ICE ‘pressuring’ Lorenzo Salgado Araujo shooting witnesses to self-deport. It’s a tactic the Trump team has used before
Immigration authorities are asking witnesses to self-deport after a federal agent in Texas fatally shot a Mexican man who had lived in the U.S. for 35 years, according to an advocacy group supporting the men and their families.
The men who witnessed the shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — his brother and two of their co-workers — spoke to their family members while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, where officers are urging them to sign paperwork for their removal from the country, according to Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Proaño, speaking to The New Republic, said the men “hold the key to what actually happened.” He told MeidasTouch that ICE is “trying to get rid of them as witnesses.”
Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national and father of three, was fatally shot by an ICE agent while on his way to work in Houston, Texas on July 7. He is at least the 10th person to die during the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement campaign, though no officers have been charged and video footage from several incidents has later contradicted official narratives.
It’s also not the first time immigration authorities have tried to remove potential crime witnesses from the country, though ICE’s alleged targeting of immigrants who witnessed a fatal shooting by one of their own officers escalates a tactic that has come under fierce congressional scrutiny.
The Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts have disrupted criminal prosecutions across the country with the removal of crime victims, defendants and witnesses in the middle of investigations and trials, according to a recent report from the House Judiciary Committee.
The administration’s “reckless, quota-driven approach to immigration enforcement is undermining public safety, due process and the rule of law while robbing victims and their families of access to justice,” the committee’s top Democrat Jamie Raskin said in a statement accompanying the report earlier this year.
Salgado Araujo had a small construction business and was working on obtaining legal status, according to his family.
After having breakfast with his wife early Tuesday morning, Salgado Arauja picked up his coworkers before heading to a construction site when ICE officers in two unmarked cars performed a traffic stop.
Video of the encounter reported on by NBC News, which does not show the shooting itself, shows several other men lying face down on the ground along with Salgado Araujo while two officers crouch over him and radio for help.
In a statement following Salgado Araujo’s death, Homeland Security claimed Araujo tried to “evade arrest” and “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer.” An officer fired at him “in self-defense,” according to the agency.
Salgado Araujo, who was struck in the abdomen, was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
In a statement to The Independent, Homeland Security said the agency’s Office of Inspector General was leading an investigation into the shooting while the FBI’s Houston office is leading a probe “into the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”
“This is a developing situation, and we will update the public when more information is available,” the department added.
