“Ronaldo and Lorenzo Jr. were born U.S. citizens, and feel a sense of responsibility to use their voices to call for change”
TIME is honoring the sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the Houston dad who was brutally shot and killed by ICE while on his way to work this past summer. The prestigious magazine named Lorenzo Salgado Araujo Jr. and Ronaldo Salgado to its Latino Leaders 2026 list for their ongoing efforts to not only win justice and accountability for their late father, but to also protect all immigrant families amid the Trump administration’s unsparing mass deportation agenda.
“Often, family members of those detained, injured, or killed by ICE are limited in how much they can speak out, for fear of having their own immigration status examined. Ronaldo and Lorenzo Jr. were born U.S. citizens, and feel a sense of responsibility to use their voices to call for change,” TIME reports. “Ronaldo has spoken at press conferences beside politicians; he and Lorenzo Jr. have appeared on broadcast news and testified at a congressional forum. Ronaldo wants to work on state legislation that will protect immigrant communities.”
“I’m trying to use that anger and channel it in a more positive way,” Ronaldo told the outlet. “I feel right now that I can’t slow down, that I have to continue taking on these meetings, doing these interviews, doing anything I can just to get my dad’s name out there, to shine a light as to what happened, to who my dad was, and the injustices that my dad experienced—that we’re still experiencing to this day.”
For Ronaldo and his brother, this has included following the grand jury process related to their dad’s case and, more publicly, testifying in Congressional hearings about ICE’s now-routine abuses, which have included intentional medical negligence and record in-custody deaths, dreaded Kavanaugh stops that have targeted U.S. citizens due to the color of their skin, and dozens upon dozens of court order violations.
“We still have so many questions,” Lorenzo Jr. said during a Sept. 22 hearing. “What are the names of the ICE agents who killed our dad? Why do they get to be protected behind anonymity while my brother and I stand before cameras showing our faces, proudly saying our first and last names.” Ronaldo feels it’s important to let the world know that his dad’s life mattered. “Our dad was not a criminal,” he told lawmakers. “He was just a man who loved his family and woke up before the rest of the world did to put an honest day’s work.” Listen to their full remarks here:
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“Salgado Araujo had the equivalent of a middle school education when he came to the U.S.,” TIME continued. “His sons say his greatest pride was their commitment to education. Ronaldo, a high school geography and history teacher, was set to move to Dallas for a ‘dream job’ on Aug. 1.” KHOU reports that Ronaldo has since resigned that dream job in order to focus on efforts bringing justice to his dad. Ronaldo “was the last son still living at home with his parents, and he looked to the examples of his brothers—Lorenzo working as an engineer in D.C., their younger brother in college in Pennsylvania—and wanted to start a life in a new city like they did.”
It was Mr. Salgado Araujo who planted the seed of the American Dream in his children, and he had accomplishments of his own that are also deserving of recognition. He started his own construction business, hired his own dedicated work crew, and played an integral economic role in Houston, where more than half of all workers in construction are foreign-born. He was, according to his own workers, a dedicated employer who watched out for the crew that sustained his business. Mr. Salgado Araujo was actually driving some of his workers to a jobsite when ICE wrongfully targeted him.
“I want justice for Lorenzo Salgado,” said employee Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, one of three witnesses to his killing. “My boss was a good boss.” In a video released by members of the House Oversight, Ronaldo said “this cannot continue to happen.”
TIME reports that Ronaldo regularly visits the site where his father was shot and killed, and sometimes meets travelers from all over the country who wish to pay their respects to his dad. This has included visitors from Minnesota, where masked agents have also used their government-issued guns to steal the lives of community members. “They tell Ronaldo their immigration stories and about the loved ones they’ve lost, they say that he and his brothers remind them of their own kids, or that Lorenzo Sr. reminds them of their own fathers,” TIME continued.
Meanwhile, neighbors gently tend to the memorial, ensuring the beloved dad’s memory lives on and communities continue to have a place to grieve – and work together for a better tomorrow.
The TIME honor comes as Latino communities all over the country are marking Hispanic Heritage Month and making clear that they belong. In Minnesota, the state’s residents received the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Hispanic Heritage Award for their efforts coming together to protect their communities against last winter’s chaotic, deadly Operation Metro Surge. “Latino businesses offer free delivery for residents too fearful to leave home amid immigration operation,” as one Dec. 2025 headline read.
“We can’t ever allow a feeling of helplessness to become a feeling of hopelessness. And Minnesotanos are neither helpless nor hopeless,” said Hispanic Heritage Foundation president Antonio Tijerino. “They are an embodiment of solidarity, unity, resourcefulness, strength, brilliance, faith, bravery and ganas. And that’s why we’re here.”
