Demand for Accountability After MAGA Era
When MAGA eventually leaves power, there will be calls to move on, but those responsible for ICE's reign of terror must be held accountable. Moira Donegan argues that attempts to hold Trumpism's purveyors accountable should not be dismissed as petty or vindictive. After Watergate and the Civil War, such arguments for moving on were wrong, and they will be wrong again after Trump.
Recent ICE Killings Highlight Urgency
On Tuesday, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old business owner and father of three, was shot dead in his car by an ICE agent in Houston while on his way to work. He had immigrated from Mexico 35 years ago. Three co-workers survived but were taken into ICE custody. The agents were reportedly looking for someone else.
Shortly after, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian resident of Biddeford, Maine, was killed by ICE. He had a work permit, held two jobs to support his wife and three-year-old daughter, and was shot in front of his daughter, who was still in her Bluey pajamas. Senator Angus King was told by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullen that ICE was also looking for someone else when they killed Durán.
ICE's Pattern of Violence and Cover-Ups
ICE claimed Salgado tried to run them down, but witnesses contest this. Similar claims were made about Renee Good, a mother of three killed in Minneapolis earlier this year, but video disproved ICE's account. The pattern suggests ICE, described as reckless and trigger-happy, is terrorizing communities and targeting innocent people based on race.
These deaths follow the killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis: Renee Good and VA hospital nurse Alex Pretti. Their deaths sparked protests and led to the dismissal of border patrol commander Greg Bovino and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. However, after a brief de-escalation, ICE has resumed its violent raids.
Community Fear and Call for Justice
Maria Cervantes, a Mexican immigrant in Houston, told the Guardian: "ICE hunts us like animals. I can’t help but think, who’s next? Am I going to get a bullet to the head for being brown?" Donegan argues that to rebuild America as a free and pluralistic democracy, we must ensure those who have suffered receive justice, and that forgetting Salgado, Durán, Good, Pretti, and others killed by ICE is unacceptable.
