BY JOE ARCE
Last Friday evening at City Market Park, the Kansas City branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation held a protest rally to demand an end to ICE raids in our communities and justice for Joan Sebastian Guerrero, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and all victims of ICE terror.
People here in Kansas City and around the country are asking, “When will the violence stop? In early July, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while on his way to work in Houston Texas. Salgado Araujo lived in the United States for 35 years, with his wife and raising three boys who are U.S. citizens. ICE later admitted Mr. Salgado Araujo wasn’t the person they were after – he supposedly “resembled” someone else they were looking for.
Another day another killing, ICE shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old man living in Maine. His wife and 3-year-old daughter having to watch in horror as he took his last breath. And again ICE officials admitted that he was not the intended target of their operation.
Party for Socialism and Liberation, Kansas City spokesperson Conrad Niederhauser told Hispanic News,” The rally was held in part because of the ICE killing of Joan Sebastian Guerrero in front of his wife and 3 year-old daughter in Biddeford, Maine. Less than a week before, they murdered Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. “These deaths are not accidental. They are the direct result of the Trump administration’s war on working-class immigrant communities, a war which is now demanding agents arrest 2,000 people per day. The next ICE killing could be in Kansas City, as ICE activity has been ramping up in our own community for the last few weeks. We are coming together to stand up to these racist attacks and demand: ICE out of our communities! Justice for all victims of ICE terror.”
Valerie Alvarado told Hispanic News, “Honestly I had a calling to be here at this rally today. The weekend before my cousin and I decided to throw a protest quickly outside of Kansas City to abolish ICE. Alvarado said she realizes that people who have her skin color of brown and Latina or Latino are under attack by ICE. “I feel I’m losing my freedom. I don’t know if and when I will be stopped by ICE.” As she uttered those words a stream of tears started to flow. Because she said, “I’m in contact with contractor workers and others who are providing for their family, I see them everyday, including my own father. I tell them all to be careful, please.” I had to ask what makes her so emotional, “Because it could be my dad getting shot in broad daylight. It could be my brother … my mother.” She adds she comes from a good family and they are good hard working people. “Why can’t the government see that? I live in fear, but it is mainly for them. Me, I don’t care. I’m willing to sacrifice myself for them or anyone else. My hope is that we can progress forward and learn to love one another because I don’t understand why we have to be so divided and I am hoping we all wake up and say enough is enough and that the killing stop.”
