Letter to the Editor: ICE must start taking responsibility for killings
Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, August 5, 2026
I have been following the actions of ICE agents in our country for over a year; from the flashy events of Kristi Noem to the current less attention-grabbing arrests, to the recent killings in Houston and Maine. These continue to validate the inhumanity of our current deportation policies in our country.
Sixty new detention facilities have been developed since 2025. Conditions have not been good, but are oftentimes being documented as unhealthy: with spoiled food, few blankets, lights on 24/7, and poor health care provided to those being detained.
A recent essay by Dan Rather talks about how ICE is being more successful in arresting people, of whom 75% are not criminals, and doing so more quietly. Rather also states that “Immigration is not the winning agenda item it once was, which is likely why Trump has muted his anti-immigrant public relations campaign. A new Gallup poll shows that 58% disapprove of “deporting all immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally back to their home country,” while 73% of Americans believe immigration into the country is a net positive for our nation.”
There are approximately 650,000 undocumented immigrants in the Houston area, primarily working in construction, as was Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. This man has been in the country for 35 years, and is a contributing resident. His positive contribution to his community and his law abiding behavior should send a message that he belongs here. I can only imagine needing to leave my country seeking better opportunities for my children, as did my Irish ancestors dating back to the potato famine in Ireland.
To start arresting good people who contribute, create jobs, pay taxes, and send them out of the country seems counterproductive.
I hope the ICE agents and their leadership will be held accountable for the unnecessary deaths of citizens, and asylum seekers or documented immigrants like Mr. Araujo, Rene Good, Mr. Chernyak, Ismael Ayala-Uribe, and Alex Pretti.
“A [University of Southern California] analysis of death reports from 2011-2018 found that ICE violated its own medical care standards in 78% of cases. ICE doesn’t follow its own rules. People die. Nothing changes.” – USC Health Policy
Reported counts vary because different trackers use different definitions and cut‑off dates: “deaths of people in ICE custody since January 2025 are reported between roughly 30 and nearly 50, and separate deadly shootings by immigration agents add more fatalities — meaning the best-supported range for people killed “by ICE” since 2025 is approximately 41–58, depending on what is counted and which dataset is used (custody deaths alone: 30–49; custody deaths plus agent shootings: roughly 41–58)”- Factualy.co/factchecks/politics/deaths
We need to have some really smart people come up with an immigration policy that is based on the Constitution, the rule of law, based on the value of human life, and based on the value to, of, and for our country.
Peggy LovellFord
Enumclaw
