Amherst Protests Recent ICE Killings

About 150 people gathered at Sweetser Park in Amherst on Thursday afternoon, July 16, to protest recent killings of immigrants by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and to call for the agency’s abolition.

On July 14, ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine, killed Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old father from Colombia working legally in the U.S., who was shot at a traffic stop and was not the target of the immigration operation. A week earlier, on July 7, ICE agents in Houston, Texas, killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican immigrant and 35-year resident of the U.S., who was shot at a traffic stop while driving to work and also was not the intended target of the ICE operation.

This brings to four the number of people shot and killed by ICE agents in 2026 and to 11 the number killed since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. At least 22 people have died in ICE detention in 2026, and 55 have died in the last 18 months.

The killings and detention deaths have set off protests across the nation.

The Amherst rally, organized on two days’ notice, was sponsored by Free Speech for People, the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, River Valley Democratic Socialists of America, Valley Families for Palestine, Amherst for Palestine, and Amherst for the People.

Speakers Describe a Rogue Agency Out of Control
Speakers highlighted the extrajudicial killings, the escalating impunity of ICE, the lack of accountability, the agency’s unconstitutional actions, the disappearance of community members into ICE detention, and the apparent collaboration of state and local officials with the agency. Some echoed assertions by law enforcement experts and social justice advocates that ICE—whose budget now exceeds that of all other U.S. law enforcement agencies combined—is beyond reform and must be abolished. Speakers called on the Amherst town government to do more to protect residents from ICE abuses. All of the speakers reminded attendees of things they can do to defend their communities and to stop ICE’s lawlessness.

The event opened with movement songs led by the Show Up! Sing Out! Singers, directed by Lara Shepard-Blue and Anne Louise White, and a newly-formed group, Singing for Change.

Speakers representing the sponsoring organizations decried ICE’s actions against civil rights and called on people to fight back and defend their neighbors. Speeches were interspersed with call-and-response chants such as “When immigrant neighbors are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

Lara Shepard-Blue, Representing LUCE Immigrant Justice Network
Lara Shepard-Blue, representing the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, emphasized that there are things each person can do to protect one another and fight back against ICE. She said:

Along with the anger, the rage, the heartbreak, that we’re feeling, it’s really easy to feel despair and helplessness these days, as we witness daily the creeping growth of fascism in this country. People have been taken off the streets without due process. They are murdered, innocent people, families torn apart by ICE. The foundation of our democracy, which was not that strong to begin with, is under attack. But the truth is that there is something that we can do.

For the past year, LUCE has been on the front lines of defense when our communities have been under attack. Here in Massachusetts, you might remember, in the early days of this, when Tufts University student [Rümeysa Öztürk] was abducted from the streets of Somerville, and in 48 hours, LUCE mobilized 1,000 people to come out and protest. They got footage of the student being detained, and it went viral. They helped to get her out of detention, and back home to Massachusetts to finish her degree. They have trained thousands of people since then to operate the rapid response hotline, and to be the eyes, ears, and conscience of our community.

At the same time, LUCE is building something even more powerful. It’s a base of immigrant leaders who will build power and hold decision makers accountable to defend and expand our democracy. Neighbor to Neighbor and the Pioneer Valley Worker Center are also anchor organizations here in Western Massachusetts, working with other immigrant-led organizations across the state to build the movement that we need.

But they cannot do it alone. So we invite you, if you’re not already a member of LUCE, to volunteer with our local hub. People can dial our hotline at 617-370-5023 to report possible ICE sightings, and this is an invitation to program that number into your phone. …

In addition to responding to those calls, we organize bystander trainings, fundraisers, food drives, and more. We take on this work with only half the budget needed. You can support this work, the groups that are holding the line and building the future. Every dollar goes to directly building community defense, training immigrants, and protecting our families.

I also want to let you know I’m a proud resident of Orchard Valley [here in Amherst]. And I want to let you know that last December, we had a Lanterns for LUCE festival that some of you came to. We spent several months organizing together. We got to know neighbors that we hadn’t met before. And in the end, on December 20, we brought 200 people together. We raised $7,000 for LUCE. And I’m telling you this, it’s not just to brag on my neighborhood, but I also want to invite you to learn about how you can organize a lanterns festival in your own neighborhood. And so that will be Wednesday, Aug. 5. We’re inviting you to a potluck. It’s a presentation. It’s a brainstorming session, and, of course, we will sing as well. So Wednesday, Aug. 5, we’ll be at the Unitarian Society of Amherst, which has been host to so much of the organizing that we’ve been doing. 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Jill Brevik, Representing Valley Families for Palestine and River Valley Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
Amherst Town Councilor Jill Brevik (District 1) thanked all of the rally’s sponsors and emphasized that these groups are doing intersectional work, stressing how the issues of Palestine and ICE abolition are interconnected. She said:

I can see and feel the outrage in our community after the latest ICE murders this week. I am outraged. Nothing I could say right now could possibly be enough.

Each individual story of lives lost and ruined by ICE is heartbreaking. The numbers are staggering, with now more than 50 deaths caused by ICE in the past 18 months, and abuse carried out by ICE agents daily.

This week’s shootings happened on opposite sides of the country: in Houston—a big city—and in Biddeford, Maine—a small town—and another death caused by ICE in Florida just yesterday.

