SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And we begin this hour with the fatal shootings of two men at the hands of federal immigration agents. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Duran Guerrero were killed in Texas and Maine, respectively, in incidents that started as traffic stops. NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán joins us now from Texas. Sergio, thanks so much for being with us.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Glad to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: There's still many questions about what led the immigration officers to take out their guns and kill these two men who were in their vehicles, driving to work. But you bring us a new concern today.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yes. The latest is that NPR has learned that the ICE officer who allegedly shot Johan Duran Guerrero in Maine had a long history of violent behavior and struggles with serious mental health problems. That officer's name is David Brouillette. NPR has reported he's an Army veteran and former police officer. My colleague Vanessa Romo talked to Brouillette's ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette. She said, for years, she tried to warn the Army and others that her former husband is troubled and abusive.
ASHLEY BROUILLETTE: He'd hit me, choke me. And there was an incident where we had been fighting, and I walked away. And I got in the shower, and he comes in with a gun and points it at me and tells me that he's going to blow my brains all over the bathtub.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: There are no police reports from this incident, so NPR has not been able to independently corroborate Ashley Brouillette's accusations. We've reached out to David Brouillette, but he has not responded. DHS, Scott, without naming the officer, said the agent involved had nearly a decade of law enforcement experience and had the required use-of-force training.
There are also a lot of questions surrounding the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas. The father of three was also killed by federal immigration agents. Like the Maine shooting, Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the ICE operation. And no publicly available video evidence so far shows that either driver was clearly using their car as a weapon or threat, as alleged by ICE.
SIMON: And, Sergio, none of the immigration officers wearing a body camera. If they had been, there would be footage that people could watch that would shed light on the case, wouldn't there?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Right. Five months ago, the Department of Homeland Security vowed to quickly send body cameras to every agent across the country, and yet that hasn't happened. Now the agency says that all of the ICE field offices will have body cameras in the next 60 days, so by September. Now, it's important to note that ICE has been allocated an enormous amount of money, including $31 billion earmarked just for technology, including body cameras. So critics say that if body cameras had been a true priority for the administration, they would have figured out how to get them deployed to all agents sooner.
SIMON: And as you've reported, Sergio, 2026 is already a record year for deaths of immigrants in ICE detention. But it's also been deadly in terms of ICE shootings and violence on the streets, hasn't it?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. So at least seven people have been killed by federal immigration agents during enforcement operations since President Trump returned to office. And there are many other instances where ICE agents have used force against immigrants and other civilians. In fact, the ACLU released a report this week that looks at more than 1,200 enforcement operations involving ICE officers. They found more than 400 instances of agents pushing, tackling or pinning people to the ground and using weapons like rubber bullets and tasers. The ACLU also found dozens of times where officers used potentially deadly tactics, including chokeholds.
SIMON: This week, there was a lot of back-and-forth on whether federal immigration agents were going to continue conducting traffic stops. What's the latest on this?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. Earlier this week, DHS said it was going to pause the traffic stops, but then President Trump ordered the agency to continue them. He called traffic stops an effective tool to arrest undocumented immigrants. So the bottom line is, Scott, they are still happening. There's potential that more of these encounters could quickly go south and turn volatile or deadly.
SIMON: NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Thanks so much.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
