Houston protesters demand justice after ICE shooting of Mexican man
Hundreds marched in Houston over the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo as ICE faces wider scrutiny over deadly traffic stops.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Hundreds of people marched in Houston on Sunday to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on July 7. The demonstration added pressure on ICE as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over deadly encounters linked to its immigration crackdown.
Local media and videos posted online showed protesters leaving Ervan Chew Park and briefly blocking a bridge on Dunlavy Street. Demonstrators carried signs calling for ICE to be abolished and demanding justice for Salgado Araujo, according to Al Jazeera, the Associated Press and Reuters.
Salgado Araujo was driving a construction crew to a job site in Houston when he was shot, according to the same reporting. ICE said after the shooting that he had tried to ram an agent, who opened fire in self-defense.
A statement issued Thursday by the US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas did not describe a collision between Salgado Araujo’s van and a law enforcement vehicle, according to Al Jazeera. The statement also did not say the agent believed his life was in danger.
The Associated Press reported that at least 10 people have died in encounters with ICE since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term last year. Two of those deaths came in Maine and Florida in the days after Salgado Araujo was killed, according to AP.
In a video posted by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, an activist at the Houston march urged additional protests and said organizers planned to shut down the city on Friday, July 24. The activist said protesters should show ICE, the Trump administration and the country that Houston would resist the agency’s actions.
The Houston march followed rallies in other US cities on Saturday, including Portland, Maine. That protest came after Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop in nearby Biddeford, according to Al Jazeera.
Duran Guerrero’s family told Telemundo that he was the father of a three-year-old girl and still had many dreams to fulfill. Democratic lawmakers have called for a review of ICE hiring after allegations surfaced that the officer involved in Duran Guerrero’s killing had a history of mental health issues and violent and threatening conduct toward his ex-wife, according to Al Jazeera.
Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, told AP that the allegations raised questions about ICE vetting and training. The Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, said after the killings that ICE would take a short pause on traffic stops, according to Al Jazeera.
Homan said Sunday on Fox & Friends Weekend that ICE will now require at least one agent to wear a body camera during vehicle stops. He said he wanted the public to see what officers saw when they acted.
Trump has urged ICE to keep using traffic stops. In a Wednesday Truth Social post, he called traffic stops one of the agency’s most effective crime-fighting tools and said ending them would help criminals.
The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub reported that at least 13 people have been wounded since Trump’s immigration crackdown began, according to Al Jazeera. Human Rights Watch said at least 52 people have died in ICE detention, and ICE had deported more than 540,000 people from the United States as of January 2026.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.