ICE’s crimes are happening everywhere. This is not hypothetical, and this affects all of us.

And let’s not forget that ICE’s crimes are also not unprecedented.

ICE’s crimes are modeled on hundreds of years of the U.S.’s tyrannical oppression of people of color.

ICE’s crimes are intrinsically connected to our carceral system. And so, our local police have stated clearly that they will not intervene to stop illegal ICE activity if it were to happen on our streets under their watch.

If what happened in Houston, in Biddeford, happened in Amherst, what would our local police do? Can we live with the fact that they would not intervene? I can’t. I will keep pushing on these questions and holding our town leadership accountable.

It is also horrifying that our state leadership refuses to end the remaining 287(g) agreement that allows for partnership between ICE and our prisons. There is no safe way for a terrorist organization like ICE to interact with our community members, whether incarcerated or in our streets.

And we are paying for ICE’s crimes with our tax dollars — these recent killings directly following an additional $70 billion in funding approved by Congress.

It is well past time to call for the defunding and dismantling of this agency, which intentionally violates our constitutional and human rights as part of its core strategy. We are not going to reform or incrementally improve our way out of this.

Please check out abolishingice.org to support the Melt ICE Act going through Congress now. Please tell our local and state reps, and our local police, DAs, and attorney general, that you want clear and direct action to get ICE out of Massachusetts, to do whatever we can to disengage with, defund, and dismantle an agency that must cease to exist.

Adrien Rescia, Representing River Valley Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
River Valley DSA co-chair Adrien Rescia. decried ICE’s actions, saying they represent an escalation of longstanding white supremacist actions, and echoed others’ calls for the agency’s abolition, saying:

We are living in a time where every day we witness another egregious act of this current administration and we are expected to carry on as if nothing is happening.

On July 7, ICE murdered Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father, a brother, and a construction worker. On July 13, ICE murdered Joan Sebastian Guerrero while his child was sitting in the backseat of the car. Two more human beings were taken from their families because of white supremacy.

Last summer I flew with SEIU to Louisiana to protest at the ICE facilities there. Let’s call them what they are: concentration camps. And we had to drive four hours from New Orleans because they purposefully put these camps in the middle of nowhere to prevent protesting and to prevent lawyers from meeting with their clients. And let’s not be mistaken, the same systems that have been locking up Black and brown U.S. citizens are the same systems now being used to lock up immigrants. For what? Profit.

How many decades are we going to put up with this bigotry? How many generations are we going to allow them to keep trying to sell the American dream to? We’re watching the system crash and burn. It’s not as important that we make a bunch of noise today as it is that we continue doing the work after today, to one day see a system in place that isn’t intended to harm the working class.

It is time that we stand together and demand an end to ICE. Not reform, not change — abolition. DHS’s own data contradicts their propaganda of undocumented immigrants bringing terror to our streets. The only difference between an undocumented immigrant and an American citizen is paperwork. Why are there fascists in our streets murdering people over civil crimes? We’re talking about human beings, family members, siblings, parents, children, our neighbors, our co-workers, and our friends.

When you leave here today, remember: we have the power. They might be trying to discourage us from organizing. They might be trying to discourage us from voting, but it will not happen. What are they motivated by? Profit. What are we motivated by? Humanity, community, and justice. Continue showing up, continue speaking out, and continue standing up for what’s right, and they won’t be able to take away the power from the people. They won’t be able to take away the power from us.

Leyla Moushabeck, Representing Valley Families for Palestine
Leyla Moushabeck stressed the parallels between extrajudicial killings in the United States and in Gaza and emphasized that no one is safe when society justifies exceptions to human rights. She said:

I stand before you in grief and rage, for the Colombian American child who witnessed her father’s murder by ICE in a New England town just like this one; for the Black teenager shot by police in Georgia last week; for 3-year-old Sami Abu Quassem, the sole survivor of the Israeli strike that killed his family in their home in Gaza yesterday; for the American-made white phosphorus targeting residential neighborhoods in Lebanon; and for the children’s cancer hospital struck by U.S. bombs in Iran.

These incidents are not about enforcing the law, or self-defense, or public safety. They are not tragic mistakes; their similarities are not coincidence.

They are a function of a system working as it is intended to work.

ICE, U.S. police departments, the military and the IDF all share funding sources, intelligence, surveillance technology, training, and tactics. They are all built on a foundation of supremacy to assert control, suppress dissent and protect profits over people. And the impunity these bodies have been given has ushered in a new era of might-makes-right that should terrify us all.

None of us are safe while we justify exceptions to human rights. None of us are safe when our systems value some humans over others — whether Black, brown, undocumented, incarcerated, queer, transgender, Palestinian, disabled, or voicing dissent.

History has shown that most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. Dehumanization of these groups has been used to push the boundaries of what we as a society will allow, like a Trojan horse for fascist oppression. And with our silence, too many of us have conceded too much.

This is not new, or far away, or partisan. The time to stand up has long passed, but the next best time is now. It is up to us all to build and support systems of our own and enact our dissent with our voices, our bodies and our dollars.

Tem Blessed Concludes the Event
The event concluded with more singing and a powerful spoken-word performance by local hip-hop artist and activist Tem Blessed, who spoke about his experience with police brutality at UMass Dartmouth.