Ronaldo Salgado at a press conference.Image: keystone
According to his son, the Mexican killed by an official from the US immigration agency ICE was about to receive a work permit.
Jul 9, 2026, 2:47 amJul 9, 2026, 2:47 am
His father was a family man who had been building houses in the region for 35 years in order to enable his three sons to study and his workers to “enable the American dream,” said Ronaldo Salgado at a press conference. His father did not have a criminal history.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo died the day before during an operation by the controversial ICE officers in Houston. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Salgado had resisted the officers’ instructions, rammed an emergency vehicle with his car and then tried to hit an officer with his vehicle. An ICE officer then fired. The information provided by the authorities cannot yet be independently verified.
“He was convinced that good things come to those who work hard.”
Salgado knew exactly how to behave during an immigration check, said his son. If the officers had clearly identified themselves as such, he would have stopped and cooperated. His father was scared to death during the operation and therefore fled from unknown vehicles, he said. “He was convinced that good things come to those who work hard.”
Salgado’s son also said he learned of his father’s death through reports on social media – not from authorities or the hospital where he frantically searched for him. In a video circulated there, in which a man was lying on the ground, bleeding and begging for help, he recognized his father by his voice. Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor ICE have yet contacted the family directly.
Family, civil rights organizations and Democratic politicians are calling for an independent investigation into the operation. The authority whose officers fired could not carry out the investigation at the same time, said the head of the civil rights organization LULAC, Roman Palomares. This also involves the publication of bodycam recordings and all other evidence. Texas Democratic U.S. Rep. Al Green spoke of the need to rule out a possible cover-up attempt. (sda/dpa)