The government claims immigrants are ramming cars at its agents. Courts keep proving it wrong.

"The scariest thing is we can't get the truth from this administration even when it's staring us directly in the face."

— E. Paige White, attorney for Phillip Brown, a U.S. citizen shot at by ICE during a traffic stop in Washington, D.C.

The Department of Homeland Security has a problem with its narrative. It has been telling the public for months that immigrants are "weaponizing" their vehicles to assault federal immigration agents, a claim used to justify everything from escalated use of force to deadly shootings. A Guardian review of 26 cases that DHS itself promoted as evidence of a "surge" in vehicular attacks shows that the story does not hold up. Only one person was convicted of assault. Eight charges were dismissed. Fifteen never faced federal charges at all.

DHS's own February press release listed 23 incidents from across the country to support its claim of a "3,300 percent increase in vehicle attacks" under Trump's second term. No evidence was provided for the figure. When The Guardian tracked down the actual cases, the results were striking. Of 26 people accused in those incidents of using vehicles to threaten or assault immigration officers, only one pleaded guilty to assault, and that case involved a man who reversed his car during a traffic stop and hit an officer in the leg.

Translation: the "vehicular assault" narrative is DHS's best effort to manufacture consent for an enforcement strategy that is increasingly deadly.

The pattern of the narrative collapsing is not random. It is structural. DHS blasts statements to the press and on social media painting the subjects of its traffic stops as violent assailants, then fails to correct the record when those claims fall apart.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez Romero, a Minnesota father of two, is one of the clearest examples. On December 21, DHS posted on X that Rodriguez Romero had "drove off, striking one of the officers in his attempt to escape" and then "began ramming his car into an ICE vehicle and struck ANOTHER ICE officer." He was charged with three counts of assault.

Internal records told a different story. The team leader on scene gave an interview to ICE that same day describing the vehicle as "almost hitting" an officer, not actually hitting him. Four other agents gave interviews, and only one alleged contact. As the case moved forward, prosecutors admitted the government was not alleging Rodriguez Romero "made contact" with the officer when he first fled. His attorneys said the government had presented "false testimony."

In June, nearly six months after the incident, the Justice Department moved to dismiss all charges with prejudice. The prosecution said it was "not confident" it could secure a conviction after thoroughly reassessing the evidence. Rodriguez Romero's lawyer, Bruce Nestor, said the dismissal came after a judge ordered the government to disclose additional evidence, including information from agents' personal phones.

"All of DHS's claims were entirely unsupported and exposed by the contradictory statements of the federal agents," Nestor said. "Mr. Rodriguez Romero is lucky to be alive."

The "weaponized vehicle" narrative became urgent public concern in late July, when ICE officers fatally shot two men during traffic stops less than a week apart.

On July 7 in Houston, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national who had lived in the United States for 35 years, was driving to a job site when ICE pulled him over. An officer opened fire. DHS said Araujo had "weaponized his vehicle." Witnesses who were in the car with him disputed the account.

On July 13 in Biddeford, Maine, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old delivery driver and father of a 3-year-old from Colombia, was killed in similar circumstances. DHS said Guerrero attempted to flee and that the officer shot him fearing for public safety.

Three days later, a 28-year-old man was killed by a semi-truck in St. Augustine, Florida after fleeing from ICE agents during a traffic stop.

In the same week, the ACLU released a report examining more than 1,200 immigration enforcement operations across eight states from January 2025 to the end of last year. Nearly one-third of the incidents involved the use of force or the threat of force. The report documented officers pushing, tackling, or pinning people to the ground more than 400 times. It found dozens of instances of chokeholds and pressure on the neck, tactics many local police agencies restrict or prohibit. It found agents ramming other people's cars, boxing them in, and smashing vehicle windows.

Naureen Shah, the ACLU's director of policy and government affairs for immigration, said the findings show a fundamental shift: "You're seeing the threat of using force and actually using it become the default tool for immigration enforcement agents."

The shift is not just cultural. It is logistical. ICE has dramatically increased the number of traffic stops it conducts, a change that law enforcement experts say creates inherently dangerous situations.

Jillian Snider, a retired New York City police officer and lecturer at John Jay College, said ICE officers historically conducted targeted enforcement at known locations. "Now we've seen an increase in doing car stops, which is a big concern if you're not afforded the proper car stop training."

Traffic stops require officers to navigate a complex set of variables: unmarked vehicles, drivers boxed in, doors left open while cars can be put in drive, conflicting instructions. Marc Brown, a former police officer who served as an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center until 2024, said ICE officers received an "abbreviated version" of defensive tactics training. "You cannot ask your officers to do a different mission and not adjust both your policies and training," he said. "You're going to have some significant gaps."

Significant gaps, followed by significant deaths.

Even the agent who killed Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine was not a random appointment. His ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette, identified him as David Brouillette and said he had racist beliefs and violent tendencies. Two of his ex-wives have accused him of abuse. His new ex-wife, Lucinda, shared what she described as a "chilling history of abuse" despite fears for her safety.

Meanwhile, DHS did not respond to questions about its "weaponized vehicle" claims. ICE did not respond to questions about the ACLU report. Neither agency wore body cameras at the time of the recent fatal shootings, despite DHS having pledged to equip all immigration agents with them.

The Guardian's attorney E. Paige White captured the core problem: "They refuse to be honest and that's terrifying."

The question is not whether the "weaponized vehicle" narrative is propaganda. Court records show it collapses under scrutiny nearly every time. The question is why an agency that kills people gets to keep telling the lie afterward.

The government keeps saying immigrants are coming at its agents with cars. So far the evidence keeps showing agents coming at people with guns.