Juan Proaño discusses the ongoing violence by ICE agents across the U.S. that’s most recently resulted in two fatal ICE shootings in Houston, Texas, and Biddeford, Maine, where he leads the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC is demanding immediate transparency, independent investigations, and an end to the Trump administration enabling federal law enforcement officers “hunting for Latinos.”
SCOTT HARRIS: Thank you for that, Juan. So our country has just witnessed two more ICE shootings, one in Houston, Texas, where during a traffic stop, an ICE agent shot and killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Selgado Araujo, father of three. In Biddeford, Maine, an ICE agent shot and killed a 26-year-old from Columbia, Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, father of a 3-year-old daughter. In both these cases, ICE agents wore no body cameras. The agents’ stories about the circumstances surrounding the shootings are contradicted by video recordings and/or witnesses.
Juan, in both Houston and Maine, there’s widespread protests that have erupted against this ICE violence, which has killed 8 to 11 people since January 2025, including two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota earlier this year. In addition, I was just reading on the horrible statistics here. At least 55 people have died in ICE custody since January 2025 when Trump took office.
Juan, how should Americans understand what’s happening in our country with Trump’s deadly militarized mass deportation campaign being conducted by these masked agents who seem unaccountable?
JUAN PROAÑO: Yeah. I mean, I think you’ve described it pretty well. I mean, it is the militarization of our immigration system. It’s point blank. When you write a check for $170 billion as part of this “Big, Beautiful Bill” or H.R. 1, and then double down with another $70 billion to continue to fund it throug the end of President Trump’s administration, it’s clear that there are going to be issues. Now, LULAC supports stemming the flow of immigration at the border. We support the deportation of immigrants with violent criminal history, but we certainly don’t support this militaristic actions that have happened and we’ve seen across the country.
Yes, in Texas there were no body cameras at all. In Maine, the officers did have body cameras, but they were not turned on. And as you noted, these initially were reported as targeted enforcement actions. And then they said that, “Well, the individuals shot and killed were not the actual targets.”
They used the same explanation or reasoning behind Renee Good, that the vehicle was basically used as a weapon, that the officers basically shot in self-defense. And we can see certainly in the case of Lorenzo Salgado that that was not the case. There was no damage to the front of the vehicle, back of the vehicle, side panels of the vehicle. He was shot from the passenger side window directly across.
But I’m more concerned or equally concerned in regards to Maine and Joan. His three-year-old daughter was in the vehicle with him in the backseat. They shot at least six times, hitting him four times. No regard to any other passengers that were in the vehicle. They did so on a public street. Anyone could have been hit by the crossfire, including a person that was just outside starting their day. So terrible tactics, untrained officers, untrained agents and no accountability at all whatsoever.
SCOTT HARRIS: Juan, we’ve seen before that the Trump administration as well as DHS, Department of Homeland Security, has resisted local efforts to conduct their own investigations, what happened in their state or city. What’s the status as far as you know, in terms of efforts by local law enforcement to investigate these two deaths, both in Texas and Maine?
That’s number one. In that time, they could have saved his life. Number two, they removed all personal identifiable documentation off of his person. So when they put him into the ambulance and he arrived at the hospital, they received him as a John Doe, essentially hiding him from his family for hours and hours and hours. So I’ve never seen anything like it where they remove purposely a person’s identification, other than the fact that they wanted to hide him for as long as they possibly could at the hospital and within a system that allows them to get away with it.
SCOTT HARRIS: I’ve also heard that the two men that were in the van in Houston, Texas had deportation proceedings immediately kick in as if they wanted to hide these folks and their testimony, their eyewitness testimony of what occurred.
SCOTT HARRIS: We’re speaking with Juan Proaño, chief executive officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens or LULAC. And we’re talking about the recent ICE shootings and deaths of two individuals, one in Texas, one in Maine, added to a long list of others that have been shot or who have died in ICE custody and ICE detention centers. I wanted to ask you, Juan, if LULAC was going to be going to court or partnering with other organizations to get answers and accountability with lawsuits or other similar litigation to break through this barrier of silence that’s been put up by the Trump administration.
