Catholic leaders in Maine and Texas speak out after fatal ICE shootings

Catholic leaders are offering prayers and calls for peace and justice after federal immigration agents fatally shot two immigrants in the span of one week.

The Diocese of Portland, Maine, is offering prayers and pastoral support to the family of a Colombian man, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, who was shot and killed on Monday, July 13, in the small town of Biddeford, Maine.

Archbishop Joe Vásquez of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, meanwhile, called for a “reform that brings about justice to all parties” as well as “peaceful dialogue, mutual respect, and a commitment to charity” after 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during a traffic stop July 7 in Houston’s Hispanic Magnolia Park neighborhood.

Conflicting stories The Maine shooting occurred as Durán “attempted to flee the scene” during a vehicle stop by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, an ICE spokesperson told EWTN News in a statement.

The spokesperson said the agency was “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal.”

Identifying Durán, the ICE statement indicated…