--- title: "LA Groups Organize After Two Fatal ICE Shootings in Texas and Maine" description: "Two men were shot dead by ICE agents six days apart, one in Houston and one in Biddeford, Maine. Homeland Security says neither was the intended target of the operation he was caught in. Neither set of agents wore body cameras, accounts of the Houston shooting conflict, and Los Angeles organizers are now recruiting neighborhood patrols." category: "Los Angeles" category_url: https://herald.la/category/los-angeles author: "Lucía Fuentes" published: 2026-07-19T13:29:36.000Z updated: 2026-07-19T13:29:36.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/la-groups-organize-after-two-fatal-ice-shootings-in-texas-and-maine tags: ["ice", "immigration", "los-angeles", "accountability"] --- # LA Groups Organize After Two Fatal ICE Shootings in Texas and Maine Two men were shot dead by ICE agents six days apart, one in Houston and one in Biddeford, Maine. Homeland Security says neither was the intended target of the operation he was caught in. Neither set of agents wore body cameras, accounts of the Houston shooting conflict, and Los Angeles organizers are now recruiting neighborhood patrols. Neither of the two men shot dead by immigration agents this month was killed in Los Angeles. Both, according to the Department of Homeland Security, were shot during operations in which they were not the intended target. That combination is what has organizers here recruiting people onto the streets. ## The two shootings Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston on July 7 while driving to a construction job. [He had lived in the United States for more than 30 years](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/houston-ice-shooting-sons-interview-cbs-salgado/), according to CBS News. DHS has said he was not the intended target of the operation. Six days later, on July 13, agents shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, during a traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine, about 18 miles south of Portland. DHS has said the same thing about him: not the intended target. Durán Guerrero is survived by his wife, Karolina Rojas, and a young daughter. "My soul is broken," Rojas said through a translator. "He was everything to me." Salgado Araujo's family learned what had happened from the news. One son saw video online of his father bleeding; another read about the death while on a flight to Houston. ## Where the accounts diverge The Houston shooting has two incompatible descriptions on the record, and we are not in a position to resolve them. The federal account is that Salgado Araujo was attempting to run over an agent. [An attorney for other people in the vehicle has said the shots came from the side of the van](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/immigration/2026/07/15/557111/ice-shooting-houston-lorenzo-salgado-araujo-brother-account/), which is difficult to square with an agent firing to stop a vehicle bearing down on him. The detail that makes the conflict hard to settle is that [the agents in both shootings were not wearing body cameras](https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/14/us/live-news/ice-shootings-maine-houston). There is no agency footage of either death. Multiple investigations are open. According to CNN, the FBI is investigating a potential assault on a federal officer, the DHS Office of Inspector General is examining the deaths, and the Harris County District Attorney's office is investigating the Houston shooting. None has reported findings. ## The policy whiplash After the two deaths, ICE announced it would pause most traffic stops and expand the use of body cameras by agents. [President Trump reversed the pause on traffic stops the following day](https://abc7.com/post/activists-urge-los-angeles-communities-mobilize-2-deadly-ice-shootings/19524071/), according to ABC7. The agency's own assessment that the tactic warranted a pause and the president's decision to overrule it, one day apart, are both part of the record. ## What is happening in Los Angeles Unión del Barrio and the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice are organizing residents here, calling for neighborhood patrols that monitor immigration enforcement activity and alert people when agents are operating nearby. Ron Gochez of Unión del Barrio framed it as a national rather than local danger. "We need to organize there because these attacks are happening everywhere," he said. Other organizers quoted by ABC7 described a pattern: that community members "are literally being killed," and that "you don't know who's next." Those are the organizers' characterizations. Federal officials have not accepted that framing, and their public position remains that both men were killed in operations directed at other people. ## What is not yet known The essential questions are open. What each agent perceived, whether either shooting met the standard for the use of deadly force, and why agents conducting operations of this kind were not recording, are matters for the investigations rather than for us. What can be stated plainly is narrower. Two men are dead. The government says neither was who agents were looking for. There is no body camera footage of either shooting. And in a county with the largest immigrant population in the country, people are drawing their own conclusions about risk while those investigations proceed. ## Sources - [Activists urge Los Angeles communities to mobilize after 2 deadly ICE shootings](https://abc7.com/post/activists-urge-los-angeles-communities-mobilize-2-deadly-ice-shootings/19524071/) - [Lawyer shares account of fatal shooting by ICE in Houston](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/immigration/2026/07/15/557111/ice-shooting-houston-lorenzo-salgado-araujo-brother-account/) - [ICE shootings in Maine and Houston](https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/14/us/live-news/ice-shootings-maine-houston)