by Misty Severi
House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., vowed Wednesday that his committee will conduct oversight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after its officers fatally shot two individuals in the span of one week.
ICE agents shot the first of the two men in Texas on July 7 while the agents were trying to conduct a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal migrant. That man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, attempted to evade them.
The second shooting occurred Monday, July 13, in Maine.
Garbarino told The Hill that his panel has already reached out to ICE and requested a briefing with the agency next week, but the briefing will not include information on the shootings because both incidents are being investigated by the FBI.
The congressman said he wants details on the status of ICE’s implementation of body camera requirements for officers after it turned out the Texas officers were not wearing them because they had yet to arrive.
Garbarino also said he does not believe ICE should end its traffic stops, after the agency paused them following Monday’s incident.
“As long as… those officers are focused on what they told us they were focused on, and they are, I don’t have a problem with them doing traffic stops,” he said.
President Donald Trump has said that the traffic stops will not end despite the backlash and pressure in response to the shootings.
“The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done. CRIME IS WAY DOWN IN AMERICA, in many cases with numbers that haven’t been seen in decades. The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted. Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“We must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands,” Trump added. “The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch.”
The president told ICE to “be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.”
“Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America,” he said.
– – –
Misty Severi is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
