By Arathy Somasekhar, Kristina Cooke and Steve Gorman
HOUSTON, July 7 (Reuters) – A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a man in Houston on Tuesday while officers were trying to stop his vehicle, the agency said in a statement, in the midst of an escalating federal crackdown on migrants nationwide.
The dead man was identified as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, described by ICE as a Mexican national and “illegal alien” who attempted to evade arrest during a “targeted enforcement operation” by federal immigration officers.
Ronaldo Salgado, who identified himself as the son of the slain motorist, told the Spanish-language television station Telemundo Houston that his father was shot while he was seeking workers for hire in the area.
Reuters could not immediately verify the man’s immigration status or the circumstances of the shooting, which occurred shortly before 7 a.m. CDT (1200 GMT).
According to the ICE account of the incident, Salgado “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.”
The confrontation resulted in “our officer firing his weapon in self-defense,” striking the driver, who was transported to a hospital where he died of his injuries, ICE said.
Video recorded by an onlooker riding past the scene and posted online by KRIV-TV, a Fox affiliate in Houston, showed two agents crouched over a man lying in the street on the driver’s side of a white van. Two other men are seen on the ground in handcuffs on the other side of the van.
FEDERAL AGENCIES TO LEAD INVESTIGATION
The deadly confrontation in Houston came amid a recent increase in the number of ICE arrests nationwide, with immigration officers picking up around 2,000 migrants a day last week, according to two people familiar with the matter.
At least six people have now been shot and killed by federal immigration officers since January 2025, when U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term and ordered large-scale deportation sweeps.
In several instances over the past year, initial statements from immigration enforcement agencies about their use of force have been challenged by video footage or other evidence, sometimes in court.
In October, a Chicago-area woman, Marimar Martinez, was accused of ramming law enforcement officers with her car. She was shot five times but survived. Charges against her were ultimately dropped and video evidence suggested that the agents could have struck her vehicle themselves.
Trump administration officials also said that two U.S. citizens shot dead by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis in January, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, had threatened bodily harm to the agents before they were killed — despite video evidence to the contrary.
In May, a Minnesota prosecutor charged an ICE agent with assaulting a Venezuelan man in a non-fatal shooting in Minneapolis during the same immigration crackdown in which Good and Pretti were killed.
ICE said in its statement on Tuesday that its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, would lead an investigation into the shooting, while the FBI would spearhead an inquiry into the “potential assault on a law enforcement officer.”
‘HARD-WORKING MAN’
U.S. Representative Sylvia Garcia, a Texas Democrat who represents the neighborhood where the shooting took place, called for a “full and impartial investigation,” adding that “the victim’s family, my constituents, and the entire community deserve a complete and transparent accounting of what happened.”
The call for an independent inquiry was echoed by Roman Palomares, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens: “We have seen a pattern of ICE involvement in shootings and excessive use of force,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “Each time a family is left without answers, and a community is left in fear.”
Mary Benton, a spokesperson for Houston Mayor John Whitmire, said in a written statement that Tuesday’s incident stemmed from “a federal operation,” and that Houston police “were not involved.” Asked by Reuters if police were investigating the incident, Jodi Silva, a Houston Police Department spokesperson, said, “To my understanding, no.”
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement its prosecutors “will collaborate with federal authorities to ensure a thorough local review of the evidence.”
Salgado had longtime roots in Houston, according to local television station KHOU-TV, a CBS affiliate, which reported that he and his wife had owned a home in the city’s east end for about 27 years, and that he had held a Texas driver’s license since 1993.
An eyewitness to the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Rhonda Smith, 51, who lives in the neighborhood and said she voted for Trump, voiced outrage over the incident in an interview with Reuters.
“That man worked hard,” Smith said. “Go after the criminals … the rapists, the murderers. Why go after a hard-working man?”
“This is Trump’s fault,” said Gina Danielsen, another local resident. “You killed a man just because he didn’t have his papers. It’s got to stop.”
As the weather turned stormy on Tuesday evening, about 20 protesters gathered at the scene of the shooting. Some demonstrators nailed wreaths up on posts and laid flowers; others lit candles.
A larger protest is planned at the site on Wednesday night, local residents said.
(Writing and reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston, Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and Kanishka Singh in Washington and Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Editing by Jesse Mesner-Hage, David Gregorio, Stephen Coates and Christian Schmollinger)
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