At least twelve communities. Eighteen documented incidents, including one ICE-custody death that is part of a much larger pattern: at least 55 people died in ICE custody since the start of Trump’s second administration.

On August 1, a gunman killed three people and wounded seven more at and around a Twin Falls, Idaho, In-N-Out before dying himself. On August 5, a family in Prospect Hill, North Carolina, lost three of its own, including the shooter. On August 14, a Missaukee County, Michigan, spree left five dead and a 13-year-old girl wounded before the suspect was found dead. On August 15, five people, including a 4-year-old and a 14-year-old, were shot at a park in Lexington, Kentucky; one died. That evening, a drive-by shooting in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood wounded four people, two of whom are in critical condition. Also that day, five people were shot at Virginia State University — a historically Black institution — days before the fall semester began. And early Sunday, August 16, one man was killed and four others injured when gunfire broke out among a crowd of hundreds at a Houston gas station.

Omaha has not had a quiet week either. Shootings on Crown Point Avenue, West Center Road, in North Omaha’s Minne Lusa neighborhood, and in the Old Market have piled up since August 9, two separate shootings occurring within minutes of each other Sunday morning — one now fatal, the other leaving a victim critically wounded.

Civilian violence is not the whole story. Law enforcement violence — fatal and nonfatal shootings, taser use, restraint, vehicle strikes, chemical agents — belongs in the same accounting, and this summer it has turned deadly on the immigration-enforcement front as well. Counting a use of force is not the same as prejudging whether it was justified; every incident should be investigated on its evidence. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Houston on July 7 while driving his work crew to a job site. Witnesses in the vehicle directly dispute the agency’s account that he endangered an officer. A federal prosecutor later confirmed that a substance officials had highlighted as a suspected narcotic tested negative for methamphetamine; the family’s attorney identified it as a homemade electrolyte mixture the crew used to stay hydrated. No body or dashboard camera captured the shooting. Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13, also without body-camera footage, during a warrant operation that was not targeting him.

In Madison, Wisconsin, Corey Ruiz was shot and killed by police on July 22. The city’s Independent Police Monitor requested evidence, was denied, and issued a subpoena on July 27 with a production deadline of July 31. As of August 4, the department had not complied, and the monitor’s office publicly called it obstruction. And Geraldo Lunas Campos died in ICE custody at the Camp East Montana facility in Texas; the medical examiner ruled it a homicide caused by asphyxia from neck and torso compression during a restraint.

Campos’ death is part of a much larger pattern: at least two dozen people have died in ICE custody so far in 2026. Since the start of this administration in January 2025, the documented toll has reached at least 55. And in their analysis of the administration’s first 500 days, researchers found the ICE-custody mortality rate was the highest in nearly two decades, and nearly four times the rate under the prior administration.

Oakland has recorded three officer-involved shootings in 2026 alone — two fatal, one not. Evidence, including body-camera footage from the July incident, has been released; investigations and final accountability determinations remain unfinished.

These dangers are not distributed equally. Black Americans continue to face extraordinarily high rates of firearm homicide and are nearly three times as likely as White Americans to be killed by police. Some Native communities face severe disparities as well. Immigrants now face a dramatically expanded federal enforcement apparatus.

Grieve. Protect. Oust. Reconstruct.

First: grieve. Every number was somebody’s child, parent, sibling, friend, neighbor. But keep in mind and heart: death does not have the final word — Jesus was crucified, rose again, and already reigns as Emperor–Reconstructor.

Then: protect. Choose faith over fear, hope over fatalism, love over hatred. Say no to racism, dehumanization, vigilantism, and revenge — do not become the evil you oppose. Take credible threats seriously. Leave dangerous situations. Protect children and the targeted. Report imminent threats.

Then: act. Grief and protection are not the end of the work. Mishpāṭ — justice — is also a warning, not just a verdict, and it falls on structures as much as individuals. Reverse the curse. Get America out of peril. Protect the midterms. Stop the rig. Elect consequences. Flip all you can. Impeach and convict Trump. Reconstruct USA for real. Free, heal, and bless all humanity.

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#ReverseTheCurse

#GetUSAoutOfPeril

#ProtectTheMidterms

#StopTheRig

#ElectConsequences

#FlipAllYouCan

#ImpeachConvictTrump

#EndRepugnantPlague

#OustGuardianOfPedophiles

#ReconstructUSAforReal

#FreeHealBlessAllHumanity

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Holy Spirit of Emperor–Reconstructor Jesus Messiah, be merciful to us, fill us, protect us, anoint us, equip us, and lead us.

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Glem Melo is an imperfect but repentant evangelical missionary from Mindanao, Philippines.

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Sources

📍 Civilian shootings: Twin Falls (Aug. 1); Prospect Hill (Aug. 5); Missaukee County (Aug. 14); Lexington (Aug. 15); Auburn Gresham, Chicago (Aug. 15); Virginia State University (Aug. 15); Houston (Aug. 16); and four Omaha shootings (Aug. 9–16) — local law-enforcement statements and local/wire reporting.

📍 Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — Houston, July 7: federal statements, eyewitness and family-attorney accounts, prosecutorial information, and congressional testimony. The substance highlighted as suspected methamphetamine tested negative.

📍 Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero — Biddeford, Maine, July 13: federal statements, eyewitness accounts, AP reporting, and Colombian diplomatic statements.

📍 Body cameras: neither the Salgado Araujo nor Durán Guerrero fatal ICE shooting was captured by body camera.

📍 Corey Ruiz — Madison, July 22: Madison Independent Police Monitor. Its Aug. 4 public account said its evidence request was denied, a subpoena was issued, and MPD had turned over nothing by that date.

📍 Geraldo Lunas Campos / ICE-custody deaths — medical-examiner findings for Lunas Campos.

📍 ICE-custody mortality — Human Rights Watch / Physicians for Human Rights: 52 people died in ICE custody from January 20, 2025 through June 4, 2026 — the first 500 days of Trump’s second administration.

📍 Deaths after that study’s June 4 cutoff: Félix Alcorta-Rodriguez died June 19; Adrian Andreas Florian died June 24; Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva died July 13. Together with the HRW/PHR count, these establish at least 55 ICE-custody deaths since Trump returned to office.

📍 Oakland: officer-involved shootings on April 27, May 8, and July 13. Evidence, including body-camera footage from the July incident, has been released; investigations and final accountability determinations remain pending.

📍 Racial disparities in police killings: Campaign Zero / Mapping Police Violence and related population-rate data.

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With research and composition assistance from multiple AI tools.