“Trump, Trump, haven’t you heard? The people have the final word,” an estimated 1,500 people shouted in unison, as they stood on Canal Street Wednesday evening in front of a makeshift memorial honoring slain Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
Salgado Araujo was shot by an ICE agent Tuesday morning while he was in the East End neighborhood picking up his work crew and headed to a home building job. Federal officials claim Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.” ICE officials have not released the name of the ICE agent who shot and killed Araujo.
Salgado Araujo’s son Ronaldo Salgado said at a press conference Wednesday morning that, since President Donald Trump took office in 2024, his dad had spoken frequently with his family about the possibility of being detained and would have cooperated. The son, who found out about his father’s death from a Facebook post, suggested that perhaps his dad thought the masked agents in an unmarked car were trying to steal his van and his tools.
Salgado Araujo, 52 had lived in the United States for 35 years, was married and had three sons, all college graduates. He was in the process of obtaining legal residency, his son said.
Federal agents said Tuesday’s traffic stop was part of a targeted immigration crackdown but have not explained why they stopped Salgado Araujo before 7 a.m. on a Tuesday in a residential neighborhood.
The shooting drew national attention, prompting dozens of Democratic lawmakers and policy makers to call for a “full, independent investigation” into why the ICE agent used deadly force during a traffic stop. They have asked for body camera footage to be released and urged any residents who witnessed the incident to come forward.
“As the official responsible for the safety of 5 million Texans, I want a full and complete investigation into the shooting of a construction worker,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a statement. “[ICE] is an agency with a recent history of inexplicable arrests, extrajudicial violence and blatant attempts at coverups. ICE has long since lost public trust.”
Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the immigrant-led civil rights group FIEL Houston, said in an interview with the Houston Press that he doesn’t care who conducts the investigation as long as the agency isn’t beholden to the federal government. Options include a special prosecutor, the Texas Rangers or an outside civilian review panel, but someone in a position of authority, such as the attorney general, FBI or Department of Justice, typically appoints a special prosecutor or calls for an outside investigation. That’s the problem, Espinosa said, implying that the foxes are guarding the henhouse.
“It could be the district attorney, an independent investigator, the city,” he said. “I mean, there’s a few entities that could potentially do this, but more than anything, I don’t think it hurts to have several entities looking into it.”
An FBI Houston spokesman said Tuesday that his office is investigating the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer, while the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General is investigating Salgado Araujo’s death.
Some media outlets reported this week that Houston Mayor John Whitmire declined to investigate the incident, and Whitmire clarified during a Wednesday council meeting that is false, that the city does not control federal immigration policy nor have jurisdiction over federal law enforcement officers. He also said there can’t be two ongoing investigations at the same time.
“We are monitoring it very carefully. We’re in constant touch with our federal elected officials, insisting that there’s a transparent, independent investigation,” Whitmire said. “And if I learn of any new information, I’ll certainly share it with council. We’re in touch with LULAC and community leaders. Our prayers are with the family, the community, and quite frankly, all Houstonians.”
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare also clarified his role in the matter.
“When anyone in Harris County loses their life during an interaction with law enforcement, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office conducts an investigation parallel to the agency leading the investigation,” Teare said in a statement. “Unfortunately, at this time, federal authorities continue exclusively handling all aspects in this case.”
Teare urged anyone with video, photos or eyewitness accounts of the Tuesday morning incident to come forward. “Let me be clear: Mr. Salgado Araujo’s family and our community deserve the truth.”
Residents at Wednesday’s protest placed electronic candles and artificial flowers at the site where the shooting occurred. One woman, Gabby Carbajal, said her family has lived in Magnolia Park for four generations and she supports Trump and the deportation of violent criminals but she wanted to stand in solidarity for the Salgado Araujo family. She stood alone on the fringes of the crowd with a handwritten sign that read, “Pray for Texas,” and the Bible verse Matthew 24:12: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”
“I don’t like the over-aggressiveness,” she said. “I’m here for the family, because that could have been my father, my neighbor.”
Others said they were there to protest violence, noting that they “can and will fight back,” but there was also a sense of helplessness among some who believe an identical situation could unfold again if Trump’s “henchmen” aren’t told to halt operations in Houston. “We know that Houston and the state of Texas is leading this country in detentions and deportations,” said one woman, who did not identify herself. “It’s not a surprise. This is exactly how ICE operates. This is a playbook.”
Espinosa advised protesters that the effort is a marathon, not a sprint. “We need you here next week, next month and next year, until we kick ICE the fuck out of our neighborhoods.”
The civil rights leader said many residents who live in the East End/Magnolia Park area have been afraid to come to protests or speak up since Salgado Araujo’s death. The three members of Salgado Araujo’s work crew, one of whom was his brother, have all decided to return to Mexico, Espinosa said.
“Everyone in the neighborhood is scared,” he said. “We sent out a canvasser to try to recoup some video and no one wanted to talk to him.”
Espinosa, who led a crowd in chanting “ICE out of Houston” at the Wednesday rally, echoed a statement about Salgado Araujo that the slain man’s son said at the press conference hours prior.
“He didn’t deserve this; no one deserves this,” Espinosa said.
Salgado Araujo had no criminal history, according to his family. Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, which has targeted people with no criminal convictions rather than violent offenders or border crossers, has been criticized for more than a year but the anger heightened when American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis on separate occasions in January.
In Good’s case, ICE officials claimed she was trying to run over an agent with her car, but that’s disputed based on video footage. In Pretti’s case, they pointed to the fact that the man, a nurse, was carrying a holstered weapon, but he was already restrained when officers shot him 10 times. No federal agent has been charged with a crime in either case.
At the time, critics warned that it could happen in Houston even though the local approach appeared to be primarily targeted toward detaining undocumented people when they are booked into the Harris County Jail for unrelated offenses and at routine check-in appointments with immigration officers — not on public streets.
U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee said Wednesday that regardless of what the evidence shows, “we should not have these folks in our city taking people’s lives.”
“As a member of the House Oversight Committee, let me tell you: when Democrats take back the House, ICE, you better buckle up, because we will be investigating you day after day after day until this lawlessness and this militarism stops,” he said. “Lorenzo should be here with us today. This is awful. This is an abomination. And we need ICE out of our city.”
Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said Wednesday his organization is offering a $5,000 reward for information and videos leading to “the arrest, indictment, conviction, or exoneration of any person involved in this potential murder.” He added that the family plans to file a federal lawsuit against the government.
Proaño also said at Wednesday’s press conference that the family plans to file a federal lawsuit against the government for death caused by negligence or wrongful acts of a federal employee acting within their job duties.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest social media messages have been about an appearance on the Sean Hannity Show and his objection to “birth tourism,” the practice of traveling to another country specifically so that a child is born there and can obtain citizenship and other legal benefits by birth. On Thursday morning, Abbott tweeted that he was mourning the loss of his “irreplaceable” golden retriever Pancake, “the First Puppy of Texas.”
An ICE spokesperson issued the following statement to the Press on Wednesday:
“On July 7, 2026, at approximately 6:50 AM CT, ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien. The driver of the vehicle, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — an illegal alien from Mexico — attempted to evade arrest. From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.
“The driver was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted. The driver was transported to the hospital where he passed away from his injuries. The FBI is leading the investigation and is on the scene. This is a developing situation, and we will update the public when more information is available.”
