The People Honor Lorenzo and Johan: PRESENTE, ALWAYS

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero were killed on July 7 and July 13, respectively, when ICE agents opened fire on them. In neither case were the officers involved wearing operational body cameras, nor did they have arrest warrants for either man. Their killings shocked the nation, but most profoundly, they devastated two families who lost their fathers.

Don Lorenzo leaves behind three children, who have described their father as “the oak of our family, a tireless worker, and a man of faith and peace.” Johan’s family—his mother and his wife—remember him as “a noble and generous man, full of dreams, and a wonderful, loving father.”

The profound injustice, tragedy, and sudden deaths of these two men mark yet another step along the path of destruction and death that the Department of Homeland Security has been building since the new president took office in January 2025. Our community—especially migrant workers and day laborers—is paying the highest possible price. White supremacy seeks to expel us, punish us, and erase us simply because we are Latino, Brown, from another country, another continent, another culture. And now, they are killing us.

When killings like these happen, the entire country trembles. Because when an innocent person can be killed with impunity, every one of us is in danger. Today, more than ever, the American people must see the immigrant community, recognize our humanity, and understand that it is inseparably connected to their own.

Unfortunately, the collective response of outrage and solidarity was very different after the deaths of these two Latino men than it had been when the victims were white. As a community, it is important that we name this reality. Outrage, grief, and the demand for justice should never depend on a person’s skin color, country of origin, or immigration status. Impunity, fueled by racism and hate, deserves the same condemnation regardless of who the victim is. Our fathers, like every other father, have the same right to return home safely, embrace their families, and live full lives free from fear and violence.

But there is also hope. In the wake of these killings, a broad coalition of organizations from across the country, united by anger and the profound grief these murders provoked, began walking together, seeking solidarity, connection, and collective resistance against an oppressive system.

As a result of this call, more than 330 communities came together to honor Lorenzo, Johan, Roberto Carlos, Juan Jairo, Alex Pretty, Renee Good, and so many others who have been run over, detained, abused in cruel detention centers, or shot in cold blood by untrained, unaccountable agents without body cameras and without mercy. Thousands of people, united across the country, gathered knowing that every candle lit, every sign raised, every voice joined together becomes another thread in the fabric of a people who refuse to disappear.

Thousands gathered to celebrate those we have lost. They gathered to declare that we will not stand by while our fathers, our mothers, and our siblings are taken from us. Their lives matter. Their lives are precious. And we will remember them forever.

Our journey continues. Our work is to love one another, honor one another, and continue weaving the bonds of solidarity and fellowship that these times demand, alongside all those who can still see the invisible thread that binds every human being together—that sacred connection that no one and nothing can break, and the conviction that, in the end, we have one another.

Lorenzo and Johan, PRESENTE.

And our struggle does not end here. Only the People Save the People.