ICE Keeps Killing Immigrants in Cars It Claims Were “Weaponized” Against Agents
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This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot to death yet another immigrant in his car — a 26-year-old father living in Biddeford, Maine, who was originally from Colombia.
Neighbors reported that the victim, whom they identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, is the father of a young daughter and was authorized to work in the U.S. While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly initially claimed that Guerrero had “weaponized his vehicle,” it has since shifted its narrative to claim that an ICE officer shot Guerrero as his “vehicle attempted to flee.”
Guerrero’s killing by ICE in broad daylight on July 13 is the second in a week. In Texas, Houstonians are still reeling from Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s death at the hands of ICE officers.
On July 7, Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican construction worker, became the 21st person whom ICE shot since Donald Trump took office last year. Over the same period of time, Salgado Araujo was the fifth person whom ICE killed after agents shot into the victim’s vehicle.
ICE officers claimed that they shot Salgado Araujo after he tried to ram them with his work van. The officers did not wear any body cameras to document the encounter, and Salgado Araujo’s colleagues dispute ICE’s account. Jose Trinidad Rojas told The Washington Post, “there were no officers in front or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.”
DHS Says ICE Killed Man in Maine While He Was Trying to Flee
In fact, Salgado Araujo had stopped the van before the officers fired their weapons into it. One of the ICE officers shot Salgado Araujo from the passenger side of the van, hitting him in the abdomen. They then pulled him out of his van onto the street. Salgado Araujo, in a scene that is becoming entirely too familiar in the age of social media, can be heard in a video crying out for help.
Joan Sebastian Guerrero’s and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s killings exemplify how the Trump administration’s deportation machine thrives on racism, dehumanization, violence, and cruelty. While the president’s bigoted comments about Mexicans, Haitians, Somalis, and other groups of migrants often garner headlines, it’s important to recognize the role of the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo........
