Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican who was killed He was killed by an ICE agent in Houston, had no criminal record during the decades he lived in the United States, and was transporting a crew to a housing construction site when he was killed, his family and a Texas congresswoman said Wednesday.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was working to obtain legal residency in the United States and He knew what to do if ICE stopped him. (acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement), his son explained.
Federal authorities indicated they had stopped the vehicle during an immigration enforcement operation. Ronaldo Salgado said his father might have been afraid that the people in unmarked vehicles intended to steal the tools he had used for 35 years to build houses, working tirelessly from sunrise to sunset, in order to send his three children, who are U.S. citizens, to college.
“He didn’t deserve to die. He didn’t deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican man shot and killed by ICE.’ He deserved to live a peaceful life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, father, and employer for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream,” Salgado stated during a press conference.
The shooting took place on Tuesday in Magnolia Park, a neighborhood that has been a prominent part of the Mexican-American community for a century.
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Federal authorities say his vehicle was rammed, but they have not presented any evidence of this.
Salgado Araujo was shot after ignoring orders and attempting to ram an agent, who fired his weapon in self-defense, the Department of Homeland Security reported Tuesday. According to the agency, which oversees ICE, agents were pursuing him because he was living in the country without legal permission. The man's car collided with an ICE vehicle, the department added.
Democratic Representative Sylvia Garcia said that Salgado Araujo had no criminal convictions.
Houston firefighters said he was shot in the abdomen. He died at a hospital.
Three other men appeared to have been arrested while Salgado Araujo lay on the ground groaning, according to his son, who noted that one of them was his uncle.
Daniel Tirado was one of the other men in the truck and briefly called his wife to tell her they were being followed, Tirado's stepdaughter, Juana Degollado, told The Associated Press.
“What he remembers is that an ICE agent shot Lorenzo and the truck door was closed,” Juana Degollado recounted.
Tirado was unable to contact his family until Wednesday morning, and the call lasted only five minutes, his stepdaughter added. They have been unable to obtain any further information from ICE or the FBI.
ICE has not released the names of the people detained.
Federal authorities have not released any videos or images of the shooting or the vehicles. Salgado joined civil rights groups and Democratic officials on Tuesday in urging federal authorities to release all recordings and other information they have about the shooting.
En other shootings in which federal agents have participated, the initial descriptions of immigration agents have sometimes been subsequently contradicted by video evidence.
Civil rights groups say ICE cannot be trusted with the investigation
The federal offensive has created a country where agents believe they can “shoot and explain later,” said Roman Palomares, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
The league offered a $5.000 reward for information and videos from witnesses. Ronaldo Salgado and several civil rights organizations called for an independent investigation. Others pleaded with anyone who has videos not to hand them over to ICE, saying they could be destroyed.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said Salgado Araujo's family and the community deserve to know the truth, but federal authorities are handling the investigation exclusively.
As of Wednesday, representatives from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security had not responded to repeated requests for further comment.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over the department in March and set out to keep it free from the controversies that marked the tenure of his predecessor, Kristi Noem.
The death of Salgado Araujo is at least the eighth resulting from an encounter with federal immigration agents since President Donald Trump's administration began its intense campaign of enforcing immigration laws.
The son says his father worked hard for decades.
Ronaldo Salgado recounted that around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, his mother was told something bad had happened to his father. After desperately searching for him at his workplace and finding his truck empty, he saw a video.
“I recognized him, not by his appearance but by his voice, asking for help while he lay in the street,” Salgado recounted.
Salgado Araujo met his wife when he was a teenager in Mexico. His wife would prepare his lunch before he left, and she would have a hearty meal ready for him when he returned home. He would listen to music and pet his dog on the terrace, Salgado recalled.
“After nearly 35 years of working to give us the American dream, he decided to begin the process of obtaining his own American dream through a work permit,” Salgado explained. “We paid attention to every detail, filled out every document, and attended every appointment. He was close to obtaining his legal status.”
Salgado Araujo underwent a biometric scan and had his fingerprints taken earlier this year, his son added, and had carefully studied what to do if ICE stopped him. If he was speeding away, it was probably because he feared his tools would be stolen, he noted.
“If my father had seen an ICE emblem or an emblem that said anything about a law enforcement agency, he would have obeyed,” his son added.
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The president of Mexico criticizes Salgado's death
Mexico is preparing legal measures over the death of Salgado Araujo "because we cannot allow the mistreatment of our brothers who are in the United States," declared Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday.
In April, Sheinbaum expressed concern over the deaths of Mexican citizens in U.S. immigration custody, stating that her government would support lawsuits filed by detainees protesting poor conditions or by the families of those who died. She raised the issue of the detainees' deaths before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and said she was considering filing a complaint with the United Nations.
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