ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Center for Victims of Torture™ (CVT) issued this statement in response to deadly shootings by ICE agents.

“The recent killings by ICE agents of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Johan Sebastián in Biddeford, Maine, are horrifying and utterly appalling. This lethal violence is a direct result of the Trump administration’s outrageous and wholly unnecessary militarization of immigration enforcement. Just as we saw in Minneapolis, where our clients have been terrorized by ICE agents, these violent and brazen acts are part of a fundamental assault on human rights.

“ICE appears to have switched tactics from the heavy military presence focused on a specific location that we experienced in Minnesota, to actions that are more clandestine throughout the country. A plan by officials to detain thousands every day has been widely reported. This spreads uncertainty and an insidious fear of when and where someone might be taken next – from their homes, their workplaces, their families. Our clients warned us more than a year ago: patrols of masked and heavily armed agents pulling people off the streets, shooting people with impunity, are precisely the conditions they fled in their home countries.” -Alison Beckman, senior clinician for external relations

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The Center for Victims of Torture is a nonprofit organization with offices in Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Uganda, United States and additional project sites around the world. Visit www.cvt.org