Mexican national killed in Houston ICE operation was not ‘target,’ lawmaker says

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The Mexican man who was fatally shot by an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Houston earlier this week was not the person the agency was targeting in their probe, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said Thursday.

Garcia, who represents the Houston area, told MS NOW that acting ICE Director David Venturella confirmed to her that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo “was not a target.”

“As his family has always said, he is a good, solid, decent human being,” she continued. “He was a father. He was a hard worker.”

The Texas Democrat added that DHS told her there was no body camera footage of this incident.

Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant, had been living in the U.S. as a homebuilder for over 35 years. He had no criminal record and his family said that he was close to obtaining legal status when he was killed on Tuesday morning.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, told The Hill on Tuesday that 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,” a DHS spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that the driver allegedly drove his car into an ICE vehicle, did not respond to officers’ verbal commands and “weaponized his vehicle” to try to run over an ICE officer, who responded by “firing his weapon in self-defense.”

In her interview with MS NOW, Garcia drew comparisons between the killing in Houston with the fatal shooting of Renee Good by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.

“They’re saying he weaponized the car, that he refused orders, that he was going to run over them and that they shot him in self-defense,” she said. “He was the driver. How did they shoot him in the right side of his stomach?”

Several Democrats, including Garcia, demanded a “complete and transparent account” of Salgado Araujo’s killing in a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Venturella on Wednesday.

Texas House Democratic Caucus Leader Gene Wu joined the call for transparency in a statement.

“Whenever a law enforcement encounter ends in the loss of life, the public deserves a full, transparent, and independent accounting of what happened,” Wu said. “That standard should apply equally to every law enforcement agency – especially with federal agencies like ICE.”

Additionally, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Thursday that the country intends to file criminal complaints regarding Mexican citizens who have died in the custody of U.S. federal immigration officials.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died,” Sheinbaum told reporters, specifically citing the killing of Salgado Araujo.

The Hill has reached out to ICE and DHS for comment.

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Claudia Sheinbaum

David Venturella

DHS

Gene Wu

House Democats

Houston

ICE

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

Markwayne Mullin

Mexico

Renee Good

Sylvia Garcia

Texas

Trump immigration agenda

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