In a recent development, a federal prosecutor based in Texas unveiled new insights on Thursday evening concerning the lead-up to a fatal incident where an immigration officer shot and killed a Mexican national, who had spent many years residing in the United States, in early July. This revelation complicates the narrative previously provided by the government, which claimed that the man had collided with an ICE vehicle shortly before the shooting occurred.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52 years old, was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on July 7. At the time, he was commuting to a construction site in Houston alongside three co-workers, including his brother. This incident ignited waves of protest in the expansive Texan city, resonating with Salgado Araujo’s family’s calls for openness and accountability. Known as a dedicated father, Araujo was reportedly close to securing legal status in the United States after having lived there for 35 years.
This tragic event unfolded just days before two other individuals lost their lives in Florida and Maine amidst President Donald Trump’s intensified federal immigration enforcement efforts. These back-to-back incidents have once again brought the enforcement methods of the Department of Homeland Security under the microscope.
Speaking on Thursday, Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, disclosed that the ICE officers’ original objective was to locate two Guatemalan men suspected of being eligible for deportation. According to Reitz, the van these men were allegedly traveling in bore a resemblance to the one driven by Salgado Araujo during the tragic incident. On the day of Salgado Araujo’s death, the Department of Homeland Security stated he had been pursued as part of an immigration enforcement crackdown and was residing in the country without proper documents.
Reitz further noted that the officers on the scene presumed that Salgado Araujo and his passengers matched the description of the Guatemalan individuals they were attempting to apprehend, leading to the fatal encounter.
Four officers driving two separate law enforcement vehicles attempted to pull over Salgado Araujo’s van using their police lights. Salgado Araujo then made a U-turn and drove over a median to evade getting pulled over, Reitz said.
Later that morning, the officers again encountered Salgado Araujo’s van and for the second time tried to pull him over, this time effectively surrounding the vehicle, Reitz said. Two of the four agents got out of their cars and told Salgado Araujo to put the vehicle in park. Just before he was shot, one of the agents was “partially inside the van or immediately next to it” when Salgado Araujo tried to reverse and then drive forward again, Reitz said.
An earlier DHS statement accused Salgado Araujo of weaponizing his vehicle. The agency said he rammed his van into a law enforcement vehicle and said an officer opened fire in self-defense. The most recent statement from the U.S attorney’s office, however, didn’t mention any collision between Salgado Araujo’s van and a law enforcement vehicle. It also didn’t explicitly say that the officer feared for his life. There are no reported injuries for the officers involved.
The latest statement didn’t name the officer who killed Salgado Araujo, nor did it specify if the officer who fired the shot was the same person who was next to, or partially inside, the van.
Reitz also said in the statement that officers “saw in plain view several small bags of a white, crystal-like substance inside the van” and that the FBI later executed a search warrant to investigate for possible illicit substances. Salgado Araujo’s brother, who was in the van when the shooting happened, has been in ICE detention since the incident. His attorney said the white substance was a salt mixture that the men used as electrolytes to stay hydrated while doing manual labor in the grueling Texas heat.
Few photos or videos surrounding the shooting in Houston have emerged on social media, unlike other deaths involving federal immigration officers.
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