ICE Deportation Tactics

**Amina Serna** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Amina Serna, a producer for the show, filling in for Brian today. We hope everyone is staying safe between the ongoing heat and now the poor air quality, as smoke from Canadian wildfires is once again causing it to be unhealthy for certain people.
Coming up on today's show, what you need to know about cyclosporiasis, the stomach bug that's sweeping through dozens of states, including New York and New Jersey. My guest, Caitlin Jadalina, from your local epidemiologist, will tell us which foods are suspected as the potential culprits of the parasite and what to do, especially as the federal government hasn't been the most forthcoming on this. That's according to our guest. Plus, we'll talk about how genetic tests, which look for mutations that are associated with certain diseases, are rattling people as they become more common. We'll talk about the pros and cons, especially the emotional stress that they can cause. We'll wrap today's show by learning about a project to identify a new species of insect, right here in Central Park. But first, in less than a week this month, ICE agents shot and killed two men during immigration operations. In both cases, the man who died was not the person agents had come looking for.
On July 7th, in Houston's East End, an officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Arajo, a 52-year-old from Mexico. The government says he used his van as a weapon. Passengers who were with him say that's not what happened. Then, this past Monday, in Bidford, Maine, an agent shot and killed Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, a young Colombian father who neighbors say was on his way to work.
Neither ICE agent was wearing a body camera. So much of what we know comes down to competing accounts. And in Washington, the response has been whiplash. On Tuesday, the administration paused most ICE traffic stops. By Wednesday morning, President Trump had personally reversed that on his Truth Social account, calling the traffic stop one of ICE's most important tools.
Joining me now to sort out what we actually know and what we don't is Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Immigration Correspondent for NPR. Sergio, welcome back to WNYC.

**Sergio Martínez-Beltrán** (2:40)
Thank you so much. It's good to be with you, Amina.

**Amina Serna** (2:42)
You've been covering this story as it moves almost hour by hour. Two men killed by ICE in less than a week in Houston and in a small town in Maine.
Who were they and what do we actually know about how each of them died?

**Sergio Martínez-Beltrán** (2:57)
Yeah. So like you mentioned, there is a lot of competing narratives here. But in the case of the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, that happened in Houston, as you mentioned, and what we do know is that DHS, the Department of Homeland Security, had been surveilling a home in Houston when agents saw someone who resembled their target, and resemble is the operating word here. Someone who resembled the target get in the van that was driven by Mr. Salgado Araujo.
The agents, according to the agency, decided they needed to pull the van over, and the agency says that Mr. Salgado Araujo was trying to flee the scene and weaponized his car against a federal agent. I think it's important to note that DHS in the past has said that people have used their cars as a weapon against agents, and then when either bystander video comes out or body cam video comes out, we can see that that was not necessarily true. In this particular case, because the agents in Houston were not wearing body cameras, it's really hard to see that angle. And to be honest, I was in Houston covering this story. I know the colleagues at Houston Public Media were there too, and they have been, you know, we have been trying to figure out from business cameras or home cameras if we can have a better understanding of what happened minutes before or seconds before the agent decided to pull out their gun. But we don't have a complete picture yet. And then in the case of Joan Duran Guerrero in Maine, it's a similar story.
The agents were trying to pull him over. What's different here, and I think it's important to note, is that in this particular case in Maine, the Department of Homeland Security never accused the person, Mr. Duran Guerrero, of weaponizing his vehicle. So this is different. In this particular case, the agency is saying that Mr. Duran Guerrero was shot after the agent feared for public safety. What does that mean? We're not completely sure.

**Amina Serna** (5:15)
As of yesterday morning, the Trump administration has essentially reversed itself twice in one day. So can you walk us through a little bit of that timeline? What did DHS decide on Tuesday and what did the president do on Wednesday?