Following is a statement from Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, in response to the latest fatal shooting by ICE in Biddeford, ME, as well as ICE agents’ murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo last week.
Pull ICE off all streets in all communities, NOW. They enforce CIVIL laws. There is no reason they should be allowed to invade our communities with guns.
This is not normal. We wouldn’t give guns, unmarked cars, and masks to IRS or EPA agents; that would be absurd and extremely dangerous. It’s the same here. Civil laws should be enforced in courtrooms and office buildings, not the streets of United States communities.
Whether it’s Minneapolis, Houston, Columbus, or Biddeford, Maine, ICE is bringing danger to our neighborhoods. Dr. Linda Davis died as a result of a high-speed car chase that ICE initiated. There is no civil law worth killing people over.
If you are being chased by an unmarked vehicle, you don’t expect it to be a federal agent. You think someone wants to hurt you. You don’t stop; you keep driving and look for a safe place to go. In December 2025, ICE initiated a high-speed chase through the streets of Columbus. The person they were chasing panicked and jumped from their car; the still-moving vehicle crashed into parked cars. Luckily, no pedestrians were hit.
But there’s no justification for tactics like these. ICE is using the tactics of criminals to enforce civil laws, and putting our entire communities at risk.
ICE has been given unlimited funds and discretion to use any tactic, anywhere in our communities, to enforce civil laws. They are hurting and killing us in our own streets, and then turning around and lying about it. The only solution is to freeze ICE funding and remove them from our streets immediately.
Additional Reading
Read Peter L. Markowitz’s paper, “A New Paradigm for Humane and Effective Immigration Enforcement,” to learn how a reasonable civil immigration system could be constructed.
Read this blog post about other solutions to the current immigration system, sourced from immigrants, lawyers, and former Immigration Judges.