Speaker 1: Hey everyone, Welcome to BLEEP. Thanks for joining us this week.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is going to be dedicated to the victims
Speaker 1: of ICE. And when I say victims, I'm not referring
Speaker 1: to the thousands of children that have been detained in
Speaker 1: deplorable conditions in places like Dilly Detention Center. I'm not
Speaker 1: referring to the over fifty people who have died in
Speaker 1: ICE custody. I'm referring to the people who have actually
Speaker 1: been killed, targeted, executed, innocent people who have lost their
Speaker 1: lives in interactions with ICE. Since Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen
Speaker 1: remember him, He's the guy who replaced Christinome. Since he
Speaker 1: took over Homeland Security, there's been the illusion that things
Speaker 1: have been under control, They've been out of the headlines,
Speaker 1: things have gotten quieter, But that is far from the truth.
Speaker 1: The numbers of detentions have not decreased, If anything, they
Speaker 1: have increased. And just in the last weeks alone, we
Speaker 1: saw ICE target and kill two innocent people within eight
Speaker 1: days of each other. They killed two innocent men. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about some of these names and people put
Speaker 1: stories and faces to the statistics. On July seventh, Lorenzo
Speaker 1: Salgado Arajo, a fifty two year old Mexican national who'd
Speaker 1: been living in Houston for thirty five years. He was
Speaker 1: shot down by ICE officers who were driving in unmarked
Speaker 1: SUVs at a traffic stop. They were looking for someone else,
Speaker 1: so they had the wrong person, but they pulled his
Speaker 1: car over. Ice officers claim he tried to ram his
Speaker 1: car at them, but witnesses say this is a lie,
Speaker 1: and there is video from the street that proves this
Speaker 1: is a lie. There was nobody camp just IS's words
Speaker 1: against three witnesses who were in the car with him.
Speaker 1: And let us remember Ice has lied before, Ice has
Speaker 1: killed before, and ICE has lied about it before. Lorenzo
Speaker 1: Algado Araljo he was a father, a husband. He was
Speaker 1: a construction business owner and had been applying for authorization
Speaker 1: to live in the United States legally. His family said
Speaker 1: he liked nothing better than to sit on his porch
Speaker 1: after work, petting his dog and listening to music. He
Speaker 1: was a very hard worker. He sent all three of
Speaker 1: his US citizen born children to college. One is a teacher,
Speaker 1: another one of his sons is an engineer, and the
Speaker 1: third son is studying engineering in college. Now those three
Speaker 1: sons are fatherless. Then there was a different case, yet
Speaker 1: another case. This one was Juan Sewatian Durang Guerrero. And
Speaker 1: let me tell you, Juan Sewatian, that's the name of
Speaker 1: a famous singer, famous Latin singer. And when I heard
Speaker 1: his name and I read and heard about this case,
Speaker 1: it occurred to me that his mom must have named
Speaker 1: him for Juan Sewatian, this singer. This also happened last week.
Speaker 1: ICE fatally shot him. He was twenty six years old.
Speaker 1: He was from Colombia. They killed him in Biddeford, Maine.
Speaker 1: He was an authorized worker in the US. He had
Speaker 1: a legal work permit to work in the United States
Speaker 1: and a valid Social Security number. That means that he
Speaker 1: was not here illegally. You don't have a valid work
Speaker 1: permit if you are in this country illegally, So he
Speaker 1: has got to have had some legal status temporary or
Speaker 1: not that allowed him to have that legal permit. And
Speaker 1: like Salgado Araujo, Juan se Vatian Guerrero was driving his
Speaker 1: car when ICE agents were in the area with an
Speaker 1: arrest warrant for someone else. Yes, another case of mistaken identity,
Speaker 1: another case where they chased and targeted the wrong person.
Speaker 1: Video shows that ICE agents rammed him with their vehicle,
Speaker 1: then approached him on foot with their guns already drawn.
Speaker 1: Ice Ice claims they fired because Guerretro's car tried to flee,
Speaker 1: but video shows the car had already slowed down, and
Speaker 1: eye witness said that his last words that he clearly
Speaker 1: heard him say, I tried to stop. Guerretro was originally
Speaker 1: from Columbia. He worked multiple jobs as a food delivery driver,
Speaker 1: he was a cleaner, and he had been living in
Speaker 1: Biteford for a few years. He was also the father
Speaker 1: of a three year old daughter with his partner. The
Speaker 1: three year old she was in the backseat of the
Speaker 1: car when he was shot four times in the face.
Speaker 1: She saw her father pulled from the car, his limp,
Speaker 1: bloodied body. I don't know if he was dead yet
Speaker 1: or if he was dying, but they hand cuffed his
Speaker 1: limp body. The little three year old. She was wearing
Speaker 1: her bluey pajamas and a pink backpack at the time.
