ICE agents in Houston shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo last week as he drove to work. They shot him by firing into his van, describing him as an “illegal alien” who had “weaponized his vehicle.”
Araujo had lived and worked in the United States for 35 years, raising three sons with his wife. He ran a construction company and had no criminal record. Yes, he was undocumented. Is that grounds for being gunned down on a city street by masked federal agents?
We have heard the “weaponized his vehicle” rationale before. If true, it might justify shooting into a car. But past experience suggests that this is a lie. “In several instances … video evidence and testimony from witnesses contradicted the agency’s initial accounts, establishing that the officers were not in danger and, in some cases, acted as the aggressors.” No immigration agents have been charged in any of the previous fatal shootings.
The other three men in the vehicle have disputed the account given by federal authorities.
This is the tenth person to be shot and killed by ICE and Border Patrol in Trump’s second term “and the 17th Mexican to either be fatally shot by ICE or to die in ICE detention.” The latest shooting occurred as the Trump administration has doubled immigration arrest numbers (often by making arrests at immigration check-ins, nabbing folks following the law).
Third-country removals continue apace, while Americans who protest Trump policies are subject to threats and harassment in violation of the First Amendment.
There is no place for this in a free country. Judge for yourself.
Meanwhile, the number of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital has surged and the Pentagon announced that the troops would remain through the 2029 inauguration.
This ain’t the America most of us grew up with. Day by day, city by city, a federal occupying army is put into place, as our country creeps closer to being a police state at the hands of Donald Trump.