WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday’s fatal shooting of Houstonian Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by ICE is the latest proof that the agency continues to terrorize immigrant communities with total impunity. This marks the third deadly ICE shooting this year, following the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good—and over 50 deaths in ICE detention since Trump began his second term. In recent weeks, ICE has quietly doubled its daily arrests of workers, breadwinners, and taxpaying immigrants in low-profile operations designed to avoid headlines. Since July 2, Trump’s secret police force has detained more than 10,000 people. Reports and firsthand accounts describe ICE agents abducting individuals based on physical appearance alone—often in public, without speaking or showing identification—before funneling them directly into detention and deportation.
Said Nicole Melaku, NPNA executive director, “We cannot take ICE’s account at face value; we’ve heard it before. We are thinking of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and his family. An ICE encounter should never result in death, yet under this administration, that is what we continue to see. Secretary Mullin is another example of failed leadership. But no administration—however well-funded—can erase our basic humanity and right to due process. We join our members to elevate and give visibility to the harms that these operations in various cities are causing. Whether silent or highly visible, enforcement surges of any kind are not welcomed and will not go unchecked. We join the calls for an independent and thorough investigation into the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. We commend our members who are on the frontlines, answering the call of community members facing family separation in real time, and amplifying their calls to legislators at every level. We need immediate oversight of this rogue agency, and we need not one more community member taken away.”
In Houston, increased enforcement led to the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and earlier this month, in South Texas, the detention of a Nigerian nun who was recently released. Said Zenobia Lai, executive director of Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative (HILSC), “Indiscriminate arrests and the indefinite detention of innocent people, asylum seekers, survivors, and parents of U.S. citizen children destabilize communities, weaken local economies, disrupt essential sectors of our workforce, and inflict lasting trauma on families and our nation. No one should be killed because of a system designed to deny them a path to permanent immigration status. This is not how America should commemorate its 250th birthday.”
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, “In Wisconsin, we have witnessed and documented how ICE continues to act like a Gestapo force in our communities, terrorizing immigrant workers, their families and the community at large. Families are being torn apart in front of traumatized children, and excessive use of force is being used by masked and armed ICE agents. Mothers, fathers, and beloved community members are being swiftly placed in for-profit prisons with a lack of medical care, adequate food, and lack of access to proper legal representation.
Immigrant workers are not criminals. The actions of ICE are criminal. This surge in harm by ICE does not make our communities safer. It makes us less safe, harms families, and our state economy. We refuse to remain silent against this abuse of power. As a community, we are organizing to support families, expose and condemn the harm and gross misuse of our public dollars, and call for families to be reunited. Defending the rights and dignity of immigrants is not only about protecting one group of people; it is about defending our values and the democratic principles and constitutional freedoms that belong to all of us.”
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The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) is a multi-ethnic, multiracial coalition of over 76 of the nation’s largest immigrant and refugee rights organizations with reach across over 40 states. Together with our members, we advance immigrant and refugee equity and inclusion, build and expand immigration legal services and integration programming capacity, and drive campaigns that strengthen democracy through increased civic participation. See our website for more information at partnershipfornewamericans.org.