Key facts
- ICE agents fatally shot two men, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas, within a week.
- Both men were reportedly not the intended targets of the enforcement operations.
- Advocacy groups have labeled the shootings as extrajudicial killings and are demanding ICE be removed from US streets.
- ICE officers involved in the Maine shooting did not have body cameras.
- DHS claims Salgado Araujo attempted to run over an agent with his vehicle, a claim disputed by witnesses.
- DHS stated Durán Guerrero's vehicle attempted to flee, prompting an officer to discharge their weapon.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have killed two men in separate incidents within a week, sparking outrage and calls for the agency's removal from American streets. The incidents involved Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national shot in Maine on Monday, and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old builder from Mexico shot in Houston on July 7.
Advocacy groups, including the National Police Accountability Project and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), have described the shootings as extrajudicial killings and state violence. Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, stated that the only way to prevent ICE from killing people is to remove the agency from the streets, suggesting Congress could freeze funding and limit jurisdiction.
Details surrounding the shootings have emerged, highlighting that neither Durán Guerrero nor Salgado Araujo were the intended targets of the operations. In Houston, DHS alleged Salgado Araujo attempted to run over an ICE official with his vehicle, a claim disputed by witnesses who stated shots were fired from the sides of the van and no official was in front. In Maine, DHS claimed Durán Guerrero's vehicle attempted to flee the scene, leading an officer to discharge their weapon. Witnesses in Maine, however, reported Durán Guerrero told agents he tried to stop his vehicle and that his wife and daughter witnessed the aftermath.
Immigrant rights activists also contend that Durán Guerrero was authorized to work in the US and possessed a social security number, contradicting the DHS's description of him as an "illegal alien."
In response to the incidents, federal immigration officials were reportedly instructed to stop pulling over vehicles until further notice. Tom Homan, former Trump administration border czar, suggested this was a temporary pause for review and potential training improvements. America's Voice criticized this as a "hastily hired, undertrained force of armed agents operating under exorbitant, politically driven arrest quotas."
The killing of Durán Guerrero marks the 11th fatal shooting by federal immigration officials since the beginning of Trump's second term, according to a review by The Guardian.