HOUSTON– The family of a man who was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Houston will hold a public vigil Thursday night, responding to what the man’s son says is an outpouring of support amid renewed criticism of law enforcement tactics. The ceremony for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who was
HOUSTON– The family of a man who was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Houston will hold a public vigil Thursday night, responding to what the man’s son says is an outpouring of support amid renewed criticism of law enforcement tactics.
The ceremony for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who was shot and killed last Tuesday by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston, comes amid growing scrutiny over President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. Encounters with ICE have resulted in at least 10 deaths since the start of Trump’s second term last year, two of which occurred in the days after a federal agent killed Salgado Araujo.
“My family would like to express our sincerest gratitude for the incredible and incredible support we have received,” Salgado Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado, said in a Facebook post Thursday.
Salgado Araujo, 52, who had no criminal record, had lived in the United States for 35 years.
In the wake of the shooting, three men who Salgado Araujo was driving when he was murdered have strongly questioned the government’s official version.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said Salgado Araujo had rammed an ICE vehicle and that a federal agent fired a gun in self-defense. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, a strong supporter of Trump’s immigration crackdown, said Wednesday that the state’s top law enforcement unit would investigate the fatal shooting.
More than a week after the shooting, new court records show the FBI is investigating whether drugs were found in the van, according to a search warrant request signed by a federal judge on Tuesday.
FBI Special Agent David McNeilly stated in an affidavit that he observed four plastic bags of a white substance that appeared to be methamphetamine inside the van. DHS has not stated that suspected drugs were the reason ICE agents conducted the traffic stop. The FBI referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz stressed in a videotaped statement Thursday that all information was preliminary and inconclusive.
“We are doing everything we can to seek the truth and do the right thing,” Reitz said. “In the meantime, I encourage the public to give the FBI and DHS the opportunity to investigate.”
An attorney for Salgado Araujo’s brother, who was in the truck when the agent killed Salgado Araujo and who was later detained by ICE, said the powder is a homemade electrolyte mix that the construction crew used to stay hydrated while working outside in the grueling Texas heat.
Ruby L. Powers, attorney for Salgado Araujo’s brother, in a statement asked officials to analyze the substance to establish that it is not an illicit substance.
“But no test result, whatever it ultimately shows, will change the fact that deadly force was used against Lorenzo,” Powers said. “You can’t shoot first and ask questions later.”
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Riddle reported from Los Angeles.
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