1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

More than 20 people have been shot at by ICE since September. Nearly all of them in their cars. And now another person is dead. Dead because ICE made another bad call. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, father of three and a business owner, had lived in the US undocumented for more than 30 years. He had no criminal record. His van was forced off the road by ICE in Houston. There were three workers with him, who were all arrested and detained. They all issued independent statements saying a federal officer fired at them almost immediately after exiting his vehicle. And that at no point did Salgado Araujo veer in his direction. DHS released a statement hours after the deadly shooting saying that Salgado Araujo had rammed an ICE vehicle and “weaponized” his white work van “in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer.” “That is a lie,” wrote Jose Trinidad Rojas, 51, one of the van occupants, in a handwritten statement. “It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over … there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.” The family’s lawyer spoke separately to the three men, one of whom is the victim’s brother. He said he heard the same story from each. The men are not being housed together. “All of them reiterated that there were never any ICE agents in front of the van,” the lawyer said. “They came in and started shooting from the sides.” ““Se querían escapar, verdad?”, his brother recalled an ICE agent saying to him in a mocking tone. “You wanted to escape, right?” Later an ICE official later said that Salgado Araujo was not even the intended target of the traffic stop. The three men in custody have all been in the country undocumented for more than 20 years. They have families and US citizen children they support. None have criminal records. If ICE’s account of his killing sounds familiar it’s because it’s their standard defense. And has been used to justify other shootings that resulted in fatalities or injuries to undocumented immigrants. And US citizens. But in several instances, video evidence and testimony from witnesses contradict the agency’s accounts. Establishing that the officers were not in danger and, in some cases, acted as the aggressors. This is lawless behavior in the name of America. The government is supposed to be an extension of the people’s will. Not an occupying, shooting force. We the people can’t become immune to this kind of thing. We can’t just be part of the herd that carries on contently grazing while a predator picks off the weak around the edges. Being undocumented in America should not be a license to die. And US citizens are not immune to the same outcome. Civil rights of our own citizens have been routinely violated. Including death by ICE. In the immortal words of Monty Python, “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.” Until it busts through your own door. Or shoots you in your car going to work.