ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- It's hunting season again.

That phrasing doesn't sound right. It suggests that the hunting stopped for a while, and now it has picked up again. The hunt never stopped. It just became quieter and less conspicuous. The hunters got wise. They realized that the objective wasn't to get headlines, but rather to increase the daily haul.

For the last 18 months, federal immigration agents have been incentivized by the Trump administration -- through a mix of carrots and sticks -- to round up as many undocumented immigrants as possible.

Past directors of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been reprimanded and fired for not removing people fast enough because the law doesn't allow it. That sent a message to every agent and supervisor within the agency that they would have to get a lot more aggressive or lose their job.

They chose door No. 1. And before long, ICE officers -- and the Border Patrol agents who assisted them -- were making a killing. Actually, make that three killings that we know of. Earlier this year, Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed in Minneapolis.

Sadly, it's time to add another name to the list of casualties. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant and father of three, was shot and killed by ICE officers in Houston. He had no criminal record. He spent nearly 35 years in the United States, working at the kind of dirty and dangerous jobs that Americans won't do at any wage. He was on his way to one of those jobs -- in construction -- when ICE officers stopped his vehicle in what they claim was a "targeted" enforcement operation.

What happened next is unclear because ICE hasn't released the bodycam footage of the officers involved. There are lots of questions. Did the ICE officers -- who may or may not have been wearing masks -- identify themselves? Or did Salgado Araujo think he was being carjacked, especially since the officers exited from an unmarked vehicle? The officers claimed that the 52-year-old tried to escape, rammed their vehicle, and attempted to run down one of them. They say they shot him in self-defense.

His family and friends say he was close to obtaining legal status after years of trying to get right with the law, apparently attending all meetings and filling out all required paperwork.

In Houston, angry protesters have taken to the streets.

And Roman Palomares, President of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said at a recent news conference that Trump's immigration crackdown has made it "open season on Latinos" for law enforcement officers who think they can "shoot and explain later."

There has been a lot of bloodshed and heartbreak in this country just for President Trump to show what a tough guy he is. It takes a big man to pick on undocumented immigrants who can't fight back. We're talking about people who -- while hard-working enough to help keep the U.S. economy from capsizing due to Trump's boneheaded policies, like tariffs against Canada -- have very little education, often can't speak English and lack legal status. What perfect prey for the unscrupulous

For much of 2025, ICE and the Border Patrol were extra violent because they wanted to grant Trump his fanciful wish of deporting one million people in the first year of his second term.

Honestly, that was never going to happen. The math didn't work out. It's too much trouble, and takes too much time, to deport even one undocumented immigrant, let alone one million.

For 2025, the Department of Homeland Security claims that it carried out more than 622,000 formal deportations. The administration also insisted that -- because of its policies -- another 1.9 million to 2.0 million individuals self-deported by voluntarily leaving the country.

The family of Salgado Araujo wants an independent probe into the killing. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wants justice for this Mexican national, demanding that criminal charges be brought against the ICE agent who fired the fatal shot. At some point, lawyers for the family may want civil damages.

All that sounds reasonable. And what do I want? As the son of a cop who spent 37 years on the job without having to break the rules to enforce the rules, my ask is simple: I want a national consensus around the idea that ICE isn't law enforcement. They're charged with enforcing immigration law, most of which is civil. They're glorified process servers -- with guns. They're not real cops. They're just real dangerous.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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