Speaker 1: These events happened eight days apart. You would think that
Speaker 1: after the first killing, the first execution of Lorenzo Salgado Arajo,
Speaker 1: and the attention the media, attention the protests that resulted
Speaker 1: from that. You would have thought that ICE would have
Speaker 1: been more deliberate, more careful about it happening again, But
Speaker 1: they weren't. It happened again. To Juan Sebatiang gro Why
Speaker 1: because there's no accountability, there's no thorough investigations, there is impunity.
Speaker 1: Our own government is killing human beings, including US citizens,
Speaker 1: in the streets of America with absolute impunity. So after
Speaker 1: this happened, there was a short pause of traffic stops
Speaker 1: by ICE nationwide. That's what Borders saw. Tom Homan announced.
Speaker 1: And when I say short pause, I mean short because
Speaker 1: it wasn't. A day later that Trump contradicted the policy
Speaker 1: and said ICE should resume traffic stops because they were
Speaker 1: essential for cracking down on illegal aliens. And Tom Holman
Speaker 1: and ICE they also promised to expand body cameras. Remember
Speaker 1: we've heard this promise before. They promised this after the
Speaker 1: Minneapolis shootings in January, and it was never fully delivered. Homan,
Speaker 1: of course, discussing human being that he is, his response
Speaker 1: was to blame Democrats for the delay in body camps.
Speaker 1: He said that shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security
Speaker 1: was responsible for the delay of ICE agents having body
Speaker 1: camps in neither of the two cases that I just
Speaker 1: talked about where ICE agents were wearing body camps. They
Speaker 1: also promised a so called investigation into both shootings and
Speaker 1: officers getting placed in administrative leave. This is a standard process. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: states and field officers are conducting their own investigations, and
Speaker 1: Harris County's DA in Texas and Houston, which has issued
Speaker 1: nearly twenty subpoenas for evidence, say federal offices are not
Speaker 1: cooperating with their investigation. And let me tell you what
Speaker 1: we haven't gotten. We haven't gotten video evidence from DHS.
Speaker 1: No agents have been named who were involved. And meanwhile
Speaker 1: DHS continues to defend the ab agency, telling CNN ICE
Speaker 1: agents are trained to use the minimum necessary force to
Speaker 1: resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the public
Speaker 1: and our officers. So you think it is prioritizing the
Speaker 1: safety of the public when you are shooting a driver
Speaker 1: mid drive with a child in the back seat. Come on,
Speaker 1: the hypocrisy of these people that they're able to say
Speaker 1: that with a straight face, It's just it just blows
Speaker 1: my mind. And let me just say this, if these
Speaker 1: were the only two people that ICE had killed, it
Speaker 1: would be shameful enough. But they are not the only
Speaker 1: two people that have been executed by ICE. Ice has
Speaker 1: shot at least five or six other people. I want
Speaker 1: us to remember their names. I want us to remember
Speaker 1: their stories. I want us to take them with us
Speaker 1: to the voting booth and November. So let's talk about them.
Speaker 1: Silverio Jea Gonzalez a thirty eight year old Mexican immigrant
Speaker 1: from Michuacan. He lived in Chicago for twenty years. His
Speaker 1: girlfriend described him as warm and present at home. She
Speaker 1: said he'd wake her up sweetly in the mornings, helped
Speaker 1: get the children fed and dressed, and let her rest
Speaker 1: whenever she had a migraine. On September twelfth, twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: ICE agents attempted a vehicle stop to arrest him after
Speaker 1: he just dropped off one of his children at school.
Speaker 1: He was shot at close range. Ruben Rey Martinez he
Speaker 1: was just twenty three years old and he was a
Speaker 1: US citizen from San Antonio, Texas. He was planning to
Speaker 1: enrolled in trade school to become a mechanic and move
Speaker 1: into his own apartment. His mom, Rachel Reyes, described him
Speaker 1: as shy, laid back, humble, kind and adventurous. On March fifteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, he was pulled over by Homeland Security
Speaker 1: investigations while he was driving by a crash scene on
Speaker 1: South Padro Island, Texas. He was shot and killed. And then,
Speaker 1: of course, there's Renee Good, a thirty seven year old
Speaker 1: mother of three who loved to sing and was kind
Speaker 1: to everyone. She had just dropped off her six year
Speaker 1: old son at school. Her car was parked sideways in
Speaker 1: a residential street in Minneapolis. She motioned unmarked ICE vehicles
Speaker 1: to pass. She was part of the community's Whistle network,
Speaker 1: a response to that week's ice surge in the city.
