President Donald Trump’s doubling down on Immigration and Customs Enforcement traffic stops despite agents’ killing of two motorists proves deadly force is an integral part of the administration’s mass deportation campaign, an immigrant rights leader said.
Vanessa Cardenas
The administration’s “deportation machine is cruel, costly, chaotic and now deadly on a growing scale,” America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cardenas said during a virtual press call July 16.
“They are killing our fathers, our neighbors, our coworkers with no regard for human life. The cruelty and violence will not stop — that much is clear since Trump himself reverted the directive secretary Mullen gave to end ICE vehicular stops.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced a temporary freeze on most ICE traffic stops after the fatal shootings of two documented immigrants, one on July 7 in Houston and another on July 13 in Biddeford, Maine. Both men were driving to work when agents mistook them as targets of enforcement actions and opened fire.
Tom Homan
But the president quickly responded by calling traffic stops essential to ongoing enforcement actions, and White House Border Czar Tom Homan said the stops will continue.
In other words, violence is a key part of the administration’s anti-immigrant policies, Cardenas said. “As long as there is a quota of arrests to meet, ICE agents will continue to hunt immigrants indiscriminately and, with the Supreme Court’s blessing, they are free to racially profile.”
But activists aren’t the only ones speaking up about ICE since the killing of 52-year-old Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and 26-year-old Colombian Johan Sebastian Guerrero in Maine.
Congressional and state Republicans running for re-election in 2026 have called for extensive investigations into both killings, demanded transparency and expressed concern that ICE agents were not wearing body cameras when the shootings occurred.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, currently seeking a fourth term, spoke up a week after Araujo was gunned down by saying, “Any loss of life is tragic” and by announcing the state Department of Public Safety and Texas Rangers will investigate the Houston incident.
The election-minded governor also dropped his usual tough-on-immigrants rhetoric in January by urging a recalibration of federal deportation tactics following the ICE-involved shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, defeated in the May primary by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, said it was a “mistake” that agents weren’t wearing body cameras and that “it would be wise” for the technology to be distributed as soon as possible.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also running for re-election in November, has been outspoken about the ICE-involved killing in her state.
Susan Collins
“The facts surrounding the shooting remain a matter of significant local and national concern, and it is important that these investigations provide clear answers as to what transpired yesterday,” Collins and U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine., said in a letter to Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Federal law enforcement agencies must fully cooperate with state and local law enforcement throughout the investigations to give the public confidence that the inquiries have been conducted in a thorough, fair and impartial manner.”
This is an issue that is beginning to unnerve even the highest-ranking conservatives in Washington, D.C., according to a report by Politico: “Republicans — including top officials in the administration — are concerned that the lack of video evidence of the shootings will end up damaging President Donald Trump’s ambitious crackdown on unauthorized immigration by making it difficult to set the narrative or identify issues in tactics. Lawmakers also said more training may be needed to ensure ICE officers understand when they can and cannot use deadly force.”
Ryan Fecteau
The competence of ICE agents is one of the biggest challenges facing the communities where they have been deployed, Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau said during the America’s Voice news conference.
“What we experienced here in Maine on Monday is absolutely sending ripples through our community of just tons of different emotions. We’re saddened, in shock, heartbroken and also angry that a young man, one of our neighbors, was gunned down in our streets,” he said. “It’s completely due to the fact that we have ICE agents in our communities who are not well trained and have not been held accountable for their actions in other places across the country, and so they continue to act with impunity when it comes to enforcing immigration laws.”
What happened in Biddeford is especially hurtful to the small city because it is known for its historic welcome of immigrants, added Fecteau, who lives in the municipality.
“Mr. Guerrero was just yet another example of someone who was a part of the vibrant fabric of our community and someone who wasn’t even the target of this ICE operation on Monday, he was not the person that they were looking for and yet at the end of Monday morning he was no longer on this earth,” he said.
And more tragedy is sure to come given the “obscene amount” of funding Congress has allocated for DHS operations “to the tune of almost a quarter trillion dollars,” Cardenas said. “We have an administration intent on realizing the full scope of its mass-deportation agenda with the resources to do so and with the shocking lack of accountability.”