For the second time in a week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers shot and killed a Latino man as the agency continues to ramp up deportation efforts that target Black and Brown communities.
On Monday, ICE shot Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national legally authorized to work in the United States, as he was driving in Biddeford, Maine. Guerrero had a Social Security number. His death has sparked ongoing protests in the region and renewed questions about excessive force and racist immigration policies. According to The Associated Press, hundreds of protesters gathered Monday outside a nearby ICE detention facility in Scarborough, Maine.
On July 7, an ICE agent in Houston shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during an ICE operation in which he was not the target. Araujo was from Mexico and had lived and worked in the U.S. for 35 years. He was also in his car when an ICE agent stopped and shot him after officers claimed he was attempting to weaponize his car against them.
Ibram X. Kendi, the editor-in-chief of The Emancipator, spoke with Vivek Venkatraman, an organizer with Houston’s chapter of Party for Socialism and Liberation, one of the main organizers of demonstrations in Houston in the wake of Araujo’s death. Venkatraman shared how activists have been responding to the recent ICE killings.
Kendi: Could you share with us what you know about the murder of brother Lorenzo?
Venkatraman: Lorenzo’s son, Ronaldo, or Ronnie … has in many ways sort of become a very important spokesperson for his family locally. … Ronnie learned about his father’s death through a video on social media, which is really heartbreaking to think about, and he recognized his father. He says not through his likeness, but through his voice … where he was crying out for help in his final moments.
I think this has really rocked the city of Houston [where] over 25% of our population are immigrants. This could have been my own father; this could have been many of my comrades’ fathers, cousins, or mothers. Everybody in Houston, if you’re not an immigrant yourself, you have a deep, close personal relationship with an immigrant.
Kendi: Who has been involved in the demonstrations?
Venkatraman: What has been really inspiring is the … resilience the community has shown and that the family has shown in the aftermath, immediately after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s death was announced. There were immediately mobilizations being organized by a number of different immigrant rights organizations and coalitions. There were vigils. There were mass demonstrations and marches and protests, and a whole host of other sorts of actions. And this is a sort of resilience that I think we’ve come to expect in the city of Houston. We’re seeing engagement from all sectors of society; the labor unions, the immigrant rights, coalitions, the left-wing socialist movements are involved. Many Democratic elected politicians are involved locally. We’re also seeing arts and cultural workers involved and are producing artwork that speaks to the life of Lorenzo and gives immigrant communities the dignity that they deserve. So it’s been really heartening to see all these different sectors of society unified and coming together to fight for justice.
Kendi: Since a similar fatal shooting happened in Maine, what message do you have to others on these mobilization efforts?
Venkatraman: I would highly encourage people to join a solidarity action. They’re happening, basically, in every major city or metropolitan area across the country, and in many smaller towns and rural areas as well. But the Trump administration is relying on us being so afraid of repression that we stay at home and that we don’t fight back. I think the only way to build real political power, and to achieve justice for people like Lorenzo and Joan, is to be in the streets and to fight back. And to fight back in all ways you can … in conversations with your loved ones, in your workplaces, in your union hall, if that’s an option for you, in academic circles. We want everybody to try to get involved in some way, because we think this is one of those cornerstone moments, and the only way we can win is if we can really catapult ourselves into action.
