They Are Killing US. Here's What We Can Do About It.

Yesterday morning, a federal immigration agent shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero at the corner of Hill and Pool streets in Biddeford, Maine. He was 26, a father, from Colombia. Immigrant advocates say he was authorized to work in the United States. He was not even the target of the operation. Sen. Angus King’s office confirmed that with DHS itself, as reported by News Center Maine. A neighbor who heard the shots told the CBC he watched the wounded man pulled from his car, heard him say “I tried to stop.” The agents wore no body cameras. The Maine Attorney General is investigating and the agent is on leave.

A makeshift memorial, a day after ICE agents fatally shot Joan Sebastian Guerrero, in Biddeford, Maine, July 14, 2026. Photo by CJ Gunther/ Reuters

Six days before this, an ICE officer in Houston’s Magnolia Park shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father of three, while he drove his construction crew to a job site. ICE says he tried to ram an officer. The men in his van dispute that account through their attorney. The Harris County medical examiner ruled it a homicide and the county DA has opened an investigation. Those officers wore no body cameras either. The Associated Press called it at least the eighth death in this administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. Biddeford makes at least nine, by Al Jazeera’s count. NBC News, counting the injured alongside the dead, documented 14 people shot by immigration agents between September 2025 and February 2026 alone.

And that is only the streets. Inside detention, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights documented 52 deaths in ICE custody in the administration’s first 500 days. Their June report, “Dying in Detention,” found the mortality rate has more than doubled, a roughly 140 percent year-over-year increase, the highest level in over a decade even after accounting for the surge in the detained population. Seven people died by apparent suicide in the first year. In 2024, there was one.

Not one agent has been criminally charged in any of these deaths. Capital & Main, which identified several of the shooters through public records, confirmed in March that none had faced charges.

People are dying three ways: shot by agents during street operations, dead in detention from what medical experts describe as delayed or inadequate care, and killed in the chaos surrounding raids. Each category has names. Each category has a paper trail. And each category has a government account that keeps collapsing when evidence surfaces.

Consider Marimar Martinez, a Chicago schoolteacher and US citizen. A Border Patrol agent shot her five times in October 2025 after DHS claimed she rammed his vehicle. Federal prosecutors charged her, then dropped the case in November. When a judge ordered the evidence released in February, bodycam footage showed the agent swerving into her car after another agent said “it’s time to get aggressive.” The government had called her a domestic terrorist. The video defines her as a person driving away. In Minneapolis this January, agents shot and killed two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in separate incidents days apart. In the Marquette Law School poll taken immediately after, 62 percent of Americans said the Good shooting was not justified.

Congress built this

The July 2025 reconciliation law handed ICE roughly $75 billion in new funding, which NPR notes made it the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in the country and doubled its ranks within months. That was part of $170 billion overall for immigration and border enforcement, including $45 billion for detention, a 265 percent annual increase. Then, this June, Congress used reconciliation a second time to add about $70 billion more for ICE and Border Patrol, with no new accountability measures attached, bypassing the appropriations process where oversight strings normally get tied.

The money bought exactly what you would expect. Border czar Tom Homan went on Fox News the day of the Houston shooting and boasted that ICE had arrested over 10,000 people in five days, a record. “We turned the heat up after we got the reconciliation bill,” he said.

And we must dismantle the “worst of the worst” talking point. Leaked ICE data analyzed by the libertarian Cato Institute shows 73 percent of people booked into ICE custody this fiscal year had no criminal conviction at all. Only 5 percent had a violent conviction. The American Immigration Council found that during the winter enforcement peak, two out of three street arrests were of people with no criminal record. Their data. Their arrests.

Let me take the strongest counterargument seriously, because you will hear it. A majority of Americans still support deporting people convicted of serious crimes, and the Marquette poll found 56 percent favor deporting people here illegally in the abstract. That position is legitimate and deserves a straight answer. The answer is that this is not that. When the same poll asks about people with jobs, years of residence, and no criminal record, support collapses to 44 percent. When Marist asked in late January whether ICE’s actions have gone too far, 65 percent said yes, up from 54 percent last June, and 59 percent called the protests against ICE legitimate. Americans watched Renee Good die and did the math themselves.

The agency doing this is 23 years old. ICE was created in 2003. The country functioned before it existed, with immigration enforcement housed in a civil framework under the INS. Abolition is not lawlessness. It is the position that a young, uniquely unaccountable agency should be dismantled and its legitimate functions rebuilt under real judicial oversight, without mass detention. Warren, Booker, and Gillibrand said versions of this in 2018. Today, 42 percent of Americans support abolishing ICE per Civiqs tracking, up from 24 percent a year ago. Still a minority. A minority that grew 18 points in one year of watching this agency work.

But you did not open this to read a policy history. You opened this because you want to do something. Here is the full menu, every item lawful, every organization vetted.

Protect yourself and your family

Know your rights, physically, on paper. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center prints red cards in over a dozen languages stating your constitutional rights. Order them. Keep them in your wallet, your car, your kid’s backpack. The core rights: you do not have to open your door unless agents have a judicial warrant signed by a judge. An ICE administrative warrant (Form I-200 or I-205) does not authorize entry. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to refuse to sign anything. You have the right to a lawyer.

