A coalition of Texas religious groups is demanding major reforms to how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carries out its mass deportation operations.
Dozens of faith leaders from across the state gathered for a July 22 news conference to call for an end to the use of violence in enforcement actions and to urge Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state Legislature to protect immigrants and communities from the oppressive tactics of immigration agents.
The briefing at the state Capitol in Austin was called in response to the July 7 shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and the July 13 killing of Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. Both legal immigrants were gunned down by ICE agents as the victims drove to work.
Dan De Leon
“We lament the ICE killing of Houston resident Lorenzo Salvador Araujo, another victim of the terror campaign,” said Dan De Leon, senior pastor of Friends Congregational United Church of Christ in College Station and representing the South Central Conference of the United Church of Christ.
The Trump administration’s mass deportation effort is traumatizing immigrants and their families and plunging Texas communities into chaos, he said. “This is a terror campaign with the mission of traumatizing our neighbors until they self-deport. We are here today to say enough with the terror campaign. We don’t need terror, we need peace.”
Immigrants should be treated with dignity because they are created in the image of God and because humane treatment does not conflict with the federal government’s responsibility to maintain safe borders, said Grace Bonilla, a policy advocate for Texas Impact, which coordinated the press briefing.
Grace Bonilla
Immigrant families in Texas are now more hesitant than ever to drive to work, go grocery shopping or take children to school due to fear of being violently apprehended by ICE agents, she said. “When communities are terrorized rather than protected, everyone is less safe. Texas needs a different approach — we need immigration reform that is just, humane and comprehensive. We advocate for immigration reform that keeps families together, restores public trust and recognizes the humanity of every person.”
Bonilla presented a list of reforms the interfaith coalition considers essential to addressing the outrage and fear generated by ICE operations.
- Immediate federal reforms to ICE enforcement operations, beginning with clear, enforceable limits on the use of lethal force and an end to vehicle-based enforcement tactics “that predictably escalate into deadly encounters”
- State leaders must demand and conduct transparent investigations of all ICE-involved deaths in Texas
- ICE must stop using unmarked vehicles and plainclothes officers during routine enforcement actions: “No one should have to wonder whether they are being stopped by legitimate law enforcement or someone impersonating an officer. Transparency is essential to both public safety and public confidence,” Bonilla said.
- Agents must begin wearing clearly visible identification as well as body cameras, which were not in use in the recent Texas and Maine killings
- A family notification system for communication when a loved one has had an encounter with immigration agents
- “Truly independent oversight of ICE operations, with meaningful consequences when agents violate policy or the law”
- State review, licensing and regulation of ICE detention centers
- A moratorium on 287(g) agreements that enable local law enforcement to assist ICE in immigration enforcement actions
“Texas should not be complicit in federal operations that fail to meet basic standards of transparency, accountability and respect for our communities,” Bonilla said. “We are calling on our state and federal leaders to choose accountability over secrecy, humanity over fear and justice over indifference.”
“When fear begins to shape the daily lives of our neighbors, it is time for the church to show up.”
Sue Briner
The gospel calls for people of faith to stand with neighbors whenever they are vulnerable, said Bishop Sue Briner of the Southwestern Texas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “When fear begins to shape the daily lives of our neighbors, it is time for the church to show up — not with easy answers, but with courage, compassion and hope.”
Jim Harrington, a priest at St. James Episcopal Church in Austin, urged special attention to the child victims of ICE and urged advocates to speak with agents if they see them.
Jim Harrington
His suggestion is to ask agents to consider the work they do in light of morality and to examine their consciences in light of religious teachings. “They cannot defend themselves by claiming they are following orders. Following orders is never a justification in the Christian tradition, nor international law, to perpetuate evil.”
The men ICE agents killed in Houston and Biddeford were the victims of “unchecked, unaccountable” enforcement practices that continue to take lives across the country, said Bettie Forman of the National Council of Jewish Women in Austin.
“The broader reality of ICE violence is that there has been a dramatic uptick in violent apprehensions in places once considered off limits for enforcement, as well as a growing number of deaths in immigration detention facilities,” she said. “Immigrant communities across the country live in fear of violent apprehensions.”
Forman also warned that there is an obvious parallel ICE in 2026 and the Nazis before and during World War II.
“One hundred years ago during the Holocaust, Jews and others were rounded up and killed because they were different. Different methods were used, but it was the same reasoning, and this is the way it started exactly.”