Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, July 17, around 200 people gathered in a majority-immigrant neighborhood in scorching 95-degree heat to demand justice for four men who were murdered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in just seven days.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was shot by ICE on July 7 during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas. He had built houses for over three decades, worked hard while putting his three sons through college, and was simply driving his construction crew to work that morning.
Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26, was killed on July 13 in Maine. He was working two jobs in order to support his wife and their three-year-old daughter. His daughter was in the car when ICE agents shot through the window.
Both men were killed because ICE agents were looking for someone else.
Also on July 13, Jesus Manuel Arenas-Silva, a 45-year-old Venezuelan man, was killed in ICE custody while being transferred by bus from a detention center to an ICE processing center in Georgia. ICE ignored his family’s repeated pleas to allow him to take his medicine while in detention. He was killed by purposeful medical negligence. Killed by ICE.
On July 14, Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran, a 28-year-old Mexican man, was struck and killed by a semi truck while being chased by ICE in Saint Augustine, Florida. He and his coworkers stopped for something to eat when they were racially profiled by ICE. None of them were the subject of any sort of immigration investigation.
The Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) organized the rally as part of a broader movement that demands accountability and justice. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, ICE agents have shot and killed at least 11 people. The pattern is consistent: traffic stops, warrants for the wrong person, ICE with guns.
Rally attendees held out their signs demanding justice and chanting “Aqui estamos y no nos vamos” and “Say it once say it twice, we will not put up with ICE!” A banner read, “Three days since ICE has killed that we know of…” Despite the oppressive heat, the people stayed and ensured their voices were heard.
A MIRAC speaker at the rally told the crowd, “Here’s the thing, neither (Araujo nor Guerrero) was who ICE was looking for. ICE was looking for someone else. But they killed these two men anyway.”
The MIRAC speaker continued, “We’ve been asking for help. We’ve been saying ban 287(g) agreements. Keep ICE out of schools and hospitals. But it keeps happening. So we need a governor who will actually do something. Not just say stuff. Actually do it.”
The Department of Homeland Security has justified the murders of Araujo and Guerrero utilizing the same false claim: that these men were weaponizing their vehicles. It was the same justification utilized when ICE killed Renee Good in Minneapolis in January. Videos that surfaced contradicted the agency’s account. For Araujo’s death, no video has emerged, but there was footage of the aftermath. ICE has used this same justification in dozens of cases that were thrown out by federal courts after their blatant lies were exposed. They are murderers, plain and simple.
The rally was not a plea for compassion. It was not people asking nicely for things to improve. People have been demanding real change for years: Banning ICE agreements, keeping federal agents out of schools and hospitals, charging and jailing agents and all police who kill. Yet nothing has changed. The people will stay in the streets, refusing to accept the normalization of ICE murder.
The protest was part of a national week of action organized by the Legalization for All Network. Minnesota is always ready to fight back. The crowd on Minneapolis’ Lake Street had energy despite the heat. People showed up to shout the names of the victims of ICE terror so they will never be forgotten. Their message was clear: ICE out now and forever.
#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #ICE #MIRAC
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