The Surge
The Trump administration has quietly and stealthily increased its daily quota of immigrant arrests. The New York Times reported July 1 that immigrant arrests surged to more than 10,000 in just five days. During the same period, the detention population inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities jumped by 4,000 to more than 63,000. Last year, Stephen Miller set a goal of 3,000 arrests a day. Since then, ICE has hired thousands of new officers and had its budget increased by billions for this enforcement surge. Thank you, Susan Collins.
The Victims
The effect has been deadly. Two more victims from our Latino community were fatally shot in less than one week in July. And let’s not forget the previous victims who were shot and killed by federal immigration officers or border patrol.
Victim #10:
On July 7, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who had lived in the U.S. for decades, was fatally shot during an ICE operation as he drove his construction crew to a Houston job site. Witnesses state that Araujo was shot by an ICE officer through the passenger side window of his vehicle.
Victim #11:
On July 13, less than a week later, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian national with no criminal history, was fatally shot in his vehicle by an ICE agent in in Biddeford, Maine. Guerrero wasn’t even the intended target of the warrant.
DHS has repeatedly claimed victims of ICE shootings “weaponized” their vehicles, with video evidence later casting doubt on the department’s claims. ICE officials do not wear body cameras.
Death in Detention
In the 500 days between President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, and June 4, 2026, 52 people died in ICE custody. Twenty-one of those deaths have occurred since the beginning of this year, with two at our own Miami Correctional Facility. The mortality rate of deaths in ICE custody is at its highest level in over a decade, and has more than doubled since Trump’s second term began.
Local Family’s Story Puts a Face on the Issue
Joanna Garcia Lopez is a U.S. citizen, but Manuel de Jesus Montes-Lazo
is from Honduras and is undocumented. The couple married in 2019 and began the process to get Manuel his legal status. They owned a home, had two U.S. citizen children, paid taxes, and owned a roofing business that employed people. Now, Joanna has closed their business and moved their family to Honduras ahead of Manuel’s expected deportation.
BOTTOM LINE: We are facing an unparalleled humanitarian and constitutional crisis. Now what?
Support The Indiana Organizing Project’s campaign to end ICE detention at Miami Correctional Facility. Approximately 600 detainees are being held in conditions described by founder Stuart Mora as “approaching the definition of a concentration camp.” To repeat, there have been two detainee deaths at Miami already this year.
Mark your calendar on August 28-30 for the "Weekend of Public Witness to End ICE Detention at Miami Correctional." The goal is 50+ Vigils across Indiana. Organizations (such as ours) and congregations will be hosting public witness events of 10+ people over the weekend. More information to come.
And last, but not least…
This march is our way of countering the “mass deportation” rally, scheduled for August 1 at 7 PM in Fishers and sponsored by the anti-immigration nonprofit Save Heritage Indiana. Former U.S. Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino will be the featured speaker with “video remarks” from our own Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith. Fifty dollars gets you dinner, two drinks, disclosure of the secret location, and a “plateful of hate.” Get your signs ready.
