[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 14, 2026)]
[House]
[Page H4419]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ICE
(Ms. Ansari of Arizona was recognized to address the House for 5
minutes.)
Ms. ANSARI. Madam Speaker, ICE, the President's paramilitary secret
police force, continues to roam American streets and murder people in
broad daylight and in cold blood.
First, it was Ruben Ray Martinez in March 2025, but ICE covered it up
and kept it from the public.
Then, it was Alex Pretti and Renee Good. ICE shot and killed these
two innocent people in Minnesota who had done nothing more than
exercise their constitutional right to protest and free speech.
Then, the administration's rightwing propaganda machine got to work,
smearing these two heroes as ``domestic terrorists,'' without an ounce
of evidence. This was coordinated and directed by leadership of the
Department of Homeland Security, by then-Homeland Security Secretary
Kristi Noem and by the White House itself through heinous, racist
voices like Stephen Miller.
It is not a mistake. ICE agents are completely out of control, and
that is on purpose. That is their mission.
This is what the Trump administration wanted to happen from the
start--to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars to their paramilitary
force and then use masked agents and a nationwide effort to spread fear
and terrorize immigrant communities.
The mass deportation agenda is part of their fascist, far-right
scheme to amass power by using immigrants as scapegoats and deploying
Federal troops to American cities, like my hometown of Phoenix.
All across this country, people are shocked, outraged, and appalled
by ICE's conduct and the sheer cruelty of Trump's mass deportation
agenda. Yet, it continues to happen in service of arbitrary, brutal
quotas for bodies--quotas for bodies of real people to fill beds so
that for-profit prison companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic can rake
in billions of dollars and families can be torn apart and deported to
third countries they have never known.
We are talking about 10,000 arrests in a 5-day period this past week.
As part of all of these horrors, ICE has carried out two sickening
murders just in the last week: one in Houston and one in Maine.
ICE is using pathetic excuses and spreading more misleading
information with the Federal Government's bully pulpit to cover up
their crimes.
This is Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father who was driving
to work and was shot and murdered while doing so. He was not a domestic
terrorist. He wasn't going to ram his vehicle into anybody. He had no
criminal record whatsoever. He was a hardworking, beloved father of
American citizens who was working hard to build the American Dream.
If you haven't watched his son Ronaldo speak about his dad, I
recommend you do so. It is heart-wrenching.
It is outrageous that ICE is claiming Lorenzo ``weaponized his
vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer.''
Multiple witnesses have testified that there were never any ICE agents
in front of the van. They came in and started shooting from the sides.
As with Alex Pretti and Renee Good, ICE is lying and lying badly. I
honestly cannot believe how terrible their lies are.
That wasn't enough. ICE murdered another person in Maine, 26-year-old
Joan Sebastian Guerrero, somebody who had a work permit, somebody who
had a U.S. Social Security number. Then, DHS put out a statement just
yesterday, just last night, that said that this man was trying to drive
away, and they shot him for these vague assertions of public safety.
ICE murdered a Maine resident, a law-abiding resident, in front of
his wife and his 3-year-old daughter for no reason whatsoever. This is
just pure evil.
Democrats in Congress have been demanding accountability for well
over a year. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of secret police,
cold-blooded murders by Federal agents on city streets, and black site
detention centers.
We must urgently work to stop these horrific abuses. It is a moral
stain on our country. We must abolish ICE, and we are going to
prosecute every single person responsible for directing, enabling, or
carrying out these crimes.
Lives are at stake. How many more families and communities need to be
torn apart for Republicans in Congress to do something?
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