Save this number: 1-844-363-1423. That is United We Dream’s MigraWatch hotline for reporting and verifying ICE activity.

Make a family preparedness plan. Emergency contacts, caregiver authorization for children, copies of documents with a trusted person. The ILRC publishes a family preparedness plan template, and the ACLU’s immigrants’ rights resources cover what to do during an encounter.

Protect your neighbors

Join or start a rapid response network. These are trained volunteer networks that verify reported ICE activity before publicizing it, document operations on video, and connect families to lawyers. Verification is the discipline that separates these networks from panic machines. Rumors hurt the community; confirmed documentation builds cases. Find your local network through United We Dream or your state immigrant coalition.

Record, from a distance. You have a First Amendment right to film officers in public. You do not have a right to physically interfere, block vehicles, or ignore lawful dispersal orders, and doing so can get you arrested and can get the person being detained hurt. Stand back, film steadily, capture badge numbers if visible, note the time and location, and get the footage to a legal organization rather than posting it raw. Remember what footage did in the Martinez case. Remember that the agents in Biddeford and Houston wore no cameras. Yours may be the only record.

Fund freedom directly. Bond funds get people out of detention while their cases proceed. The National Bail Fund Network coordinates immigration bond funds nationally. RAICES provides legal services and bond assistance. Accompaniment programs send volunteers to court hearings and ICE check-ins so no one walks in alone.

Pressure the system

Go after the contracts. ICE’s reach depends on local cooperation: 287(g) agreements that deputize local officers, and county detention bed contracts. In most states, these can be ended by county boards and sheriffs who answer to voters. Detention Watch Network tracks the contracts.

A word to my Florida readers, because I am one of you. Our state mandates 287(g) participation and bans sanctuary policies outright. The county commission route is closed here. But look at what pressure and litigation just accomplished: the Everglades detention camp is done. The ACLU, ACLU of Florida, and Americans for Immigrant Justice sued over access to counsel and won a preliminary injunction, and DeSantis has now announced the facility’s closure, with the environmental case by Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe still moving through the courts. Constraint is real here. Helplessness is a choice. Plug into the Florida Immigrant Coalition, WeCount!, and Americans for Immigrant Justice, and remember which legislators built this machine when you vote.

Call Congress with a specific ask. Not “do something.” Ask your representative to oppose ICE enforcement and detention line items in the next DHS funding fight, to demand oversight hearings on the 52 deaths in custody documented by Human Rights Watch, and to co-sponsor legislation restructuring interior enforcement. Congress just funded these agencies through 2029 with almost no strings. The clawback fight starts now, and it starts with constituents. Specific, local, tied to a vote. That is what moves offices.

Support the litigation. The ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, the National Immigration Project, Al Otro Lado, and the National Immigrant Justice Center are challenging courthouse arrests, denial of counsel, racial profiling in stops, and detention conditions right now. Donations fund discovery. Witnesses win cases. If you documented an operation, these organizations want to hear from you.

Show up. Lawful protest works and it is protected. More than a hundred people marched in Houston on Saturday. Biddeford filled its streets within hours yesterday. Learn your local rules, keep your distance from operations, and bring your phone charged.

A note on keeping this real and verifiable

Do not amplify unverified raid videos. Confirm the date, location, and source before you share anything. Old footage recirculated as new hands the government its easiest rebuttal. Never post identifying information about vulnerable people. And do not doxx agents. Beyond the legal risk, it hands them the victim narrative and it has never freed a single person from detention.

The precise truth is damning enough. At least nine dead in enforcement operations, fourteen shot in five months. Fifty-two dead in custody. Zero charges. Seventy-three percent of detainees with no criminal conviction, by the government’s own leaked data.

Print the red card. Save the hotline. Pick one organization from this piece and give it money or hours this week. Then send this to one person who keeps saying they wish they could do something.

They can. So can you.

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Sources

Here they are with active links throughout:

Organizations and resources

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Red Cards / Tarjetas Rojas. https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Family Preparedness Plan. https://www.ilrc.org/family-preparedness-plan

• United We Dream, MigraWatch hotline (1-844-363-1423). https://unitedwedream.org/migrawatch

• ACLU, Know Your Rights: Immigrants’ Rights. https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/immigrants-rights

• ACLU, Immigrants’ Rights Project. https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights

• National Bail Fund Network, Community Justice Exchange. https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/nbfn-directory

• RAICES. https://www.raicestexas.org

• Detention Watch Network. https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org

• National Immigration Project (NIPNLG). https://nipnlg.org

• Al Otro Lado. https://alotrolado.org

• National Immigrant Justice Center. https://immigrantjustice.org

• Florida Immigrant Coalition. https://floridaimmigrant.org

• WeCount! https://www.we-count.org

• Americans for Immigrant Justice. https://aijustice.org

News reporting and primary documents

• News Center Maine, “Man shot and killed by ICE was not the suspect agents were looking for, Sen. King’s office says” (July 13, 2026). https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/public-safety/ice-shooting-biddeford-maine-fatal-police-comment-investigation/97-681babc8-1462-4ee8-9bed-18eb9c8fdfe4

