ICE killing in Houston prompts claims of wrong target, disputed ‘weaponized vehicle’ account

A poet, a nurse, a construction worker and a food delivery driver. The four people killed in 2026 by federal immigration agents were regular folks trying to live their lives in peace before they were crushed by the unchecked power of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The brief respite between the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January and the deaths of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero over the last two weeks shows the government learned nothing from what happened in Minneapolis earlier this year. There, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, alongside members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, spread terror and chaos in plain view. Masked and heavily armed, agents trampled people’s constitutional rights as they used excessive force to intimidate and arrest with impunity, ultimately killing Good and Pretti, both U.S. citizens. Sadly, the national outrage that followed did not dissuade Trump from his misbegotten mission — it merely amounted to a public relations problem addressed with a few firings and a temporary

Donald Trump’s administration has found a new way to grant ICE total impunity after a slew of deadly incidents involving federal immigration agents. Last week, FBI agents received notice that their agency would no longer investigate claims of assault against immigration agents, sources told The New York Times. Instead of involving the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations—a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement—would likely be responsible for investigating confrontations, according to the agency’s guidance. The purpose of these investigations is to determine whether federal immigration agents were in fact attacked, but their findings can also be used to prosecute DHS agents who are involved in violent confrontations. Trump administration officials have insisted that anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with immigration agents should be charged with felony assault, which is punishable by up to eight years in prison. In multiple violent confrontations between agents and civilians, both fatal and not, the government has been quick to claim that the agents felt threatened.The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security denied that any such change had been made.“The relationship between D.H.S. and D.O.J. in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and F.B.I. will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy,” the agencies told the Times in a joint statement. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”Already, hundreds of criminal cases alleging assault against immigration officers have completely fallen apart. If implemented, this guidance would be particularly concerning considering how many lies immigration officials have told about their violent confrontations with protesters and immigrants. Last week, an ICE agent shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man legally in the United States, while he drove with his three-year-old daughter in Maine. The next day, a man in Florida was struck and killed by a tractor trailer while being chased by ICE.The week before that, an ICE agent shot and killed longtime Houston resident and father of three Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while he was driving. Federal agents claimed that he tried to ram the officers—a claim that eyewitnesses denied and that has crumbled under the slightest scrutiny.

The fatal shootings of two men, both killed in their vehicles by ICE agents, have rekindled anger over the US’s militarized deportation pushLorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving to work with his brother and two other passengers in Houston, Texas, when immigration agents began tailing his car. They pulled him over and fired a fatal shot through the open passenger-side window.Six days later in Biddeford, Maine, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, was driving around his neighborhood when agents stopped him at an intersection – right outside the laundromat where he’d often go with his three-year-old daughter – and shot him dead. Continue reading...

NEW YORK, United States (CMC) — Immigration advocates in New York are welcoming as “overdue” the decision of the United States Government to order the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to halt making vehicular stops after ICE agents killed two people at separate traffic stops in recent days. On July 7, ICE agents killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas and, on Monday, ICE killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella group of over 200 immigrant and refugee groups in New York State, said Guerrero was the 11th person that ICE agents have shot and killed during US President Donald J Trump’s second term, in addition to 52 people who have died in ICE detention. “Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Guerrero should be alive today,” NYIC President and Chief Executive Officer, Murad Awawdeh, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). “Immigrant communities should not have to live under the constant threat that they will be executed in front of their families by masked, unidentified agents. But across America, reckless and violent ICE agents in unmarked vehicles are chasing down our neighbours, inflicting terror in our communities and all too often taking people’s lives. “We welcome the development that ICE will pause making traffic stops, because no one is safe when ICE is present. New York State banned all formal agreements between local governments and ICE, and counties doing ICE’s bidding must follow the new law and end their agreements,” Awawdeh said. He said Congress wrote ICE a blank check, and communities are paying the price, urging lawmakers to cut this funding and chart a path toward ending this rogue agency once and for all. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chair, Yvette D Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, extended “deepest condolences” to the families and loved ones of Araujo and Guerrero. “We stand with their families, community leaders and residents in demanding full, independent investigations and accountability for ICE operations that tragically claimed their lives,” Clarke, who represents the predominantly Caribbean 9th Congressional District in New York, told CMC. “Like so many Americans, we are outraged by what we have witnessed in far too many communities across the country as our neighbours are terrorised and brutalised by ICE and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). She said that the growing presence of immigration enforcement in communities is not about public safety, but about stoking fear. “We have seen innocent people killed in cold blood by masked federal agents who are funded by American taxpayer dollars, yet believe they are above the law. Any use of deadly force by any law enforcement official must be met with complete transparency, an independent investigation and full public oversight. This is no exception,” Clarke said. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who is seeking re-election this year, said in a statement that she had urged US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “cease all non-urgent vehicle stops” by ICE agents. But Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said that the order for ICE to cease vehicular stops was temporary. “It’s a short pause just to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” he said, adding that operations continue, arrests are at record numbers and deportations are at record numbers. On Tuesday, the California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) demanded a “full, independent investigation” into the fatal shooting David Venturella, ICE’s acting director, said in a statement that Araujo was an “illegal alien” who had “weaponised his vehicle” in trying to run over the ICE agent, who fired at him. Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado, said on Facebook that his father was “a hardworking Mexican man”. “My father has been in this country for nearly 35 years, working in construction to provide for myself, my two brother and my mother,” he said.