Speaker 1: An ICE agent approached her on foot circled her SUV
Speaker 1: while another ICE agent ordered her to get out of
Speaker 1: the car. Agents shot her three times, and she died
Speaker 1: from gunshots to the chest. Ice lied that she was
Speaker 1: charging her car at them, which video footage proved was
Speaker 1: utterly false. She was a US citizen. And then there
Speaker 1: was Alex Pretti, thirty seven years old, an ICU nurse
Speaker 1: at the Minneapolis VA Hospital who had been participating in
Speaker 1: protests against the earlier killing of Renee Good. His family
Speaker 1: said he loved the outdoors, and his neighbors and colleagues
Speaker 1: described him as calm and competent and a good person.
Speaker 1: Border Patrol was in the neighborhood conducting an operation targeting
Speaker 1: a different individual, Josel Wuerta Chuma, when Pretti and a
Speaker 1: group of activists arrived at the scene to protect him.
Speaker 1: Pretti was recording the agents on his phone when officers
Speaker 1: pepper sprayed him, tackled him, and shot him. DHS said
Speaker 1: he approached with his gun. This was a lie. Videos
Speaker 1: showed he never showed his gun. Again, I slide and again.
Speaker 1: Alex Pretty was a US citizen. Then there was Keith
Speaker 1: Porter Junior, a forty three year old father of two
Speaker 1: from Northridge in Los Angeles. His mom described him as
Speaker 1: a caring and hardworking person with the biggest heart. Shortly
Speaker 1: after ten thirty pm on New Year's Eve, December thirty first,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, he was firing celebratory gunshots into the air,
Speaker 1: something that's our common New Year's tradition, and that's when
Speaker 1: an off duty Ice agent who lived in the same
Speaker 1: complex heard the gunfire. Instead of staying inside and calling police,
Speaker 1: the Ice agent grabbed his Ice issued firearm and shot
Speaker 1: and killed Porter. And then he lied about it. And
Speaker 1: there was Marie Mar Martinez, Marie Mar. Thankfully she made
Speaker 1: it out alive, but barely, and no thanks. Twice. On
Speaker 1: October fourth, twenty twenty five, the thirty year old US
Speaker 1: citizen and Montessori's School teaching assistant with no criminal record,
Speaker 1: was driving in her Brighton Park neighborhood in Chicago when
Speaker 1: she saw Border Patrol agents patrolling the area. They were
Speaker 1: calling it Operation Midway Bliss. She followed them in her car,
Speaker 1: honking her horn shouting la Megra, La migra to alert
Speaker 1: her neighbors that immigration agents were present. An ICE agent
Speaker 1: then got out of their car and shot her five times.
Speaker 1: She managed to drive to a nearby auto repair shop
Speaker 1: for help before being taken to the hospital and treated
Speaker 1: and then arrested. DHS says her car tried to ram them,
Speaker 1: but body camera footage shows differently it was DHS's car
Speaker 1: driving towards her lies. Again. Martinez is still alive, but
Speaker 1: suffered severe trauma and injuries. And again, just like Keith Porter,
Speaker 1: she too was a US citizen. These are people who mattered.
Speaker 1: They were parents, they were loved ones, They were partners,
Speaker 1: they were teachers, they were nurses, they were hard workers,
Speaker 1: they were colleagues, they were people trying to live the
Speaker 1: American dream. We need to honor them and remember and
Speaker 1: never forget the cruelty that they suffered at the hands
Speaker 1: of our own government. And again, I hope you take
Speaker 1: this knowledge. I hope you look these people up, and
Speaker 1: I hope that when the elections come in November, we
Speaker 1: all show up and we vote for accountability, We vote
Speaker 1: for investigations, We vote to honor the memory of the
Speaker 1: people who died unjustly at the hands of ICE agents
Speaker 1: and the US government, and we vote to vote out
Speaker 1: the people who have looked the other way in Congress
Speaker 1: and in the Senate as these things happen in the
Speaker 1: streets of America. I have to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: this has been a very tough week for me. These
Speaker 1: two deaths that happen within eight days of each other,
Speaker 1: have left me devastated, sad. I have this feeling in
Speaker 1: my chest, this dread, this fear at seeing brown people,
Speaker 1: at seeing immigrants, at seeing people who look like me
Speaker 1: and sound like me hunted down. And again I can't
Speaker 1: get over the fact that these folks aren't being killed
Speaker 1: by criminals, They're being killed by our own government, and
Speaker 1: they're doing so with impunity. What is going to be
Speaker 1: the accountability? When is there going to be justice? This
Speaker 1: has been very very hard to watch, to talk about,
Speaker 1: to accept, and to realize can happen in the United
Speaker 1: States of America. But at the same time, I try
Speaker 1: to find bad and I tried to read things and
Speaker 1: enjoy things, find things that brought me happiness. And one
Speaker 1: of the things that brought me happiness this week was
Speaker 1: Ejen Carroll. If you remember, Egen Carroll was the writer
Speaker 1: who was who claimed Trump had raped her in a
Speaker 1: Burgdoff Goodman dressing room in the mid nineteen nineties and
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty three, she sued Trump for sexual
Speaker 1: abuse and for defamation twice when he publicly called her
Speaker 1: a liar numerous times. A jury concluded that Trump was
Speaker 1: civilly liable, and a judge ordered Trump to pay her
Speaker 1: five million dollars in damages. He fought it. He fought
Speaker 1: it time and again, took it all the way up
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court. But you know what, last week
Speaker 1: he had to pay her. She finally got her five
Speaker 1: point six two five million dollar payment, which includes three
Speaker 1: years of interest. Another thing that brought me joy was
Speaker 1: the Spain and Argentina game they faced each other in
Speaker 1: the World Cup finals. It was two Spanish speaking countries.
