Seth Magaziner, RI
“ICE agents recently shot and killed two innocent people by mistake, and none of the agents were wearing the body cameras Congress paid for. I will not vote to give any more money to ICE until there is accountability.”
“Mr. Speaker, in the last week, ICE agents shot and killed two more innocent people in broad daylight. In both cases, the people who they shot and killed weren’t even the people who they were looking for. In both cases, they shot and killed people who were on their way to work in front of their families. In Houston last week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a construction worker who has lived in the United States for 35 years, a husband with three children, no criminal record, was driving to work with the lunch that his wife had packed for him, and his brother riding in the passenger seat, when ICE agents rammed his vehicle and shot him because they thought he was someone else. Yesterday, in Maine, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26 years old, legally authorized to work in the United States--legally authorized--was shot and killed by ICE agents who thought he was somebody else, in front of his wife and his 3-year-old daughter, who screamed and wearing her Bluey pajamas, while she watched her father bleed to death. How many more innocent people have to be killed in broad daylight? How many more children have to watch their parents shot to death by masked men too cowardly to show their faces? When will this madness stop? When he took his position, Secretary Mullin said that his goal was to get the Department off the front page of the news. Well, you are back on the goddamned front page now with two innocent people gunned down in broad daylight. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. It is total chaos. Do you know what? In both of these shootings in Texas and in Maine, none of the agents were wearing their body cameras. Congress gave them tens of millions of dollars for body cameras, and none of them were wearing them. Where is the accountability? Do you want to know why I won’t vote to give funding to this lawless, reckless, dangerous agency? Mark my words. We are not going to be silent about what is happening. We are not going to forget until there is justice.”
Mr. Speaker, in the last week, ICE agents shot and killed two more innocent people in broad daylight. In both cases, the people who they shot and killed weren’t even the people who they were looking for. In both cases, they shot and killed people who were on their way to work in front of their families. In Houston last week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a construction worker who has lived in the United States for 35 years, a husband with three children, no criminal record, was driving to work with the lunch that his wife had packed for him, and his brother riding in the passenger seat, when ICE agents rammed his vehicle and shot him because they thought he was someone else. Yesterday, in Maine, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26 years old, legally authorized to work in the United States--legally authorized--was shot and killed by ICE agents who thought he was somebody else, in front of his wife and his 3-year-old daughter, who screamed and wearing her Bluey pajamas, while she watched her father bleed to death. How many more innocent people have to be killed in broad daylight? How many more children have to watch their parents shot to death by masked men too cowardly to show their faces? When will this madness stop? When he took his position, Secretary Mullin said that his goal was to get the Department off the front page of the news. Well, you are back on the goddamned front page now with two innocent people gunned down in broad daylight. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. It is total chaos. Do you know what? In both of these shootings in Texas and in Maine, none of the agents were wearing their body cameras. Congress gave them tens of millions of dollars for body cameras, and none of them were wearing them. Where is the accountability? Do you want to know why I won’t vote to give funding to this lawless, reckless, dangerous agency? Mark my words. We are not going to be silent about what is happening. We are not going to forget until there is justice.