People mourn Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston.Image: keystone
July 11, 2026, 6:25 a.mJuly 11, 2026, 6:25 a.m
According to Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, the Mexican killed by an ICE officer in Houston was not the target of the operation. The acting director of the ICE migration authority, David Venturella, told her this in a conversation, Garcia said on the X platform. Yet he was killed by officers without uniform, without body camera footage and “without answers for his family.”
ICE confirmed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not the target.
Yet he was killed by federal agents in an unmarked vehicle, with no body cam footage, no dash cam footage, and no answers for his family.
ICE owes this family the truth. pic.twitter.com/NG76apirVm
— Rep. Sylvia Garcia (@RepSylviaGarcia) July 9, 2026
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo had defied 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. According to the ministry, it was self-defense.
The information cannot be independently verified. In similar cases, video recordings of operations had previously raised considerable doubts about the authorities’ representations.
As the ministry previously announced, officers were on their way to a suspect when they stopped Salgado Araujo because he resembled the actual target of the operation. However, it was not clear from the ministry’s information whether there was actually a mix-up. (sda/dpa)