ICE shootings of immigrants spark outrage, investigations and protests

ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 7 and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13, adding two deaths to a toll that now stands at nine people killed by immigration officers in the last 18 months. Federal officials said neither man was the intended target of the operation, but the back-to-back shootings have intensified scrutiny of how immigration enforcement is being carried out on U.S. streets and roads.

In Houston, Salgado Araujo was a 52-year-old Mexican man killed during a vehicle stop. In Biddeford, Guerrero was a 26-year-old Colombian man, and the shooting set off immediate outrage in Maine. Hundreds of people protested after the killing, and immigrant-rights groups planned more demonstrations as questions mounted over why the operation unfolded the way it did.

The Biddeford case drew particular attention because Maine officials and Senator Angus King’s office said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told them Guerrero was not the target of the warrant. Community groups also said Guerrero had come to Maine to live and work and had been authorized to work in the United States, deepening anger over a fatal encounter that left residents demanding a fuller account of who was being pursued and why.

The Houston shooting has also remained under a cloud of dispute. Reporting on the case indicated that Salgado Araujo was not the target of the operation, and his family and elected officials disputed the claim that he tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. The two killings, just six days apart, have fed concern that ICE enforcement tactics are becoming more aggressive and more likely to end in deadly roadside encounters.

The pressure is not limited to Texas and Maine. In Minnesota, prosecutors said on July 13 that they finally obtained long-withheld evidence from federal prosecutors in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the wounding of Julio Sosa-Celis during a January 2026 immigration enforcement crackdown and protest response. The materials include statements, police body-camera video and other evidence, ending a months-long fight over access and underscoring how often independent review depends on federal agencies releasing records only after prolonged resistance.

ICE is reportedly suspending most vehicle stops nationwide after the Texas and Maine shootings, though exceptions remain for serious criminal cases. That step reflects the growing pressure on the agency to spell out its use-of-force rules, explain how deadly encounters are reviewed, and show how often immigration officers are involved in fatal shootings compared with other federal law-enforcement agencies.