A makeshift memorial for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo near the site where he was killed in Houston.Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
What We Know About the ICE Shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
The killing of a Mexican man living in the United States by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during a traffic stop in Houston has become the latest fatal encounter as the Trump administration continues its mass deportation campaign.
The man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, was killed while on his way to work. In recent weeks, President Trump has renewed the deportation effort, which had slowed in the spring.
“He wanted nothing else in life but to provide for his wife and see his sons become great people,” said Ronaldo Salgado, one of Mr. Araujo’s sons. “That’s how I want the world to know my father — not as someone who got shot and killed, but as a family man, a man who understood that good things come to those who put in hard work.”
Here’s what we know:
ICE agents were searching for a different person.
Details of the interaction between Mr. Araujo and immigration agents remain murky.
The federal authorities initially said that ICE agents stopped a vehicle around 6:50 a.m. on Tuesday and tried to arrest Mr. Araujo, whom they described as an “illegal alien.” On Friday, ICE said in a statement that Mr. Araujo had hit an ICE vehicle, had not followed orders and had tried to run over an officer. An ICE agent fired in self-defense, the statement said. Mr. Araujo was shot in the abdomen and taken to a hospital, where he died hours later, according to the Houston Fire Department.
But on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration agents, said that Mr. Araujo was not the intended target of the operation. Federal officers had been looking for a different man.
Witnesses have disputed the authorities’ account.
At the time of the stop, Mr. Araujo was on his way to work at a construction site. Three men were in the car with him, including Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, his younger brother. As of Friday, they remained in immigration detention in Conroe, Texas, outside Houston.
On Thursday, the three men told a lawyer, Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, that Mr. Araujo did not use his vehicle as a weapon or try to run over the immigration officers, and that no agent had been positioned in front of the vehicle, the lawyer said.
The authorities did not provide video footage of the encounter. The ICE agents were in unmarked vehicles and were not wearing body cameras, according to the area’s congresswoman, Representative Sylvia Garcia, a Democrat. Ms. Garcia said she had spoken to the acting director of ICE, David Venturella.
Surveillance and witness videos obtained by The New York Times show two ICE vehicles tailing Mr. Araujo’s white van and trying to cut it off. The van can be seen doing a U-turn before stopping alongside the road, with several immigration agents running toward the van as it comes to a halt. Video of the moments when shots were fired has not emerged.
Multiple investigations underway.
Hours after three witnesses questioned the official account of how an immigration agent killed a man in Houston this week, city officials said they would begin their own investigation of the federal government’s actions.
Mayor John Whitmire of Houston said he, the city’s police department and the district attorney’s office would work aggressively to obtain all evidence and uncover the truth, reversing his earlier position that the city had no jurisdiction over the case.
“We are not settling to wait for an F.B.I. report,” Mr. Whitmire said during a news briefing on Friday afternoon. “We want answers.”
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office is also investigating the shooting. And the F.B.I.’s Houston office is investigating, focusing its inquiry on the accusations that Mr. Araujo assaulted a federal officer.
Both the district attorney and the mayor said that federal law enforcement agencies were not cooperating with local officials and were tightly controlling evidence. Still, Mayor Whitmire said the city “would not rest” until it had completed its inquiry.
The city’s police chief said that he would meet with the head of the F.B.I. Houston field office on Tuesday to discuss the evidence.
Mr. Araujo’s family and civil rights activists have called for an independent investigation and have asked the public for any new images or videos of the encounter.
Mr. Araujo lived in the United States for 35 years.
Mr. Araujo, 52, was a husband, father of three children and a business owner who had been in the country for more than three decades and was trying to obtain legal residency.
His sons said their father, a Mexico native, was most likely months away from obtaining a work permit after submitting fingerprints to immigration officials.
Mr. Araujo’s family said that he had followed his morning routine on the day he was killed. He got up at the crack of dawn, brushed his teeth, drank coffee and picked up his workers to head to a construction site. In evenings at the home he built, he would typically sit by the porch with his dog after eating the dinner his wife had made.
Ronaldo Salgado, 29, and his younger brother Lorenzo Salgado Jr., 27, described their father as a humble, hard-working man who had achieved his dream of running his own construction crew.
“He did not deserve to die,” the elder brother said.
At least 21 people have been fired on by federal agents since last year.
The Trump administration has recently revamped its goals to detain and deport immigrants after its efforts temporarily stalled in the spring when Kristi Noem resigned as homeland security secretary.
Ms. Noem stepped down after a tumultuous year of leading immigration operations in left-leaning cities, which were often furiously challenged by protesters — especially after several fatal shootings of immigrants and U.S. citizens.
Since last year, federal agents have fired on at least 21 people, many of whom were shot in their vehicles.
Federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in January during a weekslong immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. One of those citizens, Renee Good, was killed in her vehicle, while the other, Alex Pretti, was kneeling and restrained in the street.
In February, revelations emerged that ICE agents had shot and killed a third U.S. citizen, Ruben Ray Martinez, in March 2025 during a traffic stop in Texas. And Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant, was killed in Chicago in October after officers fired at his vehicle as he drove away.
In many of these shootings, immigration agents have accused drivers of trying to assault a federal officer with their vehicles. Many people fighting those allegations in court have prevailed.
Federal immigration agents detained more than 10,000 people in a five-day period at the end of last month. And from Tuesday through Thursday, ICE officers arrested more than 6,000 people, internal records showed, a pace of about 2,000 arrests per day.
Reporting was contributed by Edgar Sandoval, Hamed Aleaziz, Pooja Salhotra and Allison McCann.
