Rep. Judy Chu Commends Local Peaceful Demonstrations Against ICE Killings

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Following peaceful demonstrations and vigils in Pasadena to demand justice and accountability for the killings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, Rep. Judy Chu released the following statement:

"I stand in solidarity with everyone in our community who gathered this weekend to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, and every person who has lost their life during an ICE operation or while in ICE custody.

It is abhorrent, unconscionable, and utterly indefensible that with each passing week, another family is mourning a loved one who never came home from an encounter with ICE. Instead of reining in an agency plagued by violence, abuse, and a staggering lack of accountability, the Trump Administration and Republicans have handed ICE hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to expand the violent, cruel operations that are terrorizing immigrant communities.

That is why I was proud to join nearly 200 of my Democratic colleagues to demand ICE be held accountable through an independent investigation into Mr. Salgado Araujo and Mr. Guerrero's deaths. Their families deserve answers, they deserve justice, and the American people deserve an immigration system that values human life over fear and intimidation.

We will not look away. We will not be intimidated into silence. And we will never stop fighting until every family can live without fear that an encounter with ICE could end in detention, tragedy, or death.

For more than a decade, I have fought to expose ICE's abuses and demand accountability. I have repeatedly called for the closure of the Adelanto ICE Processing Center after witnessing appalling conditions, medical neglect, retaliation against detainees, and preventable deaths. I have demanded investigations into fatal ICE shootings, challenged the Trump Administration's abuse of immigration enforcement, and fought to stop Congress from writing blank checks for an agency that continues to operate with no transparency or accountability. I will continue using every tool available to me in Congress to expose these abuses, hold ICE accountable, and demand justice for every person who has been wrongfully targeted, killed, detained, and deported."

On July 7, 2026, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the father of three U.S. citizens and a 35-year resident of the United States, was stopped by officers in an unmarked ICE vehicle while driving to work in Houston, Texas. Mr. Salgado Araujo was not the target of the ICE operation but was fatally shot by an ICE agent after the agent alleged he had "weaponized" his vehicle, a claim that neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has substantiated with publicly released evidence.

Six days later, on July 13, 2026, ICE fatally shot 25-year-old Colombian national Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. Mr. Guerrero, a father who was authorized to work in the United States, was not the target of the enforcement operation. He was shot after attempting to flee in a vehicle. Video footage shows ICE officer handcuffing Mr. Guerrero after he had been shot in the head.