Washington, DC – Today, an ICE agent shot and killed a person in Biddeford, Maine. ICE and DHS have offered no explanation for why the agent opened fire.
This marks the second time in six days that an ICE agent has killed someone in the United States. On July 9, an agent in Houston shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo to death during a traffic stop, a man ICE itself admitted wasn’t even the target of the operation. It is at least the eleventh fatal shooting tied to an ICE or Border Patrol agent since Trump took office. That toll includes Renee Good and Alex Pretti, killed during the administration’s operation in Minneapolis in January. In case after case, no agent has faced consequences.
This growing body count is a high price to pay. Armed with $240 billion from Congress, the administration has pushed agents to sustain thousands of arrests a day toward a stated goal of a million deportations a year. Agents chasing that quota have grown far too comfortable pulling the trigger on people who pose them no threat.
Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice, issued the following statement:
“The body count is growing, the lawlessness unchecked. ICE has now killed at least eleven people since Trump took office – two of them in the past week alone. Far from providing safety and security to America, families across this country are now afraid to drive to work, walk to church, or answer their own door, because ICE has shown them exactly what that fear is worth. President Trump, DHS, and Congress need to answer for why this administration has decided that hitting deportation quota matters more than human lives. How many more families have to bury a loved one before this killing in our streets stops?”