Speaker 1: And listen, you know, I'm a newfound fan of the
Speaker 1: World Cup and of soccer. And part of what I
Speaker 1: love about this event that happens every four years and
Speaker 1: about this sport is just how much you realize the
Speaker 1: role of immigrants matter when it comes to sports, and
Speaker 1: how you see people who complain about immigration at the
Speaker 1: same time that they are cheering on and rooting on
Speaker 1: the immigrants who are playing in these teams. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you something. If it wasn't for immigrants, go look,
Speaker 1: go take a look at the membership of these teams.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't for immigrants, I think these folks would
Speaker 1: have been celebrating the World Cup of shuffle Board. Nearly
Speaker 1: a quarter of all the almost thirteen hundred players were
Speaker 1: representing a country other than the one they were born in,
Speaker 1: and that includes the US where the star the star
Speaker 1: striker Baalagan. He became the team's top scorer during the tournament.
Speaker 1: This is the guy who got the red card that
Speaker 1: then Trump called the head of FIFA about and had
Speaker 1: the red card violation overturn. Well, he qualified to play
Speaker 1: for the United States only because he was granted automatic
Speaker 1: citizenship under the fourteenth Amendment, so birthright citizenship after his
Speaker 1: Nigerian parents gave birth to him in Brooklyn. So this
Speaker 1: is the same amendment, the same birthright citizenship that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump wants to get rid of. But here he was
Speaker 1: asking for this US player to be put back into
Speaker 1: the team, into the game because he's the best player.
Speaker 1: So I guess he didn't care much about birthright citizenship.
Speaker 1: Then France is reckoning with its own anti immigration rhetoric.
Speaker 1: It had sixteen members that were born abroad or have
Speaker 1: parents who have migrated to France. It was the same
Speaker 1: for Belgium, it was the same for Switzerland. Anytime you
Speaker 1: were looking at a World Cup game, you couldn't help
Speaker 1: but notice the role of immigrants. There were great other
Speaker 1: immigrants stories as well. Alfonso Davis from Canada. He was
Speaker 1: born in two thousand in a refugee camp in Ghana
Speaker 1: after his parents fled Liberia's civil war. There was Nestori Irakunda.
Speaker 1: He's from Australia. He was born in a refugee camp
Speaker 1: in Tanzania after his parents fled Burundi's civil war. He
Speaker 1: became the youngest player to score for Australia at the
Speaker 1: World Cup this tournament. There was our My Bill, also
Speaker 1: from Australia. He too was born in a refugee camp
Speaker 1: in Kenya after his parents from South Sudan fled the
Speaker 1: civil war. There there was Eduardo Gamaviinga. He was from France.
Speaker 1: He plays for Real Madrid, but he was playing for
Speaker 1: France in the World Cup. He also was born in
Speaker 1: a refugee camp in Angola after his family fled the
Speaker 1: war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I was born
Speaker 1: in a refugee camp in Angola after my family fled war,
Speaker 1: he said. And I am grateful to play and proud
Speaker 1: to do so as a former refugee. Just wanted to
Speaker 1: highlight some of these stories because I find it the
Speaker 1: height of irony that so many people who are against
Speaker 1: immigrants seem to be all four immigrants when they are
Speaker 1: representing their country in the World Cup and scoring goals.
Speaker 1: That's it for Bleep this week. As always, I want
Speaker 1: to thank you for listening. I want to ask you
Speaker 1: to leave me your thoughts, your replies to spread the
Speaker 1: word about this podcast. I am a reading every comment
Speaker 1: you leave me and I appreciate your time. Thank you
Speaker 1: for being with us this week. Bleep with Anna Navarro
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