Who Are We Becoming?
A government that kills in the name of law enforcement must be held to the highest standard imaginable. Today, it appears that standard is slipping away.
Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero is dead. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is dead.
Neither man was convicted of a violent crime. Neither man was sentenced to death. Yet both lost their lives during encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian, was reportedly authorized to work in the United States. He was a husband and the father of a young daughter. Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, had spent decades building a life in this country. They were more than immigration statistics. They were human beings with families who expected them to come home.
These deaths come only months after the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Good was an American citizen. Pretti, an ICU nurse, was also an American citizen. Their deaths sparked national outrage because many Americans believed the use of deadly force demanded independent scrutiny and accountability.
ICE says its agents fired because they believed they faced an imminent threat. Families and witnesses have challenged those accounts. The investigations continue.
But one fact is beyond dispute: two more people are dead at the hands of the federal government.
Where is the outrage?
When Americans are killed by government officers, we rightly demand answers. We insist on transparency. We ask whether deadly force was necessary and whether everything possible was done to preserve life.
That same demand should not disappear because the person who died spoke another language, carried another passport, or lacked the right immigration papers.
Justice is not reserved for citizens. Human dignity is not granted by a visa.
The power to arrest is one of the greatest powers a government possesses. The power to kill is greater still. When those powers merge, every American should be alarmed.
A nation governed by the rule of law does not excuse every use of deadly force simply because an officer feared for their safety. It investigates. It scrutinizes. It demands evidence. It insists that lethal force truly was the last available option, not merely the fastest one.
Some will dismiss these deaths by saying the victims were immigrants. That response should chill every American. The Constitution, our legal traditions, and our moral values are not supposed to depend on where someone was born.
History teaches a painful lesson. Societies rarely abandon their principles all at once. They do it gradually. They begin by deciding that certain people deserve fewer rights, less compassion, and less accountability when the government harms them.
If we become comfortable with government agents taking lives during routine immigration enforcement, we are accepting a dangerous expansion of state power.
Today, some of the victims are immigrants. Tomorrow, who decides whose rights matter less?
This is not about open borders. It is not about politics. It is about whether America still believes that every human life has value and that every death caused by the government deserves relentless scrutiny.
Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero deserved to return to his family.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo deserved to return to his family.
Their deaths demand more than an internal report. They demand independent investigations, complete transparency, and accountability wherever the facts lead.
The measure of America is not how harshly it can enforce its laws. The measure of America is whether it can enforce those laws without sacrificing its conscience.
If we lose that, we lose something far more precious than border security.
We lose the very idea of justice.
Larry Pifer
Easton
Thank you for saying these names, and for reminding us that human rights apply to all of us.
Eugene Debs said: “While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”
Excellent points, Larry, thank you for so eloquently stating them. There is deafening silence on the MAGA side of the aisle, and that’s simply complicity and more than tacit approval. Andy Harris is very quick to shout his objections to wind power and to strip Americans of the social safety nets that have so effectively helped to build our strong middle class, while helping others out of poverty. Andy and his cohorts seem hell bent on championing things that take away rights (the SAVE Act and the Big Ugly Bill) and they are making Americans more vulnerable to financial and health disaster in the process. They cannot seem to muster a word about the lapse of law and order that the GOP used to take price in. Do they ever ask “wat can we do to actually help Americans”? I guess it was all just lip service. It is shocking that the US is such a lawless bully at home and abroad and that the Republicans in office just fall in line behind the megalomanic in the White House. I know many Republicans, friends and family, that would never put up with the crimes of this administration, nor commit them. So where is the moral outrage of the people of the United States who still believe in “Truth, Justice and the American Way”? Or is the American Way now whatever Trump says, whatever lines the pockets of the ultra rich or corporate bank accounts? Shame on us, shame on us all for allowing this takeover of the America we love. Patriotism is not equal to sycophantic jingoism… patriotism is supporting your country to do the right things, voting out the criminals and helping all people attain the long lost American Dream . Where has that gone?
Please post your sources. Without knowing the whole story it is hard to know what to think except that any loss of life is tragic.
Dear Mr. Robertson,
The declaration of independence states that all men are created equal. The dread Scott decision, issued by the Supreme Court in 1857, held that “the black man has no legal rights. The white man is obligated to respect.” In 1861, Alexander Stephen’s, Vice-President of the Confederacy, I’m returning from the Confederate convention, delivered the “Cornerstone Speech“ that clarified the ideological foundation of the Confederate States of America, asserting that the government was based on the belief that the black race is inferior to the white race and that slavery is a natural condition for them. This speech emphasized the Confederacy’s rejection of the principle of equality stated in the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
The US Constitution provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property except by due process. Due process includes the right to receive written charges, the right to trial by jury, representation by counsel, the right to subpoena witnesses, testimony under oath, cross-examination and appellate review.
Summary execution is illegal. Those who are authorized to enforce the laws are not authorized to use lethal force without adequate justification based on actual facts. You may choose to automatically accept whatever justification they offer, but without real, actual evidence of the necessity for use of lethal force, your decision is based on nothing more than hearsay, from a person who clearly has a very substantial personal stake in the matter.
America’s legal system has always required more than that to justify the government killing people.
I also have to wonder how we have forgotten the murders of more than 100 people in boats in the Caribbean and the “Eastern Pacific.” How can it be that people who had never been charged with crime of any kind can be killed without reason or warning? I fear that there is so much wrong with what the current administration is doing that we will never again feel outrage at these various
criminal acts.
When an Administration has no moral values, justice will escape us all!
Thank you for this honest reflection on the degradation of our values and more importantly, the lack of integrity in the current leadership. I also want to know, “where is the outrage?” Where are the members of Congress who will stand up to this travesty of justice and hold the Administration accountable for this and all the other ways in which it is destroying our country?
Trump’s ICE goons have murdered at least 6 innocent Americans. Trump has murdered countless thousands with his insane bombings of Syria, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria.
When will this madman be removed to prison?
Thank you for this, Larry. I and many, many people are so appalled and disheartened and very sad about this. I often wish there could be an American uprising to confront this horrible dministration and what they are doing. I know one important thing we all can do and that is to VOTE! Let’s vote them out and get in people who will stand up to them and fight for justice for every human being!
Thank you for your eloquent letter, Larry. Justice is not merely for some, but for all people. As Lyn Banhardt stated in her comments above, we need to get out and vote. No matter what else is on your agenda, make time to vote on election day. We need elected officials who have the courage to do the right thing!