Oh, Looks Like ICE Is Just Murdering People Again, Huh?
Pretty sure they're lying this time like they lied all the others.
After national outrage at ICE’s murderous mass-deportation campaign in Minnesota brought millions of Americans out into the streets in over 3,300 cities and towns, the agency has tried to take a lower profile while actually ramping up arrests. As Robert Reich points out, ICE hasn’t backed off at all, it’s simply trying to be less visible:
ICE has quietly doubled its immigrant arrest quota. It’s now arresting 2,000 people per day.
But you’re not hearing about it because the new head of the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, has decided to quietly spread ICE agents around the country instead of targeting one Democratic-controlled city at a time.
Rather than fueling media spectacles, lawsuits, and community backlash, ICE is now going about its ruthless business in more hushed tones.
But it’s not quite possible to carry out Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s ethnic cleansing agenda in complete silence, especially when the goons are as brutal and trigger-happy as ever, as we see this week in Houston, Texas.
Tuesday morning, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an undocumented immigrant who had been in the US for 35 years, building the American dream — quite literally: He worked in home construction, building up a small business, eventually building his own home, and raising three sons, whom he was able to send to college. But he crossed the border a few years after the 1986 “Reagan amnesty” that legalized millions of people, so his American dream, and his life, were forfeit.
ICE issued the usual statement claiming that the shooting was completely justified, although so far there’s been no video to confirm (or to refute) the feds’ story. Gee, where have we heard language like this from Trump’s Secret Police?
“From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”
Why yes, that statement is nearly identical to the lies DHS told after ICE and Border Patrol goons murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and after any number of non-fatal incidents where the government claimed someone was trying to “attack,” “ram,” or “run over” officers — only to be disproven once video of the shootings became available or when the allegations fell apart in court.
Sure, maybe this time the official statement is true, and will be supported by evidence. But given the long history of constant lying by everyone in DHS, we have ZERO reason to expect that ICE’s version is anything close to what actually happened.
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According to his son Ronaldo Salgado, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s Tuesday morning began like any other workday: Lorenzo got up at 5 a.m., ate “a hearty meal prepared by my mom,” and headed off in his white van to pick up members of his construction crew.
Ronaldo got a call from his mother, who said his father was in trouble and asked him to go find him.
The first inkling of what had happened surfaced on his phone. Community activists were posting about Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the heart of a Houston neighborhood many Mexican immigrants call home. When he reached the site, Ronaldo Salgado saw his father’s white work van. Then a video popped up on his social media feed: It showed a man struggling on the ground after being shot by an ICE officer.
“I recognized him immediately,” Ronaldo Salgado said, sobbing as he recounted the events to reporters. “Not from his appearance, but from his voice, crying for help as he lay on the street bleeding out.”
Ronaldo Salgado wrote on Facebook Wednesday that he “spent the majority of the day at the crime scene waiting to hear anything about my father,” but learned nothing. At a press conference, he told reporters that his father was a law-abiding man who had no criminal record, and that the feds’ claims that Lorenzo had tried to run over ICE agents didn’t sound anything like his father.
Ronaldo also told the Texas Tribune yesterday that he believed his father thought he was going to be carjacked. “I know this in my heart, he thought that he was going to get robbed for his tools. […] One of his worst fears is that someone took away his work tools because that is how he made his livelihood.” He added that his father almost certainly would have pulled over and complied if the ICE vehicles following him had been marked, or if he’d known the masked men were law enforcement.
Then all the bigots on social media howled that of course Lorenzo Salgado Araujo couldn’t possibly be peaceful or law abiding, because he was ILLEGAL and if he had simply self-deported years ago this never would have happened. The only relevant thing to MAGA is whether someone is an immigrant or not — and as we increasingly see, the distinction between “legal” and “illegal” isn’t even relevant anymore.
On that note, Ronaldo Salgado also told reporters at yesterday’s presser that his father
had filled out paperwork for a legal work permit and submitted good character affidavits and fingerprints. Ronaldo Salgado said 18 months had passed, and they expected the permission to be approved.
In an interview with the Texas Tribune, Ronaldo Salgado said that he had sponsored his father’s application for legal residency — all three sons are US citizens — and that his father carried a copy of the paperwork with him at all times. He also said that the family had planned for the possibility that his father might be stopped by ICE: “He’s always been aware of what to do in the event that he got pulled over, he was detained […] He knew he wasn’t supposed to sign anything, he knew that he wasn’t supposed to give them a hard time.”
Online chuds then insisted that doing it the right way didn’t matter because Salgado Araujo lived here for 30 years without magically becoming a citizen, which they think is easy to do even though it’s incredibly difficult. (Then they default to “never shoulda been here illegally.”) Republicans will continue opposing any attempt to fix the broken immigration system, because it’s simply too effective an issue for stirring up angry rightwing voters and getting them to the polls.
After the shooting Tuesday, three others in the van were also detained, including Salgado Araujo’s brother. ICE’s Inspector General is investigating the killing, which in the past might have suggested an objective review, but let’s not get our hopes up. Oh, and the FBI is investigating, too, but they’re investigating the dead man for “the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”
The family and advocacy groups, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, are calling for a transparent, independent investigation of the shooting; LULAC is offering a reward of $5000 for information or videos that will lead to “the arrest, indictment, conviction, or exoneration of any person involved in this potential murder.” The family is also taking the initial steps toward filing a federal wrongful death claim against the government.
[Robert Reich / WaPo (gift link) / Civil Discourse / Texas Tribune / Bulwark]
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"ICE has quietly doubled its immigrant arrest quota. It’s now arresting 2,000 people per day."
The sooner Stephen Miller is sitting in front a human rights court, the better off humanity will be.
"Tuesday morning, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an undocumented immigrant who had been in the US for 35 years, building the American dream — quite literally: He worked in home construction, building up a small business, eventually building his own home, and raising three sons, whom he was able to send to college. But he crossed the border a few years after the 1986 “Reagan amnesty” that legalized millions of people, so his American dream, and his life, were forfeit."
You know who does this? Shithole countries is who.