The Department of Homeland Security blamed a “distracted” motorist for clipping a vehicle door during an ICE enforcement action Tuesday on Speedwell Avenue in Morristown.
The motorist, from Morris Plains, said the ICE driver pulled over suddenly in traffic and flung open the door, leaving no time to react.
Morristown police believe the motorist.
“Driver 1 (ICE) is responsible for this crash occurring. Driver 1 should have exercised more caution when opening a door into an already active/moving lane of travel,” said investigating Officer David Moran, in a police report obtained Friday by Morristown Green.
There were no injuries and no tickets were issued. The ICE vehicle, a silver 2022 Ford Explorer registered to the ICE field office in Newark, sustained moderate damage to the driver door. The other vehicle, a leased blue 2026 Volkswagen Tiguan, had mostly cosmetic damage to the passenger-side front bumper, according to the report.
The accident occurred at 8:27 am Tuesday near the Morristown Jewish Center, on the northbound side of Speedwell. The state roadway is one lane in each direction.
In a statement earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said ICE officers were conducting a vehicle stop “when another vehicle drove by and struck the driver-side door, causing damage. The driver of the vehicle appeared distracted and failed to avoid hitting the door.”
Police identified the ICE driver as Timothy F. Castle; other personal details were redacted from the report, released to Morristown Green in response to a state Open Public Records Act request.
Castle told police he works for DHS and was attempting to make an arrest when he pulled over and opened the Explorer door..
Behind him in the Volkswagen was 33-year-old Daniel Florentine of Morris Plains. He told police that the Explorer “suddenly pulled over and flung the driver’s door open…(leaving) little time to react, which caused him to crash into the opened car door.”
VEHICLES AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT
Nationwide, there are few statistics but many anecdotal accounts of aggressive or reckless driving by immigration enforcement officers.
A July report by the American Civil Liberties Union, which tracked enforcement tactics across eight states since President Trump took office last year, found 14 times where officers rammed vehicles into people’s cars. They hit people with cars six times, reports the States Newsroom.
Nineteen of 22 people shot at by DHS officers over that span were in their vehicles, and four of the six fatal shootings by immigration officers came at traffic stops, States Newsroom reported. Three of the dead were U.S. citizens.
The DHS says its ICE (Immigration and Customs) and CPB (Customs and Border Patrol) officers have been the target of at least 180 vehicle attacks in Trump’s second term.
Tuesday’s sweep, the latest of several in Morristown since January, resulted in the arrest of three “criminal illegal aliens,” according to DHS.
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