SAN DIEGO, United States (CMC)—The California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) on Tuesday demanded a “full, independent investigation” into the fatal shooting of a man, who the United States Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents shot and killed after pulling him over in Houston. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, claimed on July 7 that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo had “weaponised his vehicle.” But HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that HBA wants “complete transparency and accountability” from DHS and ICE. “Reports indicate that Mr Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the operation, raising serious concerns about ICE’s tactics, use of force, and disregard for human life, especially Black and brown immigrants,” she said. Jozef said this tragedy is not an isolated incident, stating that at least 50 people have died in ICE custody or during ICE enforcement operations. “These deaths point to a deeply troubling pattern of violence, neglect, and a lack of accountability that demands immediate action. Haitian Bridge Alliance calls on the Department of Justice to immediately launch an independent investigation, publicly release all available evidence, and hold accountable anyone found to have violated the law or agency policy. “No federal law enforcement agency should be permitted to investigate itself without meaningful independent oversight. The killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is not simply another tragedy—it is part of a deeply troubling pattern of violence and impunity that has become synonymous with ICE enforcement,” she said. Jozef said far too many people have died during interactions with ICE and that communities are living in fear, families are being devastated, and accountability remains elusive. “We cannot continue to accept a system that repeatedly produces these outcomes. It is past time to abolish ICE and replace it with an immigration system rooted in due process, transparency, human dignity, and respect for life,” Jozef said. She reiterated that the Haitian Bridge Alliance stands in solidarity with the Salgado family and every family that has lost a loved one during immigration enforcement operations. Caribbean immigration advocates in New York have also called for the abolition of ICE in the wake of Salgado Araujo’s killing. “No one should have to fear that masked federal agents can stop their vehicle and take their life with impunity,” said Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella organisation of over 200 immigrant and refugee groups in New York State. “Yet once again, ICE has killed someone on an American street, and once again, DHS has sought to justify the use of deadly force by claiming that the individual ‘weaponised his vehicle'. “DHS has repeatedly lied in these moments, undermining public trust and raising serious questions about their credibility. Their claims cannot be accepted at face value and must be subjected to an independent investigation,” Awawdeh said, adding, “our hearts are with the family of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during this horrific tragedy”. ICE’s acting director, David Venturella, said in a statement that Araujo was an “illegal alien,” who had “weaponised his vehicle” in trying to run over the ICE agent, who fired at him. But Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado, said on Facebook that his father was “a hardworking Mexican man". “My father has been in this country for nearly 35 years, working in construction to provide for myself, my two brothers, and my mother. He was in the process of obtaining his work permit through the legal process. He was on his way to work, picking up his workers. My father did not deserve this,” said Ronaldo. The chief executive of the League of United Latin American Citizens, Juan Proaño, also called for an independent investigation into Araujo’s killing, disputing DHS’s account of the incident, describing it as “a template.” “We don’t trust ICE, and we don’t trust the FBI to be responsible enough or open or transparent enough with what happened today,” Proaño said. Araujo’s shooting comes as the Trump administration has intensified its arrest and deportation onslaught of Caribbean and other immigrants. In response to reports of a surge of 10,000 ICE arrests within five days, Yaritza Mendez, deputy director of the immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York, said ICE is “ramping up arrests of mothers, fathers, and community members to meet their 2,000 arrest-per-day quota. “This is a clear illustration of this administration’s inhumane tactics, which reduce people to nothing more than numbers. The Trump administration’s actions over the past few months may not seem as oppressive as what we witnessed in Minneapolis, but, in reality, their mass deportation apparatus is as cruel as ever. “Instead of sending armed militias into American cities to terrorise the population, the administration has fortified its reliance on racial profiling and surveillance technology to separate families,” Mendez added. Last month, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said he would send ICE agents to New York City in response to New York Governor Kathy Hochul signing a slate of immigration legislation into law.

Lawyer says men who were riding in van are being pressured to self-deport as footage of incident is reportedly with investigatorsSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailThe three men who were in the van when federal immigration officials shot and killed a man in Houston, Texas, this week are strongly disputing the Trump administration’s narrative of the events and are being pressured to sign deportation orders, according to their lawyer and lawmakers.The three men, who were arrested by immigration officials during the incident, denied that the driver of the vehicle, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, “weaponized” his vehicle against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. They also told their lawyer that there was never an ICE official in front of the van and that the shots that killed Salgado came from the “sides” of the vehicle. Continue reading...