Congress Forum Spotlights Fatal Shootings by Federal Immigration Agents

Democratic lawmakers convened a public forum at the US Capitol on Tuesday to examine fatal shootings carried out by federal immigration agents enforcing the administration's mass deportation agenda.

The event brought together eyewitnesses and relatives of people killed in encounters with federal agents, placing their accounts at the centre of the congressional discussion.

Among those present were Stella Carlson, who witnessed the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and brothers Ronaldo Salgado and Lorenzo Salgado, Jr., whose father, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, was shot and killed in Houston by an ICE agent in 2025.

Representative Robert Garcia of California, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, displayed a photograph taken shortly before Pretti's killing in Minneapolis. He was joined at the forum by Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The forum was organised as part of Democratic efforts to scrutinise the conduct of federal immigration enforcement under the administration's deportation programme. Lawmakers used the session to draw attention to individual cases in which agents' use of lethal force resulted in death.