US officials face mounting calls to remove US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from American streets after federal agents killed two men who were not the target of enforcement action in less than a week. Advocacy groups, including the National Police Accountability Project and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, described the fatal shootings of Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas as extrajudicial killings.
Details of the Shootings
On 7 July, federal agents in unmarked vehicles pursued Salgado, a 52-year-old builder originally from Mexico, in Houston as he drove his crew to their job site. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that agents were conducting a “targeted enforcement operation” but that Salgado, who had no criminal history, was not the intended target. Salgado had lived in the US for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal status, his family said. A DHS spokesperson claimed that “officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop.” The DHS alleged Salgado “weaponized his vehicle” in an effort to run over an ICE official, a claim disputed by witnesses. The three men in the vehicle denied the agency’s claims, telling their attorney that there was never any ICE official in front of the van and that the shots were fired from the “sides” of the van.
Less than a week later, on Monday, an ICE official in Maine shot and killed Durán, a 26-year-old from Colombia. DHS said agents were conducting “surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal. An illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle.” The agency claimed that when law enforcement officers attempted to conduct a stop, “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.” Witnesses said Durán told agents he tried to stop his vehicle as they pulled him out, and his wife and daughter saw the aftermath. Immigrant rights activists said Durán was authorized to work in the US and had a social security number.
Reactions and Demands
“The bystander videos I watched make it clear that ICE agents carried out another extrajudicial public execution in Maine,” Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said in a statement. “It’s clear that the only way to prevent ICE from killing us in the streets is to remove ICE from the streets.” Congress can do so, she added, by freezing funding to the agency and limiting their jurisdiction. Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), said: “This is not public safety. This is not enforcement. It is state violence with the direct intent of terrorizing communities through fear, intimidation, and deadly violence. We demand a full, independent, and transparent investigation into these unjustified uses of force and accountability for every official responsible. We demand ICE leave our communities immediately.”
Policy Impact
After the killings, federal immigration officials were instructed to stop pulling over vehicles until further notice. Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, told Fox News it was a temporary pause while officials look into the recent incidents and determine whether training should be improved. America’s Voice, a progressive immigration reform advocacy group, argued that a “partial, temporary pause” would not solve the underlying problem: “A hastily hired, undertrained force of armed agents operating under exorbitant, politically driven arrest quotas.” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, said: “In America we don’t kill people in the streets because of the way they look. This pattern of unaccountable killings is unconscionable and unconstitutional and must end, period.” The killing of Durán was the 11th fatal shooting by federal immigration officials since Trump’s second term began, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, according to a Guardian review of public reports. The DHS said: “We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics.”
