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Blood and ICE in Minneapolis
On July 7, agents in Houston shot and killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo ; six days later, agents in Biddeford, Maine, shot and killed 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero. These two killings during ICE traffic stops — along with mounting deaths of people in ICE custody — are powerful reminders that the Department of Homeland Security’s mass apprehension and deportation program has not become any less violent or widespread since Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation as secretary in March. (Immigration status checks based on ethnicity, race or language spoken were approved by the Supreme Court in September 2025, and in Brett Kavanaugh’s concurrence, he wrote that, “If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”)
In the aftermath of the Maine killing, Gov. Janet Mills announced her support for abolishing ICE if the agency continues to act lawlessly and evade accountability. Referring to the agency’s announcement Tuesday that it would pause traffic stops, Mills told the Portland Press Herald that “it’s not even a half measure towards what should be happening to meet this moment. I’ve been asking for months for Congress to impose certain measures of accountability surrounding ICE reforms. If they can’t do that…then it should be abolished.”
The day of the shooting, hundreds of protesters descended on Sen. Susan Collins’ office to protest her vote in support of an ICE budget that allows the agency to expand its operations and capacity. According to the Maine Morning Star :
Attendees raised signs that read: “ICE, Trump’s army of thugs, are not welcome in Maine,” and “This is the government our founders warned us about,” while chanting “Solidarity forever!” and “No more hate, no more fear, immigrants are welcome here.”
“We want everyone in the country to know this young man’s name,” said Biddeford resident Amy Phalon, “just like they knew the names of the wonderfully brave white people who have been shot by ICE.”
Phalon was referring to the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti , both casualties of January’s massive ICE surge in Minneapolis. Like Salgado Araujo, Good was initially accused by ICE of driving toward the agent who shot her. Camera footage proved otherwise in Good’s case; three men were travelling to work with Salgado Araujo when he was shot, and while they have reportedly offered testimony that conflicts with ICE’s narrative, they are also all being held by ICE and are facing deportation. According to El Pais , the Harris County District Attorney’s Office has opened a path for the men to remain in the country in order to testify about the shooting.
The circumstances surrounding the deaths of Araujo and Guerrero were hardly unique. During the autumn of 2025, an ICE officer shot and killed 38-year-old Silverio Villegas González in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park. In early October, a Border Patrol agent shot Marimar Martinez five times in the streets of Chicago. In both cases, ICE initially claimed that the victims had used their cars as weapons against arresting officers; In Martinez’s case, incriminating text messages sent by the agent who shot Martinez led to her charges being dismissed (“I fired 5 shots and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys,” he wrote). Martinez also testified about her experience before Congress in April.
According to The New York Times , more than a dozen people have been charged with a crime following violent encounters with ICE. But the evidence often fails to hold up under scrutiny. Of the 13 people charged with crimes, seven have had their cases dismissed. Despite this record, Trump has overruled Border Czar Tom Homan’s announcement on July 14 that he was suspending traffic stops.
The deaths in Maine demonstrate that the violence has not stopped.
Meanwhile, many others targeted by ICE continue to die from preventable causes while in federal custody. According to an Associated Press investigation published in May, more than 50 people have died in ICE custody since Trump returned to office; many of these deaths could have been prevented with access to timely care. The report also noted a rise in suicides among ICE detainees, which accounts for roughly one-fifth of the deaths. Despite Trump’s frequent claims that ICE was focused on “the worst of the worst,” the AP found that seven of the 10 known suicides involved men with no record of violent crimes in the U.S.
To the general public, ICE operations may look different than they did last year or six months ago. The agency has toned down its presence and reduced ostentatious displays of military occupation, including less egregious violence committed against bystanders and protesters. But the deaths in Maine demonstrate that the violence has not stopped. The question of whether it can be stopped by anything short of the radical restructuring or complete dismantling of the agency will only grow in urgency in the weeks, months and years ahead, as will the task of ensuring those responsible for the gross human rights violations committed under this administration are prosecuted.
At a vigil in Lewiston on Tuesday night, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is running against Collins for Senate, called the ICE agents at the shooting “thugs” and said, “That agency is broken and we need to go back to a time where the rule of law united all of us regardless of the politics.”
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