'Let My People Work': A Cry for Justice Amid ICE Violence
by
Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
October 9, 2026
We should all be outraged.
The speaker in the Instagram video shared here, which has gone viral, is Gabriel Rosales, Texas State Director of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Founded in 1929, LULAC is the nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization and has played a historic role, alongside organizations such as the NAACP, in the long struggle for civil and constitutional rights.
Gabriel gives voice to much of what I have been feeling after a disturbing series of shootings involving ICE officers—including the recent shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in Austin and the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston.
Garces Perez’s attorneys say he was working as a DoorDash driver when he was shot.
In the Houston case, Salgado Araujo’s family and witnesses have disputed the federal government’s account of the encounter and described him as a longtime worker seeking laborers that morning. These cases remain contested in important respects, which is precisely why transparency, independent investigation, and public accountability are so necessary.
Gabriel’s outrage and moral clarity brought tears to my eyes—tears of rage, but also a profound sense that we need more of our leaders willing to speak with this kind of urgency. After hearing his remarks, I called him and told him that he sounded like Moses when he exclaimed first in Spanish and then in English:
“¡Deja mi gente trabajar!”
“Let my people work!”
There is something elemental in that plea. Let people work. Let families live without terror. Let children go to school without fearing that a parent might not be there when they come home. And when the government uses potentially lethal force, let there be transparency and accountability.
Relatedly, I recently came across the national ICE tracker called The Trace. As of today, it documents 100 incidents, including 9 deaths and 16 injuries.
 |
| Source: The Trace |
Whatever our individual views on immigration policy, figures like these demand our attention.
And then, this very morning, I learned about 28-year-old Oscar Belgal in New York City.
According to The Washington Post, federal immigration officers approached Belgal during a targeted enforcement operation in Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood—on the border of Manhattan and the Bronx—at approximately 4 p.m., just as schools were letting out and the street was crowded with children and families. An ICE officer fired at least seven rounds at Belgal’s vehicle, striking him in the neck. His five-year-old son was in the back seat and, thankfully, was not physically injured.
I can only imagine the trauma this child experienced. He has become, in a deeply painful way, a symbol of the human cost borne by children and families when immigration enforcement is carried out with such force and fear. It is cruel, brutal, and truly appalling.
Federal officials say Belgal drove his vehicle toward officers and government vehicles and that the officers believed lives were in danger. New York officials have raised serious questions about the tactics used in the operation and have called for the release of body-camera footage. Those competing accounts make independent scrutiny all the more important.
Whatever one’s position on immigration policy, at least seven shots fired into a vehicle containing a 5-year-old child, on a crowded city street as school was letting out, demands the highest level of public scrutiny and accountability.
The Washington Post further reports that this was the third officer-involved shooting since July. That should concern all of us.
We should be asking not only what happened in this particular encounter, but larger questions as well: What kind of immigration-enforcement system are we building? What rules govern the use of deadly force? Who investigates when that force is used? Who is accountable when policies or procedures are violated? And are fear, masked enforcement operations, armed confrontations, and the use of potentially lethal force becoming normalized in our communities?
These are not abstract questions. They concern the power of the state and the human beings—including children—who may find themselves in its path.
No comments:
Post a Comment