The Mexican national killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Tuesday was not the target of their operation, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday. File Photo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/UPI | License Photo
The Mexican national killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Houston area on Tuesday was not the target of their operation, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving a white van ICE agents believed to be harboring two Guatemalan immigrants when they opened fire, fatally shooting him. The people the agents were looking for were not in the van.
“This is outrageous to me, and this is ridiculous to hear that no one in that van was a target of any sort of investigation,” said Ronaldo Salgado, the eldest son of Araujo.
Araujo was on his way to work with three other men in the vehicle.
“As his family has always said, he is a good, solid, decent human being,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, said Thursday. “He was a father. He was a hard worker.”
Araujo was struck by gunfire in the abdomen when ICE agents attempted to stop the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
A DHS spokesperson alleged that Araujo attempted to evade arrest and “weaponized his vehicle.” Witnesses have disputed this claim and no video evidence has been made public to support it.
“That is a lie,” 51-year-old Jose Trinidad Rojas, a witness to the incident, said in a handwritten statement to attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra. “It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over. There were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.”
Balderas-Ibarra said all three men who were passengers in the van recounted the same details while being interviewed separately. The men are being held in immigration detention.
“All of them reiterated that there were never any ICE agents in front of the van,” Balderas-Ibarra said. They came in and started shooting from the sides.”
Araujo was a business owner from Mexico who had been living in the United States without documentation for 35 years.
Texas Democratic lawmakers have called for an independent investigation into the killing of Araujo.
“Whenever a law enforcement encounter ends in the loss of life, the public deserves a full, transparent, and independent accounting of what happened,” said Gene Wu, leader of the Texas House Democratic Caucus. “That standard should apply equally to every law enforcement agency — especially federal agencies like ICE.”
This week in Washington
Olympic canoeist David Hearn departs the Moultrie Courthouse after pleading not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Thursday. Hearn was indicted on July 2 on one count of destruction of property of more than $1,000 for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool, carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
