A tragic misstep in Houston has left a Mexican national living in the U.S. dead after being shot by an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The incident involved an unintended victim, according to U.S. Representative Sylvia Garcia, who disclosed this development on Thursday.
Representing the district where the shooting took place, Congresswoman Garcia conveyed that Acting ICE Director David Venturella informed her about the oversight. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the man who was killed, was not the intended target of the operation, as confirmed by the agency.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a homebuilder who had resided in the United States for over 35 years, was on the verge of securing legal status at the time of his death. His family asserts he had no criminal history, casting the incident in an even more tragic light.
“Something needs to be done. This is another needless death,” Garcia emphasized during an interview with MS Now. “We should consider bringing in external, independent investigators to examine this case,” she suggested, stressing the need for a thorough investigation.
As of late Thursday, a request for comment from the Department of Homeland Security had not been answered. The agency’s silence continues to leave many unanswered questions regarding the circumstances of Salgado Araujo’s death.
DHS, which oversees ICE, previously said that federal officers were conducting a targeted operation to arrest a person in the country without legal status when they attempted to stop a vehicle driven by Salgado Araujo. The agency has said Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and that a federal officer fired a weapon in self-defense.
Asked whether ICE agents had been specifically targeting Salgado Araujo, DHS said earlier Thursday that officers had been surveilling a property where they had previously observed two white vans.
“On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop,” the department said.
The federal agents weren’t wearing body-worn cameras, DHS said, and few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since the encounter, unlike other deaths involving federal immigration officers.
In a statement, DHS said the agents at the scene in Houston had not yet been issued body cameras, which it blamed on Democrats and a record government shutdown that was fueled by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, a Democrat who also represents Houston, said if the agents didn’t have the devices, it was because Trump and Republican lawmakers did not want them to be carrying them.
“Houston is done accepting excuses from an agency that has more money than it knows what to do with and still can’t manage basic accountability,” he said in a statement.
The Harris County District Attorney’s office said it would conduct an investigation into the shooting. The office is consulting with local prosecutors in Minneapolis, where federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens, to learn how they have navigated investigations into federal immigration agents, spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre said.
“Although access to key evidence remains under federal control, we are pursuing investigative avenues available to us and will conduct a review of any information we collect within our reach,” Lemaitre said in an emailed statement.
Three men, including Salgado Araujo’s brother, were detained by ICE during the fatal traffic stop, according to Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, who has been communicating with their families.
“It’s going to make it even more difficult to find the truth in all this,” he said.
DHS said the ICE agents involved in the incident were expected to receive body-worn cameras in the next 60 days.
In the aftermath of the fatal Minneapolis shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Democrats had refused to fund ICE and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations designed to increase accountability and transparency. Republicans in Congress eventually passed legislation funding just ICE and CBP for three years.