After a year and a half of the Trump administration’s violent mass deportation campaign, the nation witnessed two more fatal ICE shootings in July, one in Texas and the other in Maine. On July 7, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old husband, father of 3 and home builder from Mexico was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston, Texas. Less than a week later on July 13, an ICE agent fatally shot Johan Sebastián Guerrero, a 26-year-old man from Colombia. Guerrero was shot and killed by an ICE officer on July 13, 2026, while driving to work with his 3-year-old daughter in the back seat.
Neither man was the intended target of the immigration enforcement actions and the agents involved did not have working body cameras. Since January 2025, ICE and CBP agents have been involved in at least 29 shooting incidents, leaving at least 8 to 11 individuals dead, including U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The Trump regime’s militarized mass deportation operation has been condemned for using masks to hide their identity, employing gratuitously violent tactics, targeting the wrong individuals, lack of training, and failure to use body cameras.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Juan Proaño, chief executive officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens or (LULAC), the nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization. Here he discusses his group’s demand for full transparency, independent investigations, and an end to the Trump administration enabling federal law enforcement officers profiling of Latinos.
JUAN PROAÑO: 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 HR1, and then double down with another $70 billion to continue to fund it through 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. 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 Zalgado (Araujo) 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 equally concerned in regards to Maine and Joan. His three-year-old daughter was in the vehicle with him in the back seat. 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, 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 25th 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 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 imigrants as well. And so support organizations like LULAC, support local nonprofit organizations that serve immigrants as well.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Juan Proaño (22:56) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the related links section of this page. To subscribe to our podcasts, email newsletters, our Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine Substack or social media, subscribe here.
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