Washington, DC – Earlier this week, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo as he drove to pick up his construction crew in Houston’s Magnolia Park. ICE claimed he rammed an agency vehicle and admitted he wasn’t even the man agents were looking for. In reporting out today, the three men riding with him confirmed that never happened, and that the officer opened fire almost as soon as he stepped out of the car.
The cover-up has only deepened since. None of the officers at the scene wore body cameras, according to two DHS officials and a source familiar with the investigation. Salgado Araujo’s family still can’t recover his body. And the three men who were with him that morning, including his own brother, remain in ICE detention, where advocates say they’re being pressured to sign self-deportation orders.
This is the preventable and predictable result of an administration that built its deportation machine on “Kavanaugh stops,” where agents treat someone’s race, language, neighborhood, or job as grounds for a stop instead of actual evidence. Justice Kavanaugh promised these encounters would be brief and harmless. In Houston, that promise cost a father of three his life: Kavanaugh stops have become Kavanaugh killings.
Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice, issued the following statement:
“As new details emerge about Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s death, the lawlessness and cruelty of this administration’s deportation machine is stark and ugly. ICE killed a law-abiding husband and father who was working toward legal status, and who had been part of his community for 30+ years, simply because he resembled someone else. This is what happens when the Supreme Court tells ICE that skin color, an accent, or a construction job is reason enough to stop someone. Now much like Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s case. This administration is working overtime to bury the truth along with Lorenzo. President Trump, DHS, and Congress need to answer for this tragic death and for a system so reckless it fires first, asks questions later.”
