St. Paul police say a driver allegedly fleeing federal immigration agents crashed into several vehicles at a busy intersection on February 11th, 2026, injuring one person and drawing a fast-growing protest, while major questions remain about how the pursuit unfolded and who will review it.
TLDR
St. Paul police say a driver allegedly fleeing federal immigration agents crashed into multiple vehicles at Western and Selby Avenues, injuring one person and prompting protests, while DHS officials defend the operation and local leaders question federal tactics after recent fatal shootings.
The Crash at Western and Selby
According to a statement from the St. Paul Police Department provided to reporters, officers were dispatched at approximately 9:39 a.m. to the intersection of Western and Selby Avenues after reports of a multi-vehicle collision. The department said the initial call also noted that a large crowd had gathered near the scene.
Police said their preliminary information indicated that federal agents were pursuing a person in a vehicle when that vehicle crashed. The driver who was being pursued sustained injuries that officials described as non-life-threatening and was transported to a local hospital by St. Paul fire medics.
Photographs from the scene showed several damaged vehicles clustered near a parking lot. A witness who spoke to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity said three or four cars appeared to be involved and described what she called a huge protest forming nearby as word spread that federal immigration agents had been involved.
The witness told Fox News Digital that two people she knew had vehicles in the crash area. One had reportedly stepped out to buy coffee at a nearby shop, and another worked close to the intersection. Those accounts suggest that at least some of the damaged vehicles may have belonged to bystanders rather than to law enforcement or the pursued driver.
As of the latest public statements, St. Paul police have not released a full crash reconstruction, identified the injured driver, or detailed the extent of damage to other vehicles. The department has also not publicly said whether any of its officers were present before the collision or were notified in real time that a federal pursuit was underway in the city.
ICE Says Driver Tried to Flee
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin linked the crash to a targeted immigration enforcement operation. McLaughlin said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had attempted to stop a vehicle driven by Alexander Romero-Avila, a Honduran national who federal officials say was released into the United States in 2022.
McLaughlin said that on February 11th, ICE officers attempted to conduct what she described as a targeted vehicle stop of Romero-Avila. According to her statement, Romero-Avila allegedly tried to resist arrest, drove recklessly, and ran red lights while attempting to evade law enforcement, actions that she said endangered both the public and federal officers.
McLaughlin said the driver ultimately crashed into multiple civilian vehicles and an ICE law enforcement vehicle. She said that law enforcement officers immediately requested medical assistance through 911 and that no members of the public or ICE officers were injured, beyond the driver, who was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
In a later portion of the same statement, McLaughlin attributed the incident to what she framed as a broader trend. She said “dangerous attempts to evade arrest” had surged because “sanctuary politicians” were encouraging people without legal status to avoid ICE and providing guides on how to recognize and obstruct immigration officers. McLaughlin asserted that ICE officers are now facing a “3,200% increase in vehicle attacks.”
The statement, as reported by Fox News Digital, did not include underlying data or a time frame to support the 3,200% figure. ICE has not publicly released a detailed breakdown of alleged vehicle attacks on its officers in the St. Paul and Minneapolis area, and independent local officials have not yet confirmed whether any such data has been shared with them.
Federal officials have also not announced what criminal charges, if any, Romero-Avila may face in connection with the crash, beyond immigration enforcement consequences. It remains unclear whether the case will be handled primarily in federal criminal court, immigration court, or through some combination of proceedings.
Growing Anger Over Federal Use of Force
The crash occurred at a time of heightened distrust between federal agents and many residents in St. Paul and Minneapolis. According to Fox News Digital, tensions escalated sharply after two fatal shootings by federal officers in the region in January 2026.
On January 7th, 2026, federal agents fatally shot Renee Good during an enforcement operation. On January 24th, 2026, a separate encounter involving federal officers ended with the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. Both deaths prompted large protests, renewed scrutiny of federal use of deadly force, and criticism from Minnesota elected officials of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the state.
In that context, the February 11th crash fed into existing fears among some residents that immigration operations were placing local communities at risk. Protesters who gathered near Western and Selby after the collision chanted against ICE and questioned why a pursuit was allowed to continue through a busy urban intersection during the morning.
While Pam Bondi performs for the cameras on Capitol Hill, ICE is out here turning Minnesota neighborhoods into chaos. Today in St. Paul, a pursuit involving federal immigration agents ended in a crash that sent one person to the hospital with non life threatening injuries and… pic.twitter.com/p7unNMY9Qt
— Ryan James Lee-Goodman (@RyJamesGoodman) February 11, 2026
The federal government’s own leadership has acknowledged the political and public safety fallout from recent operations. Tom Homan, the former ICE director appointed as the administration’s border czar, recently took over immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. According to Fox News Digital, Homan had described an effort to de-escalate tensions and scaled back the mission by removing roughly 700 immigration officers from the state.
At the same time, the February 11th crash illustrates that even a shift toward what officials call targeted enforcement carries significant risks if pursuits occur in dense neighborhoods. For residents already unsettled by two recent fatal shootings, images of crumpled vehicles and a driver taken to the hospital reinforced a sense that they are bearing the brunt of federal strategies crafted far from St. Paul.
Unanswered Questions After the Pursuit
Key facts about the February 11th pursuit remain unsettled. Federal officials have not publicly described the specific grounds for attempting to stop Romero-Avila’s vehicle at that time or place, beyond characterizing the operation as a targeted enforcement action. St. Paul police have not said whether they were consulted before federal agents initiated or continued a vehicle chase inside city limits.
It is also unclear which agency will lead any formal review of the pursuit and crash. St. Paul police will typically investigate collisions within the city, yet a pursuit involving federal agents may also trigger internal reviews within ICE and DHS. Neither agency has said whether it will release reports, video, or radio traffic related to the incident.
Residents and civil rights advocates are likely to focus on several questions. Did federal agents follow their own pursuit policies and any agreements they have with local departments about chases through residential or commercial corridors? Was there an opportunity to arrest the suspect in a less risky setting, such as at a residence or workplace, instead of on busy streets during the morning?
There are also unresolved issues for the local government. City officials in St. Paul have previously been critical of how federal immigration operations are conducted in the region. It is not yet clear whether the city will push for access to federal internal findings, seek an independent review, or pursue new limits on cooperation with immigration enforcement after this crash.
For now, the public picture of the February 11th incident is largely built from agency statements and witness accounts. Until investigators reconstruct the crash, clarify how and why the pursuit unfolded, and explain what changes, if any, will follow, residents are left to navigate competing narratives about safety, enforcement, and accountability on their streets.
