Activists urge LA communities to mobilize after 2 deadly ICE shootings

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Dozens of demonstrators gathered in South Los Angeles on Thursday to demand justice after two men were fatally shot during separate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations less than a week apart.

The rally was organized by immigrant rights group Union del Barrio and other community organizations. Organizers said they want the deaths to lead to policy changes and are calling on more neighborhoods to organize community patrols to monitor and alert residents to immigration enforcement activity.

"A lot of our community members are literally being killed," said Lizbeth, with the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice. "I think a lot of us are really realizing that it's time to get together and defend ourselves."

On July 7, 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston when an ICE agent fatally shot him. The Department of Homeland Security has said Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the operation.

Less than a week later, 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was fatally shot by ICE agents during a traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine. DHS has also said Durán Guerrero was not the intended target of that operation.

Durán Guerrero is survived by his wife and young daughter.

"All I have left are the photos and a blanket with the three of us on it that he gave her a few weeks before," his wife, Karolina Rojas, said through a translator during a press conference Thursday. "My soul is broken. He was everything to me."

Following the shootings, ICE announced it would pause traffic stops, but President Donald Trump quickly rescinded that the next day.

"It's extremely sad to see people that look like me being targeted," said Ramiro Sanchez of South Los Angeles. "I'm tired of seeing this pattern of people getting shot and getting killed. You don't know who's next. I don't know if I'm next."

Union del Barrio leaders urge their communities to organize against federal operations.

"It doesn't matter where you are," Ron Gochez of Union del Barrio told the crowd. "We need to organize there because these attacks are happening everywhere."

Both fatal shootings remain under investigation.

Organizers said they expect to hold additional rallies and continue community patrols in the coming weeks.

At least 10 people have died during encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched his renewed immigration enforcement campaign after returning to office.