a high rate of speed,” DHS wrote on its X account. “In the interest of public safety, ICE officers immediately discontinued the enforcement action.”
The statement claims officers then saw smoke nearly a half mile away from where they’d tried to stop Coronado-Juarez, then drove to the scene to attempt to help him.
The local Spanish language news outlet El Informador posted video on its Facebook account that it claimed showed the crash and the aftermath. In that video, an unmarked vehicle with flashing lights appears to stop near the crash approximately 12 seconds after it happened.
The Grand Rapids Fire Department and Grand Rapids police responded to the crash, but were unable to save Coronado-Juarez.
As darkness fell Thursday night, the crowd swelled from a few dozen to perhaps more than 100, spilling onto Century Avenue. Community members who spoke called for justice, for a change in immigration policies, for the city of Grand Rapids to enact new protections against immigration enforcement within the city. And for Mario to be remembered.
“May his story be known,” said Barberi. “May justice be served.”
