House Homeland Security Chair Garbarino vows oversight of ICE after shootings

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.

"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 said on Truth Social. "The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch."

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.