Voto Latino and more than 50 advocacy organisations have urged Congress to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and investigate his department’s conduct. The appeal increases political pressure over alleged violence and civil-rights abuses in US immigration enforcement, although it does not itself start impeachment proceedings.

In a letter to congressional leaders, the coalition cited deaths in immigration detention, shootings involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents, family separations and the expansion of detention facilities. It specifically referred to the fatal shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. The signatories included civil-rights, faith, immigration, veterans’ and business groups, and accused DHS under Mullin of undermining public trust and due process.