Catholic leaders are offering prayers and calls for peace and justice after federal immigration agents fatally shot two immigrants in the span of one week.
The Diocese of Portland, Maine, is offering prayers and pastoral support to the family of a Colombian man, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, who was shot and killed on Monday, July 13, in the small town of Biddeford, Maine.
Archbishop Joe Vásquez of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, meanwhile, called for a “reform that brings about justice to all parties” as well as “peaceful dialogue, mutual respect, and a commitment to charity” after 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during a traffic stop July 7 in Houston’s Hispanic Magnolia Park neighborhood.
Conflicting stories
The Maine shooting occurred as Durán “attempted to flee the scene” during a vehicle stop by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, an ICE spokesperson told EWTN News in a statement.
The spokesperson said the agency was “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal.”
Identifying Durán, the ICE statement indicated that “an illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle,” and when the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”
The Diocese of Portland said its Hispanic ministry is providing support to Durán’s wife and 3-year-old daughter as well as the community.
“We pray that all those affected by his death may experience Godʼs loving comfort, strength, and peace,” the diocesan statement added in the wake of the tragedy.
Mufalo Chitam, the executive director of Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, told the Associated Press that Durán was on his way to work when he was apprehended and shot.
The Colombian native was authorized to work in the U.S. and had been issued a Social Security number, according to the immigrant advocacy group Presente!
Not the intended target
ICE said Salgado, a father of three who has lived in the U.S. for more than three decades, rammed an ICE vehicle in an East Houston neighborhood and attempted to run over an officer, who then fired in self-defense.
Witnesses, including his brother, who was a passenger in his van, have disputed that account.
In response to the shooting, Vásquez said in a statement on July 15: “As a society, we need to see and treat each other as men and women created in the image and likeness of God, including our immigrant brothers and sisters, our elected officials, as well as our law enforcement officers. Violence and disrespect will only lead to more fear and division,” Vásquez wrote.
Vásquez reiterated the U.S. bishops’ call for “meaningful immigration reform as opposed to an ‘enforcement-only approach.’”
“The U.S. Catholic bishops have repeatedly called for enforcement efforts that are targeted, proportional, and humane,” Vásquez continued.
No body cameras used in either shooting
U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said the ICE agents were not wearing body cameras at the time of Durán’s shooting, the AP reported of the latest incident.
“The question is, what did he do with his vehicle,” King said. “Were officers threatened? Were the threats rising to the level that justified deadly force? Thatʼs what this investigation is all about.”
Though cameras at local businesses have footage of the incident, Maine State Police have asked for the footage not to be released pending the investigation, per the AP.
DHS told Houston Public Media the officers involved in Salgado’s shooting were not wearing body cameras because of recent lapses in federal funding.
State and federal agencies, including local police departments, the attorney general’s offices, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the FBI are investigating both shootings.
The law enforcement officers who shot Durán and Salgado have been placed on leave during the investigations.
It is not clear if one of the three men in the van with Salgado was the man ICE was searching for, but a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia told Houston Public Media she spoke with David Venturella, ICE’s acting director, who told her Salgado was not “the intended target.”
Aaron Reitz, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said in a statement July 16 that on the morning Salgado was shot in Houston, federal officials were investigating two Guatemalan men “who had previously evaded arrest and were potentially subject to deportation.” They were also known to be driving a white van.
Reitz said that while searching for the men, federal officers received a report of a similar vehicle in the area, leading police to pull over Salgado’s van because the men inside “fit the suspects’ description.”
“The aliens then fled,” Reitz’s statement continued, “conducting a rapid U-turn and hopping a median to get away. The agents chose not to pursue.”
The federal agents came across Salgado’s van again later that morning, according to Reitz, “and again, the illegal aliens attempted to flee, but this time the agents successfully surrounded the vehicle.”
The officers “instructed the noncompliant aliens to put the van in park. Preliminary information indicates the driver shifted the van into reverse, then forward again, while an officer was partially inside the van or immediately next to it.”
Officers then fired “a single shot” during the confrontation, hitting Salgado.
Durán and Salgado’s deaths bring the number of those who have been fatally shot by ICE agents this year to four.
In January, two people — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were killed in separate incidents during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis.