Sen. Angus King led dozens of Senate colleagues in signing a letter to the Department of Homeland Security calling for reform of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

The letter, sent Monday to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, comes after two deadly shootings involving ICE officers occurred less than a week apart. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 57, was killed in Houston on July 7, and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 25, was killed in Biddeford on July 13.

Both men were shot by federal agents during traffic stops in which they were not the intended targets, with no body camera footage available to ascertain how their deaths occurred. Neither Salgado Araujo nor Guerrero had been issued a deportation order. 

The letter calls for DHS to fulfill commitments to deploy and use body cameras, strengthen officer identification requirements, and review enforcement protocols, said King spokesperson Matthew Felling.

“These recent events have further compromised the credibility of DHS and fractured public trust within communities across our country,” the senators wrote in the letter. “In each case, DHS quickly issued statements asserting that officers were acting in self-defense, even before evidence of the facts surrounding the incidents had been gathered.”

King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, was joined by 38 Democratic senators in signing the letter. They wrote that they support removing dangerous criminals from communities, but that efforts to do so must not endanger the public.

“Rather than making our communities safer, these actions endanger our citizens and seriously undermine confidence in law enforcement generally,” the senators wrote. “By no stretch could either of the victims in Texas and Maine be characterized as ‘the worst of the worst.’”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, did not sign the letter. A spokesperson from Collins’ office said it was not open to Republican senators.

“Sen. Collins and Sen. King have worked together on several letters on the Biddeford shooting — including letters to the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice,” Collins’ office said in a written statement. “In this case, we were not informed of this letter nor asked to join.”

In February, DHS shut down after Democrats and the Trump administration failed to come to an agreement about ICE reforms following two fatal January shootings in Minnesota. The letter sent to Mullin on Monday morning is largely a call to reignite the Democrats’ requests, Felling said.

“In March of this year, the White House border czar stated that the administration would expand the use of body-worn cameras by DHS law enforcement undertaking immigration enforcements and require footage, in addition to ending roving patrols. The recent tragedies confirm that neither of these commitments were honored,” the senators wrote.

The letter also urges immediate changes to agency branding, including exclusive and explicit identification of personnel as “ICE.” The senators request that agents cease wearing tactical gear, vests or other uniforms labeled “POLICE” or “POLICE ICE.”

Senators ended the statement by demanding detailed responses to questions regarding DHS’s plans to respond to the public, immediate changes to traffic stop and training protocol, and additional oversight to ensure public safety.