One week, two killings: Trump’s immigration crackdown turns deadly – again

Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero (top) and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Illustration: Guardian Design View image in fullscreen Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero (top) and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Illustration: Guardian Design One week, two killings: Trump’s immigration crackdown turns deadly – again The fatal shootings of two men, both killed in their vehicles by ICE agents, have rekindled anger over the US’s militarized deportation push Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving to work with his brother and two other passengers in Houston, Texas , when immigration agents began tailing his car. They pulled him over and fired a fatal shot through the open passenger-side window. Six days later in Biddeford, Maine , Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, was driving around his neighborhood when agents stopped him at an intersection – right outside the laundromat where he’d often go with his three-year-old daughter – and shot him dead. The two killings in less than a week have unleashed waves of grief and outrage across the US. Demonstrators gathered in both cities to – once again – demand that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency tasked with carrying out Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation scheme, remove its agents from their streets. To deliver on Trump’s promise of mass arrests and deportations, immigration officers armed with military gear have been violently detaining immigrants in communities across the US – at traffic stops and outside department stores, at bus stops, warehouses, farms, schools and churches. Salgado Araujo and Durán Guerrero were the 29th and 30th people that immigration officers have opened fire on since Trump took office last year, according to the Trace , an outlet that is tracking these shootings in its Gun Violence Data Hub . Officers killed eight of those people, among them Renee Good and Alex Pretti – the US citizens gunned down during a militarized enforcement operation in Minnesota. This week, another man fleeing immigration agents in Florida died after being struck by a truck. Twenty-two people have died in ICE custody, including inside immigration detention centers, this year. View image in fullscreen Demonstrators protest against ICE after the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, on 14 July 2026. Photograph: Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images The two latest shootings echoed each other – and those that came before. Neither victim, it turned out, was the true target of the immigration officers’ operation. Salgado Araujo, of Mexico, had lived and worked in the US for 35 years. He was a husband and the father of three US citizen children. Durán Guerrero, from Colombia, had been working multiple jobs to support his wife and daughter. Salgado Araujo’s eldest son, Ronaldo, said he saw a Facebook video of his father’s shooting – and recognized him immediately from the sound of his voice crying for help. Neighbors told the Portland Press Herald that they saw Durán Guerrero’s partner and daughter rush outside in t