Christina Morales is a national reporter for The Times.
Jacey Fortin covers a wide range of subjects for The Times, including extreme weather, court cases and state politics across the country.
Houston to Investigate How ICE Agent Came to Kill a Mexican Immigrant
Pooja Salhotra and Orlando Mayorquín
Orlando Mayorquín reported from Houston.
Hours after three witnesses questioned the official account of how an immigration agent killed a man in Houston this week, city officials said they would begin their own investigation of the federal government’s actions.
Mayor John Whitmire of Houston said he, the city’s police department and the district attorney’s office would work aggressively to obtain all evidence and uncover the truth, reversing his earlier position that the city had no jurisdiction over the case.
“We are not settling to wait for an F.B.I. report,” Mr. Whitmire said during a news briefing on Friday afternoon. “We want answers.”
The episode began about 6:50 a.m. on Tuesday as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican immigrant, was driving in East Houston on his way to work at a construction site in a van with three other workers. Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement began tailing him.
On Friday, the agency said in a statement that Mr. Araujo had rammed an ICE vehicle, had not followed orders and had tried to run over an officer. An ICE agent fired in self-defense, the statement said. Mr. Araujo was shot in the abdomen and taken to a hospital, where he died.
No evidence was provided to support ICE’s account.
On Friday, the three men with Mr. Araujo said through a lawyer that he had not used his vehicle as a weapon or tried to run over the immigration officers. The men were arrested and provided their version of events to the lawyer, Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, who visited them in immigration detention.
“I have no doubt that what they are saying is the truth,” Mr. Balderas-Ibarra said during a news conference on Friday. “All three reiterated that at no point was an agent standing in front of the vehicle nor was an agent placed in the line of danger.”
Mr. Araujo’s death came as ICE officers are increasing arrests across the United States, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. In five days at the end of June, agents arrested more than 10,000 people, the documents show. From Tuesday through Thursday, ICE officers arrested more than 6,000 people, internal records show.
Previous surges have been accompanied by violence, and video evidence in recent months has disproved federal law enforcement’s accounts of several shootings.
In Houston, no video has emerged of the moment when Mr. Araujo was shot. Surveillance and witness videos obtained by The Times show two unmarked ICE vehicles tailing the white van and trying to cut it off. The van does a U-turn before stopping alongside the road, with several immigration agents running toward the vehicle as it comes to a halt.
A video filmed shortly after the shooting shows agents hovering over a man bleeding and holding his abdomen. More images show another man on the ground, his hands behind his back.
The ICE agents were not wearing body cameras and none of the vehicles had dashboard cameras, according to Sylvia Garcia, the area’s congresswoman. Ms. Garcia, a Democrat, said she had spoken with David Venturella, the acting director of ICE.
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office is leading an investigation into the shooting, according to the agency’s statement, which also said that the F.B.I.’s Houston office is also looking into the case — as a potential assault on a federal officer.
Mr. Araujo’s family and community members this week demanded an independent investigation.
Initially, Mayor Whitmire, a Democrat, questioned whether the city had that authority. But after the detained witnesses disputed the official account, he said on Friday that the city would act. He told reporters he had contacted the Harris County district attorney’s office.
Both the district attorney and the mayor said that federal law enforcement agencies were not cooperating with local officials and were tightly controlling evidence. Still, Mayor Whitmire said the city “would not rest” until it had completed its inquiry.
The Trump administration has fought local scrutiny of its actions.
Its stance in Houston appears similar to the one it took in Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were fatally shot by federal immigration agents in January during an enforcement surge.
In the case of Ms. Good, a Minnesota agency that investigates police shootings tried to team up with the F.B.I. to determine whether the killing was justified. But senior federal officials ordered the F.B.I. to halt the investigation. They instead suggested that prosecutors examine whether Ms. Good had assaulted the ICE agent.
Minnesota law enforcement officials have sued the federal government to obtain evidence related to the two shootings, along with a third that was not fatal.
The Houston police chief said Friday that he will meet with the head of the F.B.I. Houston field office on Tuesday to discuss the evidence. Sean Teare, the Harris County district attorney, said he was prepared to take legal action to get it.
“If it involves lawsuits in the federal courts, rest assured I have people who will do that,” he said.
The ICE agents who stopped Mr. Araujo had been searching for a different undocumented immigrant. A husband, father of three children and a business owner, Mr. Araujo had lived in the United States without authorization for 35 years. According to his sons, he was in the process of obtaining a work permit.
“He wanted nothing else in life but to provide for his wife and see his sons become great people,” his son Ronaldo Salgado said this week.
Mr. Araujo’s body, which has been in federal custody, was to be taken on Friday to a funeral home where the family would be able to collect it, according to the League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights organization.
Ms. Garcia, the lawmaker, said she feared that ICE would try to deport the witnesses, who are detained in Conroe, about 40 miles north of Houston. She said that Mr. Venturella had assured her that the witnesses, all Mexican nationals, would not be moved.
Mr. Teare said that his investigators would be dogged.
“We will go to the ends of the earth to interview all relevant witnesses,” Mr. Teare said. “We will go to the ends of the earth to look at all evidence.”
Hamed Aleaziz and Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting. Aric Toler and Alisa Shodiyev Kaff contributed video analysis.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
Orlando Mayorquín is a Times reporter covering California. He is based in Los Angeles.
A version of this article appears in print on July 11, 2026, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Houston to Investigate Fatal Shooting of Immigrant by ICE Agent.
