Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan has had his work cut out for him when it comes to explaining away the behavior of his agents, particularly as it relates to the extrajudicial killings they have been involved in over the last year. On Sunday, Homan was questioned by reporters about the killing of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston earlier this month, and he was forced to concede that there might be a “problem” for his agency if it turns out ICE agents didn’t properly identify themselves when they attempted to stop Salgado Araujo.
From Politico:
In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Homan emphasized the investigation must play out before opinions can be formed, but added that 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would be alive today “if they simply complied with — with a vehicle stop by federal law enforcement. “
Host Margaret Brennan pointed out that the family of Salgado Araujo said he did not stop for the officers because he thought he was being robbed. Video of the two ICE vehicles pursuing Salgado Araujo do not appear to show the vehicles clearly indicating they were law enforcement.
“I’m not saying it’s a marked car, but they have emergency lights and sirens,” Homan said. Brennan asked Homan if he has evidence that emergency lights were activated, adding publicly available video does not support the claim.
“OK, well, I have not seen the videos, but I’m saying our vehicles are equipped with emergency lights,” replied Homan. “Now, if they didn’t activate the lights, again, I haven’t seen that video. If they didn’t activate the lights, then it — then there’s an issue there, right?”
So, basically, Homan defaulted to the tried-and-true justification for killing people: if they would just comply, they would be fine. It’s a narrative that insists untrained civilians have a deeper responsibility to control their fear, emotions, and reflexive reactions during tense situations, while trained officers get a get-out-of-murder-charges-free card, because they can always simply say they were in fear for their lives.
In this case, of course, Homan was putting the cart before the horse, assuming it had already been established in the eyes of the victim that law enforcement was law enforcement, and that Salgado Araujo was given adequate time to realize what was even going on, and comply with orders.
Mind you, Salgado Araujo wasn’t the target of the immigration enforcement operation ICE agents were conducting when they attempted to stop him, and, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, neither were the three passengers in his van, who have all denied that Salgado Araujo ever tried to weaponize his vehicle against agents, as the government has claimed. (And while we’re here, neither was Colombian immigrant Joan Sebastian Guerrero, who was shot and killed by an agent in Maine less than a week after Salgado Araujo’s death.)
So, how did ICE agents come to target his vehicle in the first place, if not racial profiling?
In fact, it’s worth noting that Homan, who has defended his agency’s right to racially profile in the past, said during Sunday’s interview that misidentifications happen in law enforcement all the time — as if that fact were no big deal — without, of course, acknowledging the role race and ethnicity tend to play in said misidentifications.
“Law enforcement deals with mis-identity every day across the country, not just ICE, every law enforcement agency,” Homan said. “I was a cop, I know — I know that happens.”
It’s also worth noting that on Monday, Homan made it clear to reporters that he doesn’t believe his agency ever does anything wrong, even in Minnesota, where federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, and the government responded by smearing the victims with demonstrable lies.
The current federal administration simply has no interest in holding itself accountable for anything, especially violence against immigrants. It’s almost as if the cruelty is the point.
SEE ALSO:
Tom Homan Is Really Mad New York Doesn’t Hate Undocumented Migrants
Nobody Wants This: ICE Is Catching L’s At Every Turn In Minnesota
