07/15/2026
How many more lives will it take before we recognize that something has gone terribly wrong?
In just the past few months, we've watched Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a longtime construction worker in Houston, fatally shot during an ICE operation. We've watched Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man, killed in front of his 3 year old child, during another immigration enforcement action. This week, a 28-year-old man in Florida died after running into traffic while fleeing federal immigration agents during a worksite operation. His name has not yet been publicly released.
These tragedies echo the deaths that shook our communities in January and the growing number of people who have died in ICE detention or during immigration enforcement. Human Rights Watch reports that 39 people died in ICE custody during the first year of President Trump's second term, with additional deaths continuing this year.
We were told immigration enforcement would focus on dangerous criminals.
Instead, families across Florida are terrified to drive to work, take their children to school, or simply live their daily lives. People are being detained at workplaces, outside businesses, in neighborhoods, and during traffic stops. Fear has become a policy.
These are not statistics. They are parents. Neighbors. Coworkers. Friends. Human beings.
If the only way you can see them is as "illegal immigrants" instead of people deserving of dignity, due process, and basic humanity, then the problem isn't with them.
On August 18, do your research. Learn where every candidate stands on immigration, civil rights, due process, and the abuse of government power. Then show up again in November.
Too many elected officials have stopped listening to the people they were elected to serve. If they refuse to represent our communities and our values, then we have the power and the responsibility to replace them. We have to remind them that they work for us, the people!
Vote like your neighbors' lives depend on it. Because for many families, they do.