They racially profiled Lorenzo. And let’s be clear about that. He was a Latino man driving a work truck at 6:50 in the morning. That’s it. He wasn’t speeding. He was going to pick up his employees. He wasn’t the person of a targeted enforcement action. That was his only crime, being Latino driving a white work truck.
SCOTT HARRIS: And that was something that Supreme Court Justice (Brett) Kavanaugh seemed to give a green light to, which was extremely outrageous in my view. What do you think was the signal sent by Justice Kavanaugh when he talked about it being permissible to racially profile people in traffic stops?
What’s your view?
JUAN PROAÑO: Yeah. I mean it’s hard to take a look at all those facts and derive a different conclusion. I think that those two issues are very separate. So on the issue of voting rights, for example, we had one of our members, a longstanding member, 86 years old in August of 2024, her home was raided because she was registering senior citizens to vote. And because she took money for lunch, which was something that was legal. They changed the rules in Texas and it was no longer legal to take money for gas or money for food. And so no charges were ever basically filed. It was an attack on our community, on our leaders. And then you see that obviously with the SAVE Act, something that he continues to basically promote.
On the immigration side though, I think it’s a little bit more systemic and look, I’m not a person that’s skeptical or paranoid. If you’re going after birthright citizenship, if your intention is to deport up to 12 million people, that’s the number that they’re basically going for. You pull TPS for folks that are in this country legally for one reason or another, you’re basically trying to do is redefine the immigration system. They will clearly have to let immigrants back into this country because they play a critical role in certain industries like in the agricultural industry, for example, in the construction industry. But they want to do so in a way that allows them to let people come in when they want them to, not give them any of the constitutional rights that we all enjoy, that even allow their children to be US citizens. All of that is part of a plan. All of that is part of the system. And it’s very concerning because this is a country of immigrants.
We are all immigrants at the end of the day, including Donald Trump and his family and his wife and his children are children of immigrants at the end of the day. And so it’s hard for me to essentially, if this person says it’s a rule of law and we should follow the law, then why does he break so many rules? Why does he break so many laws? It’s really hypocrisy at its height. And so that’s where we’re at. And so it’s anti-authoritarian here. I mean it’s an anti-authoritarian regime. It’s basically what we’re getting to here and we’re going to continue to fight back against them every chance that we get.
SCOTT HARRIS: Juan, as you know, there are many people across this country that are angry, they’re frustrated, they’re upset. They feel powerless to stop this violence in the streets of our country by these masked agents who seem totally unaccountable. What in your view can our listeners do to stop ICE violence? And I would add this—beyond the courts, lawsuits, in your view, what’s the importance of becoming active in the streets with peaceful mass protests, vigils and nonviolent civil disobedience?
JUAN PROAÑO: Yeah. I mean, we’ve had long, long conversations here internally in regards to how to counsel and guide our members and the Latino community. I mean, what I would say is if you can, you should. Peaceful protest is part of our democracy at the end of the day. We certainly don’t want to put people in harm’s way. And so protesting, for example, at an ICE detention center is more prone to confrontation with these agencies and these agencies as well, but there are ways to peacefully protest. We on July 25 are planning peaceful vigils for Lorenzo and Joan Sebastian. I know we already have 150 vigils that have already been scheduled. Think about it sort of like ala “No Kings Day,” but really it’s a way for us to stand up against the ICE in a peaceful way. So I encourage you to maybe think about hosting one of your own or going out to any one of these vigils that are planned.
And my expectation is we’ll get more and more and more as we get closer to the weekend. But get engaged with an organization like LULAC. You don’t have to be Latino to become a member.
Latino nonprofits are, we are small, but we’re scrappy as well. A lot of the funding has been cut from our budgets given the federal attack on DEI. Corporations have been slow to move and support our work at the same time because they’re afraid that the Trump administration will retaliate in some way or another. But we are the safety net at the end of the day. LULAC, and I would say the church, which does a really good job of supporting immigrants as well. And so, support organizations like LULAC, support local nonprofit organizations that serve immigrants as well.
SCOTT HARRIS: Well, I want to thank you for spending time with us and talking about these really critical issues that LULAC and you’re involved with. Mention the website if you would, and the resources there, including information that’s likely there about the July 25th vigils across the country.
