Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican construction worker, was shot dead by ICE agents in Houston during a traffic stop on 7 July. The agents claimed Araujo tried to use his car as a weapon, but eye-witnesses dispute that. On 8 July, one thousand marched in protest in Houston.
The SEIU union and the Texas AFL-CIO (union confederation) held a further protest on 11 July.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said “We cannot allow our brothers and sisters in the United States to be mistreated”, and the Mexican government has taken the issue of Mexican citizens killed by ICE to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Meanwhile, ICE has upped its arrests to 2,000 per day nationally, and in June Congress voted $31 billion in funds for ICE, covering it to the end of Trump’s term.
Trump has the Supreme Court’s go-ahead to scrap Temporary Protected Status for people fleeing Haiti, Syria, etc. and US employers have been told to sack workers by 24 July (Haiti) or 17 July (other countries). Many workers have already been sacked preemptively. This will affect 330,000 Haitian workers alone.
American unions need to stand up for immigrant workers, defend them from attacks by employers and the government, and mount an organised opposition to Trump. §
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