A Mexican man was struck by a tractor-trailer in Florida while running from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents and was revealed to have been vacationing with his family on a tourist visa, according to a Mexican official.
Death by Semi Truck
Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, 28, died on July 14, 2026, after running from immigration officers into a busy road in St. Augustine, Florida. He ran straight into the path of a truck and was killed. His death makes that three in the last week involving encounters with ICE Agents.
Coronilla Durán reportedly traveled from San Luis de la Paz, in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, to visit family and friends in Atlanta, Georgia, according to Isaret Jeffers, founder of Colectivo Arbol, a farmworkers advocacy group. He had stayed there for around three weeks before traveling to the east coast of Florida to enjoy the beaches with his loved ones.
The man’s identity was not immediately made clear to the public, but a Mexican official confirmed who he was. Coronilla Durán’s wife, Yezzika Alamilla, told Jeffers that he had been visiting on a tourist visa. However, the Department of Homeland Security has yet to confirm whether the visa was valid.
ICE Encounter
The day Coronilla Durán died, he and three other people were in a vehicle at a gas station parking lot around 7 a.m. local time. Once ICE and Homeland Security showed up, the four individuals fled on foot, and Coronilla Durán ran into the path of a semi, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Officials have not clarified why the encounter occurred or what happened to the other three occupants of the vehicle. The Highway Patrol and DHS have said this is an ongoing investigation, so no further details will be provided at this time.
Witness to The Fatal Incident
A truck driver for a garbage collection company had stopped for breakfast and was sitting in his truck when he witnessed a man run from the gas station in front of a Wawa and onto the highway. It was just before 7 a.m. when Jose Rivera saw Coronilla Durán dressed in a light blue hoodie and blue jeans run to the sidewalk of State Road 16 and turn around.
Rivera looked towards the direction the man was looking, and saw unmarked blue SUVs with tinted windows. “That’s when I see the undercover car with the lights on,” Rivera said. “But when I looked back, he started running across the road.” The agents were in green uniforms, believing they said St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, but the Miami Herald confirmed that was mistaken.
Rivera said the man was in the median of the highway when he slipped and fell, and after picking himself up he stumbled onto the oncoming lanes of traffic. “The traffic was coming pretty quick, and he just lost his footing and didn’t look where the traffic was coming,” Rivera said. “He kept looking back.”
Rivera witnessed the man fall in front of the semi-truck and knew that he had died. “It was a heartbreaking moment for me,” Rivera said. “I have kids around his age.” The witness explained that he drove off after they closed the roads and was in disbelief upon learning the man’s age.
“I hate when things like that happen, especially to young ones,” Rivera told the Herald. “I’m almost 60, and yeah, you know, I’ve been through a lot of life, but everybody should make it until they’re older, right?”
Seeking Legal Help
The victim’s wife called Colectivo Arbol, a Central Florida-based nonprofit and advocacy organization that provides legal advice and assistance to farmworkers, the day after his death. She asked for help to travel from Mexico to Florida to retrieve her husband’s remains.
The organization funded her three-day trip to the United States, and she was guided by a Mexican consulate. “His wife said he was there on a tourist visa. She didn’t understand what was happening,” Jeffers said. “He didn’t come to work; he wasn’t working. He was here as a tourist.”
Alamilla believed her husband “was very afraid, and that’s why he ran away,” Jeffers said. ICE has a known habit of conducting business and asking questions later. Coronilla Durán was rightfully scared, if that was the case, because most people captured or detained by ICE are treated like animals, killed, or worse, never return home.
Remembering Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán
According to Alamilla, her husband “had been in the United States for only a very short time (and) had a tourist visa,” said Susana Guerra Vallejo, the undersecretary for assistance to migrants and mobility issues for the Mexican state of Guanajuato.
Guerra Vallejo said the widow will be able to see her husband’s body at a Florida funeral home, and it will then be transferred to Mexico on a commercial flight from Orlando. His burial site is located in his hometown of San Luis de la Paz, a local farming community in Guanajuato, approximately 160 miles northwest of Mexico City.
Coronilla Durán was the father of two, a 7-month-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. His family hopes he is remembered for who he was and what he did in his life, not for how he died.
Immigration Crackdown
Since President Donald Trump began his mass deportation and immigration crackdown, 10 individuals have died during encounters with immigration agents, including Coronilla Durán. The Mexican government has asked the U.S. state attorneys general to review the deaths of migrants in ICE custody and from the raids to determine possible criminal prosecution.
