US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ordered its officers to suspend most vehicle stops nationwide after federal agents fatally shot two men in separate incidents in Maine and Texas within six days.

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, was killed by an ICE agent in Biddeford, Maine, about 24 kilometers south of Portland. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that the officer, "fearing for public safety," shot Mr. Guerrero while officers were surveilling the home of an individual believed to be in the US illegally and facing a final order of removal. A bystander reported hearing the man say, "I tried to stop."

Six days earlier, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old builder originally from Mexico who had lived in the US for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal status, was pursued and killed by federal agents in Houston, Texas. The DHS said agents were conducting a "targeted enforcement operation" but that Salgado Araujo, who had no criminal history, was not the intended target.

These incidents have sparked mounting calls from advocacy groups such as the National Police Accountability Project and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights to remove ICE from American streets. Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, described the Maine shooting as "another extrajudicial public execution," emphasizing that removing ICE from the streets is the only way to prevent further killings.

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), called the actions "state violence with the direct intent of terrorizing communities through fear, intimidation, and deadly violence."

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced plans to file criminal complaints in the US concerning Mexican citizens who have died in immigration custody or during anti-immigration operations.

The killings of Durán Guerrero and Salgado Araujo are part of a series of fatal shootings by federal immigration officials since the start of former President Trump's second term, including the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Sources