Witnesses challenge federal account of Houston ICE shooting
A lawyer for three passengers says Lorenzo Salgado Araujo did not ram agents before an ICE officer fatally shot him during a traffic stop.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Three men who were inside a van when an ICE agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston dispute the federal government’s description of the encounter, their lawyer said Friday. The disagreement matters because the death has intensified scrutiny of immigration enforcement tactics under President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.
Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, an immigration lawyer representing the three passengers, said they reject a Department of Homeland Security account that Salgado Araujo used the vehicle as a weapon during the July 7 traffic stop. DHS had said the 52-year-old “rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle” and tried to run over an ICE officer, according to Al Jazeera.
Balderas-Ibarra said the passengers told him the van did not strike ICE agents and that the officer fired from the passenger-side window. He said the three men were traveling with Salgado Araujo to a work site when immigration officials stopped them.
All four men in the van were living in the United States without documentation, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet reported that they were not believed to have been ICE’s intended target.
Balderas-Ibarra said Salgado Araujo’s final words were in Spanish: “Ya me mataron,” meaning, “They’ve already killed me.”
Family and officials seek review
Salgado Araujo’s family and lawmakers have called for an independent investigation into the shooting, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet reported that Salgado Araujo was a Mexican national who had lived in the US for 35 years and had no criminal record.
His family, including his three adult sons, said he was seeking legal status when he was killed. At a news conference this week, his son Ronaldo Salgado said his father should not be remembered only as “Mexican man shot and killed by ICE,” and described him as a husband, father and employer.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that her government will ask US prosecutors to open criminal investigations into the deaths of Mexican citizens during immigration enforcement operations, according to Al Jazeera.
Past cases under scrutiny
The Houston shooting follows other disputed accounts of deadly encounters involving immigration enforcement agents. Al Jazeera reported that critics have accused federal agents of excessive force, racial profiling and violations of civil rights protections, while also faulting Trump administration officials for quickly portraying people shot by agents as aggressors.
In January, immigration enforcement agents killed two US citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, in separate incidents in Minneapolis, Al Jazeera reported. Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem described both as involved in “domestic terrorism,” but evidence later contradicted parts or all of the initial official accounts, according to the outlet.
In Good’s case, video appeared to show an ICE agent in front of her stopped vehicle before she turned her wheels as if trying to drive around him; the agent fired after moving to the side of the SUV, Al Jazeera reported. In Pretti’s case, footage showed agents taking him to the ground while he tried to record them on his phone, then one agent removing a legally carried gun from his holster before another fatally shot him, according to the outlet.
Al Jazeera also reported that an ICE agent was arrested in May after being accused of filing false reports in the non-fatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man. Investigations into the earlier fatal shootings have produced few public answers, according to the outlet.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.