AS WE GO TO PRESS …
Six days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, ICE forces chased and then killed 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, originally from Colombia, as he left his home in the small town of Biddeford in Maine July 13.
Photos show at least four bullet holes in the driver’s window of his car. Agents don’t claim he was a threat to them, but that he was attempting to flee and they “feared for public safety.”
The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition said Guerrero was authorized to work in the U.S. Neither man was the target of an ICE operation, but agents in both cases decided to chase their vehicles, leading to them being shot.
Widespread anger over the killings led ICE officials to announce July 14 they will suspend the use of traffic stops to arrest or question immigrants. In addition, the agency said they will no longer send officers out to make arrests unless at least one person on the team is wearing a body camera. No agents wore cameras in either the Texas or Maine killings.
President Donald Trump responded by urging DHS officials to reinstate traffic stops.
FORT WORTH, Texas — The Department of Homeland Security has sharply escalated its arrests and deportation of immigrant workers in the U.S. In just three days, from July 7-9, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents incarcerated more than 6,000 people.
As part of these operations, ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old construction worker, as he was driving to work in Houston July 7.
Salgado owned a construction business and was taking three other workers to work. The Department of Homeland Security said ICE agents, who weren’t wearing body cameras, tried to stop his vehicle during a targeted immigration enforcement operation. ICE claimed Salgado “weaponized his vehicle” and struck an ICE vehicle, then drove at an officer, prompting the agent to fire in self-defense.
Two days later, ICE changed its story, admitting its agents had been after someone else who had a van similar to the one Salgado was driving.
His family disputed the government’s version of events in a news conference July 8. They say Salgado understood his rights and he would have cooperated with immigration officials. They believe he may have thought he was being confronted by criminals because the agents were driving unmarked vehicles.
There was a march of over 1,000 in the largely Latino neighborhood where Salgado’s family lives July 8, protesting the killing and demanding an independent investigation. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also condemned the killing.
Youth in the neighborhood refer to Mr. Salgado as Don Lorenzo, a title of respect.
Salgado had been in the U.S. for 35 years, his family said. He was in the process of getting legal work papers.
“He wanted nothing else in life but to provide for his wife and see his sons become great people,” Ronaldo Salgado, his eldest son, said. “That’s how I want the world to know my father: not as someone who got shot and killed, but as a family man, a man who understood that good things come to those who put in hard work.
“I learned of my father’s passing from a news report on social media,” his son said. “He did not deserve to die. I am calling for a full investigation into the events that transpired yesterday.”
The three other construction workers who had been in Salgado’s van said ICE’s account of his death was false. They are being held in ICE detention.
“After speaking with these three men,” said Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, their attorney, “I have no doubt that what these ICE agents are saying is completely false.”
A key challenge to the fight that is needed is the actions of some ultraleft middle-class radicals, who often show up masked and dressed for combat, and organize violent confrontations against ICE agents. Some were recently given outrageously long sentences stemming from an attack on an immigration detention center in Alvarado, Texas. They are an obstacle to mobilizing the support that exists among workers for defending immigrant rights and opposing raids that target fellow workers.
“The death of Salgado underscores the necessity of a union-led fight for amnesty for all immigrants without papers in the U.S., to remove their pariah status and the fear of deportation, and to advance the road toward working-class unity in coming fights against the bosses,” the Socialist Workers Party in Dallas-Fort Worth said in a statement. “We urge working people and youth to join in the next protest this Sunday, July 19, in the Ervan Chew Park in Houston at 2 p.m.”