• Portland Press Herald, live coverage of the Biddeford shooting and protests (July 13, 2026). https://www.pressherald.com/2026/07/13/shooting-reported-in-biddeford-2/

• CBC News, “Victim of ICE shooting in Maine was legally in U.S., activists say” (July 14, 2026). https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ice-shooting-killed-maine-speaker-9.7268524

• AP via PBS NewsHour, “What to know about the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by ICE” (July 2026). https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-to-know-about-the-fatal-shooting-of-lorenzo-salgado-araujo-by-ice

• Houston Public Media, “Salgado Araujo’s passengers dispute ICE’s account” (July 10, 2026). https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/immigration/2026/07/10/556770/ice-shooting-houston-lorenzo-salgado-araujo-passengers-dispute-dhs-account/

• KPRC Click2Houston, “Harris County DA vows full investigation; medical examiner rules death a homicide” (July 13, 2026). https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2026/07/13/harris-county-da-vows-full-investigation-into-fatal-ice-shooting-of-lorenzo-salgado-araujo/

• CNN, “After his fatal shooting in Houston, ICE faces a familiar test of credibility” (July 13, 2026). https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/13/us/salgado-araujo-ice-shooting-investigation

• Al Jazeera, “ICE kills 26-year-old in Maine: What happened, and who else has ICE killed?” (July 14, 2026). https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/14/ice-kills-26-year-old-in-maine-what-happened-and-who-else-has-ice-killed

• NBC News, “Trump’s DHS immigration enforcement officers shot 14 people from September 2025 to February 2026” (April 2026). https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ice-shootings-list-border-patrol-trump-immigration-operations-rcna254202

• Human Rights Watch / Physicians for Human Rights, “Dying in Detention: Rising Deaths in an Expanding US Immigration Detention System” (June 25, 2026). https://www.hrw.org/report/2026/06/25/dying-in-detention/rising-deaths-in-an-expanding-us-immigration-detention-system

• HRW press release, “US: Deaths in ICE Custody Surge Under Trump” (June 25, 2026). https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/25/us-deaths-in-ice-custody-surge-under-trump

• Block Club Chicago, “Feds Drop Charges Against Woman Shot By Border Patrol In Brighton Park” (Nov. 20, 2025). https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/20/feds-drop-charges-against-woman-shot-by-border-patrol-in-brighton-park/

• CNN, “Video and text messages from Border Patrol agent’s shooting of a Chicago woman are released” (Feb. 11, 2026). https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/11/us/chicago-border-patrol-shooting-video-evidence

• Capital & Main, “Agents In ICE Shootings Made Racist or Sexist Remarks, Records Show” (March 2026; confirms no agents criminally charged). https://capitalandmain.com/agents-in-ice-shootings-made-racist-or-sexist-remarks-records-show

• NPR, “Trump signs immigration bill with billions for ICE” (June 9, 2026; $75B figure, highest-funded agency). https://www.npr.org/2026/06/09/nx-s1-5851664/house-reconciliation-vote-immigration-enforcement-ice-border-patrol

• American Immigration Council, “What’s in the Big Beautiful Bill? Immigration & Border Security Unpacked.” https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/big-beautiful-bill-immigration-border-security/

• ACLU, statement on Senate vote to add $70 billion to ICE and Border Patrol (June 2026). https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-statement-on-senate-vote-to-add-70-billion-to-ice-and-border-patrols-bloated-budget

• KPRC Click2Houston, Homan “turned the heat up” remarks and 10,000 arrests in five days (July 8, 2026). https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2026/07/08/border-czar-tom-homan-says-ice-turned-the-heat-up-on-arrests-after-funding-boost-as-houston-seeks-answers-in-fatal-a/

• Cato Institute, “5% of People Detained By ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convictions” (leaked ICE data). https://www.cato.org/blog/5-ice-detainees-have-violent-convictions-73-no-convictions

• American Immigration Council, “New ICE Arrest Statistics Shed Light on Who the Agency is Targeting” (April 2026). https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/ice-arrest-statistics-americans-noncriminals/

• NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll, “The Actions of ICE” (fieldwork Jan. 27–30, 2026). https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/the-actions-of-ice-february-2026/

• Marquette Law School Poll, national survey on ICE and deportation (fieldwork Jan. 21–28, 2026). https://today.marquette.edu/2026/02/new-marquette-law-school-national-survey-finds-60-disapprove-of-the-work-of-ice-with-democrats-and-independents-opposed-to-ice-and-republicans-in-favor/

• Truthout, Civiqs tracking on abolishing ICE (Jan. 2026). https://truthout.org/articles/more-americans-support-abolishing-ice-than-ever-before-polling-data-shows/

• ACLU, “Federal Court Orders ICE to Provide People Detained at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Access to Legal Counsel” and closure statement. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/federal-court-orders-ice-to-provide-people-detained-access-to-legal-counsel-at-alligator-alcatraz-detention-facility

• Friends of the Everglades, “Stop Alligator Alcatraz” case timeline. https://www.everglades.org/stop-alligator-alcatraz/

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