A Mexican living in the United States who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was not the person federal authorities had been targeting in an operation in Houston, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Thursday. The Democratic congresswoman, whose district includes the Houston neighborhood where the shooting occurred, said Acting ICE
A Mexican living in the United States who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was not the person federal authorities had been targeting in an operation in Houston, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Thursday.
The Democratic congresswoman, whose district includes the Houston neighborhood where the shooting occurred, said Acting ICE Director David Venturella told her that the agency confirmed that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo “was not a target.”
Salgado Araujo was a home builder who had lived in the United States for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process to obtain legal status when he was killed early Tuesday, according to his family.
“We have to do something. This is just one more death,” Garcia said in an interview with MS Now. “And if we have to bring independent people from outside to come and see it, we should do it.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday evening.
DHS, which oversees ICE, previously said federal agents 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 that Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and that a federal officer fired a gun in self-defense.
When asked if ICE agents had been specifically targeting Salgado Araujo, DHS said earlier Thursday that agents had been surveilling a property where they had previously observed two white vans.
“On July 7, officers were almost in the direction of the target when they observed a white van with an individual resembling the target. Officers then initiated a stop of the vehicle,” the department said.
The federal agents were not wearing body cameras, DHS said, and few photos or videos about the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since the encounter, unlike other deaths involving federal immigration agents.
In a statement, DHS said agents on the scene in Houston had not yet received body cameras, which it blamed on Democrats and a record government shutdown fueled by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, a Democrat who also represents Houston, said that if officers didn’t have the devices, it was because Trump and Republican lawmakers didn’t want them.
“Houston no longer accepts 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 shot and killed two U.S. citizens, about how they have navigated investigations into federal immigration agents, spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said.
“While access to key evidence remains under federal control, we are pursuing the investigative avenues available to us and will conduct a review of any information we collect that is available to us,” 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, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, who has been communicating with their families.
LULAC has not yet obtained video footage that clearly shows what happened during the shooting and has offered a $5,000 reward for information from witnesses, Proaño told The Associated Press. The position of Salgado Araujo’s truck and the ICE vehicles has obstructed the security camera images that LULAC reviewed, he added.
“It will make it even more difficult to find the truth in all of this,” he said.
DHS said ICE agents involved in the incident were expected to receive body cameras in the next 60 days.
After the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Democrats refused to fund ICE and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations designed to increase accountability and transparency. Republicans in Congress finally passed legislation funding only ICE and CBP for three years.
Keep following us for the latest insights.















