Galveston gave us a familiar story this week. ICE officers tried to pull over a Guatemalan man, he decided running was the smarter play, and a tree ended the discussion. The incident report is short, which suits me fine. Short reports usually mean the bad guy lost cleanly.

Officers with ICE identified the man during enforcement activity in the Galveston area and attempted a vehicle stop. Instead of complying, which is what a person with nothing to hide does, he took off. The chase didn't last long. He left the roadway and hit a tree hard enough to end his afternoon, and officers took him into custody at the scene.

No word yet on injuries beyond what you'd expect from kissing an oak at speed, and no word on whether anyone else got hurt. That last part matters most. Every time somebody bolts from a traffic stop, they're gambling with everybody else's commute, everybody else's kids, everybody else's bumper. This time the only thing that got wrecked was a tree and his own ride. I've seen the version where a family in a minivan pays the bill instead. That version stays with you.

The man is Guatemalan and in the country illegally, which is the whole reason ICE was talking to him in the first place. Expect the usual crowd to skip that part and go straight to the tree. They always do. A guy who'd rather crash a car than talk to a federal officer isn't a sympathetic figure in my book, and I kept a notebook for 26 years, so my book is thick.

A word on the mechanics, since I like people knowing what things mean. When ICE attempts a stop like this, it's usually built on prior work: a detainer that went unanswered, a target identified through a 287(g) partnership with local jail screening, or a case where the subject's removal order is already on paper. A detainer, for those who don't eat these press releases for breakfast like I do, is a request that a local agency hold an illegal alien for up to 48 hours so ICE can come get them. When the locals ignore it, which sanctuary jurisdictions do as a hobby, ICE ends up doing street arrests. Street arrests mean traffic stops. Traffic stops mean guys like this one making bad decisions at speed. Every step in that chain traces back to somebody refusing to do the simple thing.

We'll see what charges land. Flight from officers will likely stack on top of whatever immigration violations he was carrying, and if he had a license, I'd be surprised. Fleeing drivers in these cases usually don't.

Twenty-six years in the Tucson sector taught me one thing about runners: the car always loses. Engines quit, tires give out, trees stand their ground. The guys on foot in the desert had a better record than the guys behind the wheel, and neither group was smart to try.

Scoreboard: one illegal alien in custody, one tree slightly worse for wear, zero bystanders hurt. I'll take that line every day of the week.