Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Pasadena Congresswoman Issues Demand for ICE Investigations

[Rep. Judy Chu via Facebook]

Roughly 50 people gathered at Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue on Saturday morning; day laborers held a second memorial that afternoon on East Walnut Street

Shortly before noon on Saturday, an organizer lifted a megaphone at Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue and began reading the names of the dead.

There were dozens. Some were not names at all — an unidentified man, four unidentified women.

About 50 people stood with her, according to the Los Angeles Times, part of a national day of action held July 25 to mark deaths in immigration custody and during enforcement operations. They are members of San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible.

A second gathering followed that afternoon: according to a July 23 media advisory from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which is headquartered in Pasadena, day laborers and faith leaders convened at 2:15 p.m. at the Home Depot at 2881 East Walnut Street.

In a statement released by her office after the weekend, Rep. Judy Chu — whose 28th Congressional District covers much of Pasadena — commended the peaceful demonstrations and named both men killed during ICE operations this month.

“I stand in solidarity with everyone in our community who gathered this weekend to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, and every person who has lost their life during an ICE operation or while in ICE custody,” the statement said.

Chu called it “abhorrent, unconscionable, and utterly indefensible” that another family is in mourning each week, and said the administration and congressional Republicans have handed the agency hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to expand operations she described as terrorizing immigrant communities. She is among nearly 200 members who signed a July 16 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and ICE Acting Director Venturella seeking independent investigations into both deaths, according to a press release from Rep. John Garamendi’s office.

Salgado Araujo, 52, a father of three U.S. citizens who had lived in the country 35 years, was stopped by officers in an unmarked ICE vehicle on July 7 while driving his construction crew to a Houston job site, and was fatally shot. He was not the target of the operation, according to Chu’s office. The agent who fired alleged he had “weaponized” his vehicle; Chu’s office said neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security has substantiated that claim with publicly released evidence. DHS said in a statement that the officer fired after Salgado Araujo ignored commands and tried to ram him.

Six days later, ICE fatally shot Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, in Biddeford, Maine. He was a father, and he was authorized to work in the United States. He was not the target of the enforcement operation and was shot after attempting to flee in a vehicle. An ICE spokesperson told ABC News that the officer discharged his weapon fearing for public safety. 

Chu’s statement pointed to her decade-long effort to close the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, citing medical neglect, retaliation against detainees and preventable deaths. She said she has also demanded investigations into fatal ICE shootings and fought to stop Congress from writing what she called blank checks for an agency operating without transparency or accountability.

“We will not look away. We will not be intimidated into silence. And we will never stop fighting until every family can live without fear that an encounter with ICE could end in detention, tragedy, or death,” the statement said.

The group at Colorado and Fair Oaks has held that corner every Saturday since March.