Lightfoot Responds to Fatal ICE Shootings, Renews Call for Accountability in Illinois

Two fatal ICE shootings in less than a week are renewing scrutiny of federal use of deadly force. On July 7, ICE agents fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, and six days later, on July 13, ICE agents fatally shot a 26-year-old Colombian father during an operation in Biddeford, Maine. Following the shootings, ICE reportedly ordered officers nationwide to stop pursuing people in vehicles.

Meanwhile, here in Illinois, more than 10 months have passed since Silverio Villegas González was killed by an ICE agent in Franklin Park, and police and prosecutors have yet to provide any public accounting of where the investigation stands.

In response, IAP founder and former Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot issued the following statement:

“In less than a week, ICE agents have fatally shot two men in separate states under strikingly similar circumstances. Agents went into these operations looking for specific people. Instead, they pursued other men, escalated vehicle encounters and killed them. Then came the same familiar justification: that the drivers had used their vehicles as weapons. We saw this playbook in Illinois. We saw it again in Minnesota. Now we are seeing it in Texas and Maine. Both shootings deserve independent, transparent investigations. So does every fatal use of force by federal law enforcement. Anything less is unacceptable,” said Lightfoot.

“Now, after two more men are dead, ICE has reportedly ordered officers nationwide to stop pursuing people in vehicles. Traffic stops are among the most dangerous actions in law enforcement for everyone involved. Poorly trained, unsupervised federal agents operating under intense pressure to make arrests should not be conducting them. These are the consequences of giving ICE historic levels of funding, resources and power without the meaningful oversight and accountability the American public is demanding. ICE cannot continue to grow more powerful while people continue to die.

“Minnesota has shown that local authorities do not have to sit on their hands. Authorities opened investigations, prosecutors filed charges against ICE agents in separate cases, and when the federal government withheld evidence in fatal shootings, they went to court and fought for it. Now they have that evidence and their investigations are moving forward.

“So what is happening here at home? It has been more than 10 months since Silverio Villegas González was killed by an ICE agent in Franklin Park. An investigation was finally announced after nearly eight months, yet we have heard nothing from police or prosecutors about what they have found, where the investigation stands, or when his family can expect answers. Accountability requires more than opening an investigation. It requires following the facts wherever they lead—and having the courage to act on them.

“No family should have to wait 308 days wondering whether justice is being pursued. A credible investigation should produce answers or accountability. After 308 days, the public has seen neither.”