An ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican immigrant, early Tuesday in Houston's East End neighborhood, according to CNN.
According to a statement an ICE spokesperson provided to CNN, agents were conducting a "targeted operation" when they tried to pull over Salgado Araujo's vehicle. The agency contends that he struck a law enforcement vehicle and ignored repeated verbal orders, leading an agent to discharge his weapon in what ICE described as self-defense. He was transported to a hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Ronaldo Salgado told reporters that his father was simply on his way to a job site when vehicles with no law enforcement markings started tailing him, and that fleeing was never his intention. "Had my father seen an emblem of ICE, or an emblem that says anything about a law enforcement agency, my father would have complied," Ronaldo Salgado told CNN. Prosecutors at the Harris County District Attorney's office indicated to CNN that they could find no criminal history associated with Salgado Araujo.
Three other men in the vehicle, including Salgado Araujo's brother, were detained, his family said, according to The New York Times. According to CNN, Ronaldo Salgado said his father had built his life in the United States over the course of roughly three and a half decades and was in the process of applying for a work permit at the time of his death.
ICE confirmed to CNN that oversight of the shooting inquiry has been assigned to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General. On a separate track, the FBI's Houston field office has opened its own investigation into a reported assault against a federal agent.
Among those pressing for accountability are Houston Mayor John Whitmire, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, and a number of Texas Democratic legislators, all of whom have demanded a thorough and open inquiry into the circumstances of the shooting. CNN reported that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced her administration intends to pursue stronger action in the wake of Salgado Araujo's killing, signaling that formal diplomatic correspondence alone would not be sufficient.
