Angus King

Sen. Angus King led dozens of Senate colleagues in signing a letter to the Department of Homeland Security calling for reform of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The letter, sent Monday to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, comes after two deadly shootings involving ICE officers occurred less than a week apart in Texas and Maine. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 57, was killed July 7 in Houston, and 25-year-old Johan Sebastian Durán Guerrero was fatally shot in Biddeford July 13.

Both men were shot during traffic stops where they were not the intended targets, by federal agents who were not wearing body cameras. Neither Salgado Araujo or Guerrero had been issued a deportation order.

The letter calls for DHS to fulfill commitments to deploy and use body cameras, strengthen officer identification requirements and review enforcement protocols.

“These recent events have further compromised the credibility of DHS and fractured public trust within communities across our country,” the senators wrote in the letter. “In each case, DHS quickly issued statements asserting that officers were acting in self-defense, even before evidence of the facts surrounding the incidents had been gathered.”

King is joined by 38 senators. They are supportive of removing dangerous criminals from communities, but efforts to do so must not endanger the public, they said in the letter.

“Rather than making our communities safer, these actions endanger our citizens and seriously undermine confidence in law enforcement generally,” the senators wrote. “By no stretch could either of the victims in Texas and Maine be characterized as ‘the worst of the worst.’”

In February, DHS shut down after Democrats and the Trump administration failed to come to an agreement about ICE reforms following two fatal January shootings in Minnesota. The letter sent to Mullin on Monday morning is largely a call to reignite the Democrats’ requests, Felling said.

“In March of this year, the White House Border Czar stated that the administration would expand the use of body-worn cameras by DHS law enforcement undertaking immigration enforcements and require footage, in addition to ending roving patrols. The recent tragedies confirm that neither of these commitments were honored,” the senators wrote.

The letter also urges immediate changes to agency branding, including exclusive and explicit identification of personnel as “ICE.” The senators request that agents cease wearing tactical gear, vests or other uniforms labeled “POLICE” or “POLICE ICE.”

Senators ended the statement by demanding detailed responses to questions regarding DHS’s plans to respond to the public, immediate changes to traffic stop and training protocol and additional oversight to ensure public safety.