ICE Must Be Abolished

New DHS secretary, same nonsense

By: Austin Abbring

July 10, 2026

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father, was shot and killed by ICE on Tuesday. Twenty-one people have died in ICE detention already this year, and Araujo’s slaying marks the tenth person fatally shot by ICE agents since the beginning of the second Trump administration. Araujo had been living in the United States for over thirty years and had nearly obtained official legal status. He had attended his immigration appointments and submitted the required documentation along the way, following the process legally. This is a failure by both parties in this country to enact a realistic and expedient pathway to citizenship. Araujo and 3 other passengers were on their way to a job site in Houston before two unmarked ICE vehicles attempted to stop Araujo’s white van. ICE had been patrolling the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood for several days prior. You know, just doing their typical racial profiling.

Following a brief pursuit where DHS claimed Salgado Araujo attempted to ram ICE vehicles and run over federal agents, they opened fire, hitting Araujo, who ultimately passed away from his wounds in the hospital. ICE did not have any body-cam or dash-cam footage of the pursuit. Convenient and apparently not in the inflated budget. The only footage we have right now is local business security cameras and a bystander who pulled up to the scene after the shooting occurred, with ICE agents standing over Araujo and three other individuals in handcuffs, one of them being Araujo’s brother. 

ICE was not even after Araujo; they were after a different individual they thought got into the van. So yes, completely and totally avoidable. A man who immigrated to this country with his wife to try to build a better life, who was a hard worker, paid his taxes, was a neighbor, a father of three, followed the law, and was on a legal path to citizenship was killed by federal ICE agents because of Stephen Miller’s arbitrary deportation quotas. Joseph Goebbels proves reincarnation exists. He has taken the form of Stephen Miller. He and anyone involved in these ICE operations should be tried for their crimes throughout these mass deportation efforts.

This agency is out of control and must be abolished. It is not protocol to open fire on moving vehicles, and this is now the second time in less than a year that ICE has done precisely that. There is a reason many people have been demanding ICE agents lose the masks and quit patrolling and pursuing people in unmarked vehicles. Araujo’s son claims that his father would have pulled over and complied had he known it was ICE tailing him. He most likely thought someone was attempting to rob him of his tools or van, the means by which he makes his livelihood. Which is easy to believe when you place yourself in that person's situation. Would you just pull over when two unmarked vehicles begin tailing you and driving alongside you in tinted windows with no clear law enforcement markings? It is absurd.

How many more innocent people are going to be killed before Trump’s Gestapo is abolished? How many more people are going to be held in concentration camp-esque detention facilities and be abused - sexually, physically, and mentally - by the guards and agents? How many more families are going to be separated, many of whom may never see their children or grandchildren again? How many more individuals will be deported to countries not of their origin? How many more of our cities will be invaded by a paramilitary force? How much more pain, suffering, injury, trauma, and death must our immigrant population endure for the heinous crime of not having the correct effing paperwork? Entering the United States illegally is a civil violation, just as parking your car illegally or jaywalking is. Do these punishments fit the crime? Not even remotely close.

The Democratic Party's 2028 platform must include abolishing ICE. It is an outgrowth of 9/11 paranoia and does not serve any reasonable purpose. I, and many of you reading this, are older than this agency. Our country handled immigration enforcement just fine before its establishment. We must dismantle this agency and redirect the budgeted line item to better fund immigration courts and create a viable, plausible path to citizenship. If we do not, this iteration of the Republican Party, which has been building up to this point for decades, is going to continue to use ICE as a means to maintain and enforce its white nationalism and supremacy. This cannot happen.