One of the Houston men who witnessed the July 7 fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at the hands of a federal immigration officer will be released from an ICE detention facility this week, according to a judge’s ruling.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison issued the ruling Monday evening, ordering that Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego must be set free within 48 hours because Pliego’s Fifth Amendment right to due process was violated.
“The following facts are not in dispute,” states the order, which is addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “Petitioner Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego is a citizen of Mexico who entered the United States without inspection in 1998, nearly 30 years ago. He has resided in the United States continuously since that time. Rojas Pliego has a common law marriage to a U.S. citizen and is a father and stepfather to multiple children and stepchildren who are U.S. citizens. He has no criminal history.”
The document continues: “On July 7, 2026, Mr. Rojas Pliego was on his way to work when the vehicle in which he was a passenger was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. The ICE officers fired shots at the vehicle, killing the driver, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Mr. Rojas Pliego was then taken into ICE custody. He has been in custody since that date without an individualized bond determination.”
Ellison explained in the ruling that upon being detained, Pliego was charged with “being an alien present in the United States who was not admitted or paroled and was placed in removal proceedings before an immigration judge. His removal proceedings are ongoing.”
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office sponsored Pliego in an application for a temporary visa for “victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental and physical abuse and assist law enforcement based on the circumstances of his arrest by ICE,” according to the judge’s order.
“This case is one of hundreds of similar petitions for habeas corpus that have come before this Court challenging DHS’ most recent interpretation of mandatory immigration detention,” Ellison said in court documents.
There’s no word on when the other witnesses who were in Araujo’s van will be released. Daniel Tirado Pantoja and Araujo’s brother, Victor Hugo Salgado, have submitted similar petitions to be released from immigration detention and the DA’s office has also filed for temporary visas on their behalf.
Raed Gonzalez, one of Pliego’s attorneys, said in a text message to the Houston Press on Monday that he was pleased with the judge’s ruling for immediate release, noting that the judge could have required his client to go to immigration court for a bond hearing.
“We are really happy for him and his family,” Gonzalez said. “He will be reunited soon and continue to assist the DA’s office as a witness in Lorenzo’s case.”
Another attorney representing two of the three witnesses, Hugo Balderas-Ybarra, posted the news on social media Monday evening. “This is a huge win,” Balderas-Ybarra said, noting that the ruling requires that Pliego be set free in a public space and that attorneys be given three hours’ advance notice of when the release will occur. “They must be held accountable. All three men who were with Lorenzo must be released immediately. They are key witnesses. We’ve got to keep fighting for the other two.”
Through their attorneys, the three witnesses have already disputed several assertions related to the July 7 incident in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood. ICE agents claimed that Araujo “weaponized his vehicle and tried to run over an officer,” but the witnesses say the officers were not in front of or behind the vehicle.
The officers were not wearing body cameras, nor did their vehicles have dash cams. Independent probes are being conducted by Harris County DA Sean Teare and the Texas Rangers. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General is also investigating. To date, the federal government has not shared key evidence with Teare’s office, the district attorney has said, and the name of the officer who fired the fatal shot has not been released.
