4 men who ran from I-190 traffic stop after 'immigration investigation' in ICE custody

The situation began about 8:15 a.m. when Customs and Border Protection agents attempted to conduct a traffic stop along Pine Avenue in Niagara Falls. The agents were conducting an "immigration investigation," CBP spokesman Mike Niezgoda said in an email.

The agency declined to say where on Pine the attempted stop took place.

The driver failed to pull over and got onto the southbound I-190 and onto Grand Island, Niezgoda said.

Agents terminated their pursuit because of heavy traffic and the driver's erratic operation, he said.

Border patrol agents on I-190 in Buffalo subsequently spotted the vehicle and began to follow it "at a safe distance," Niezgoda said.

Agents then saw state troopers begin to follow the vehicle. State police pulled the vehicle over on I-190 near the I-90 interchange on the Buffalo-Cheektowaga border, he said.

Troopers initially received a report of an erratic driver operating on the southbound I-190 near the Buffalo Avenue/Niagara Scenic Parkway exit in Niagara Falls, state police said.

When the vehicle pulled over near the Dingens/South Ogden exit on I-190, four occupants exited and began to flee on foot, according to Customs and Border Protection and state police.

The four men taken into custody included two from Honduras, one from Mexico and one from Ecuador, Niezgoda said. They were turned over to ICE's Removal and Enforcement Operations, he said.

The agency withheld their names, citing privacy policy of the Department of Homeland Security.

Traffic citations are pending against the driver, and citations for the three passengers for being pedestrians on a controlled highway, Trooper Krista Montie, public information officer for Troop T, said in an email.