In just 8 days, 3 immigrant workers have been killed by ICE — Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, ME, and an unidentified man fleeing ICE in St. Augustine, FL.
We must be abundantly clear: these deaths were a deliberate policy choice by both the Trump administration and every single Congressperson, Democrat or Republican, who voted for increased ICE funding. We say stop the killings!
Murderous escalation is the result of White House policy
Over five days at the end of June, ICE captured over 10,000 people. That is over 2,000 per day, a number significantly higher than the peak of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota in January which saw about 1,200 people captured by ICE daily. According to reporting from the New York Times, 2,000 arrests per day is the new quota coming from the White House.
This comes as Congress approved an additional $70 billion for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE in June — expanding the funding and resources available to the agency through the end of Trump’s term. The appropriation is more than triple previous ICE budgets, and goes to DHS as a lump sum with little oversight — just that it must be spent by the end of 2029.
In addition to hiring more ICE agents, much of this money is going into technology. A recent report details how DHS and ICE contracts with AI surveillance giants Palantir and Anduril have tripled since 2024, accounting for over half a billion dollars.
Last year, Trump administration official Steven Miller set the bar at 3,000 arrests per day. This number was later denied by the administration amid high profile raids in 2025 that sparked mass popular outcry and legal pressures, but the massive investments in DHS and ICE tells a different story.
DHS looking for “quieter” violence
It is not a coincidence that these most recent escalations, from murders to arrests to the skyrocketing number of people in ICE detention to the massive investments in lethal and surveillance technology are not being broadcast the same way that high profile attacks were in 2025.
The mass resistance spurred by highly visible and brutal ICE and DHS operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis over the last year has shown the path forward. The murders of Jaime Alanís Garcia, Keith Porter Jr., Renee Nicole Good, and Alex Pretti were met with heroic, nationwide mobilizations, strikes, shutdowns, and solidarity actions.
This too is an intentional strategy by the ruling class — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has vowed to conduct operations in a “quieter and smarter” way — that is, escalate the violence in a way that avoids sparking mass working class resistance.
This approach has come into contradiction with the White House. After ICE murdered Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Maine on Monday, DHS moved to “pause” traffic stops and enforcement, a clear attempt to turn down the temperature and quell potential mass outrage. Within hours, the White House countermanded the DHS decision, with Trump taking to social media to direct ICE to resume traffic stops.
Tragically yet predictably, ICE violence on the roads already has caused the death of a third worker, this time in Florida.
Abolish ICE, fight for socialism!
This move by DHS — and Trump’s countermand — proves that ICE terror can be stopped, or restarted, at any moment. That the question of traffic stops is even a point of contention between DHS and the White House is because of the mass movement demanding the abolition of ICE and full rights for all immigrants.
The reality is that ICE terror cannot be blamed on Trump alone. ICE is a bipartisan machine, built in the War on Terror and expanded under Obama, Trump, and Biden. As long as this country is ruled by capitalists, the system will perpetuate this violence against workers, no matter what country they’re born in.
ICE, DHS, Trump, and all those in power who facilitate this reign of terror will not get away with kidnapping, murdering, and destroying the lives of our people “quietly.” From Houston to Maine and all across this country, every day people are livid at the injustices and brutality brought by ICE into our streets.
Join the National Day of Action on Saturday, July 18 in cities across the country enraged by these crimes against our communities to say STOP ICE TERROR! Visit answercoalition.org/ICEOUT for more information and initial city listings.
