Federal immigration agent fatally shoots man in Houston during an
enforcement operation
[July 08, 2026]
By JACK BROOK and HALLIE GOLDEN
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a man
in Houston after he attempted to evade arrest in his vehicle during an
operation Tuesday, the agency said.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Lorenzo
Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, ignored commands and attempted to
ram an agent who fired his weapon in self-defense. The man was targeted
in an operation because he was living in the country without legal
permission, according to the department, which oversees ICE. The man’s
car struck an ICE vehicle, the department added.
Salgado Araujo died after being transported to a hospital, according to
DHS.
The death drew immediate calls from some Democratic officials and
immigrant rights groups for an independent investigation. Democratic
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who represents the neighborhood where the
shooting took place, said the initial account released by federal
authorities needs to be independently verified.
“All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be
preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation,”
she said in a post on X.
The FBI’s Houston field office is investigating a potential assault on a
federal law enforcement officer, said spokesperson Connor Hagan. In
addition, representatives of the office’s evidence response team
responded to the shooting at the request of DHS to process the scene, he
said.
The shooting comes amid a newly intensified push by the Trump
administration to carry out its mass deportations agenda. During the
five-day period at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000
people. The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer
cracking down on individual cities, the arrests continue and are
surging.
Son says his father had been in the US for decades
Juliet Martinez said she was on her way to drop off her son at summer
school early Tuesday morning in Houston when she spotted two federal
officers leaning over a man on the ground. As she slowly drove by, she
filmed the man bleeding and handcuffed, his leg shaking as loud groans
can be heard.
The video shows a black vehicle angled towards a white van, their doors
wide open, and the man lying between the two. One officer is on the
phone, with his other hand on the man's side. Nearby, other federal
officers stand over at least three other men handcuffed.
Ronaldo Salgado, Salgado Araujo’s son, said in a post on Facebook that
his father works in construction and was on his way to work, picking up
his workers, when the shooting happened.
Salgado described his father as a hardworking Mexican man who has been
in the U.S. for almost 35 years and was in the process of getting a work
permit.
“My father did not deserve this,” he said.
The shooting was at least the eighth death from an encounter with
federal immigration officials since the start of the Trump
administration’s intense immigration enforcement campaign in the U.S.
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Police work on Canal Street in Houston, Tuesday, July 7, 2026, after
a shooting. (Jacob Lujan/Houston Chronicle via AP)
ICE has conducted ongoing operations in Houston
Texas’ largest city has experienced heightened enforcement
operations since the crackdown began last year, and not without
public backlash. The Houston City Council voted to pass an ordinance
limiting ICE cooperation but reversed course after Texas' Republican
Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to cut more than $100 million in state
funding for public safety.
By Tuesday evening, a small group of protesters gathered in the
neighborhood where the shooting happened and chanted against ICE.
Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens,
called for a transparent investigation conducted by local
authorities into the shooting. He said his organization is offering
a $5,000 reward for information and videos from witnesses.
“We don’t take DHS at their word at all,” Proaño told The Associated
Press. “There should be an independent investigation and they should
release all the videos.”
Houston Mayor John Whitmire, a Democrat, declined to comment on the
shooting.
Calls for video after the shooting
In other other shootings involving federal officers, initial
descriptions by immigration officials have sometimes been
contradicted later by video evidence. In February, federal
authorities launched an investigation into two federal immigration
agents who appeared to have made untruthful statements under oath
regarding a nonfatal shooting of an immigrant in Minneapolis in
January.
Last year, a federal immigration agent shot and killed a 23-year-old
U.S. citizen, Ruben Ray Martinez, during a late-night traffic
encounter. A grand jury declined to file criminal charges against
the agent. DHS said the agent had fired at the vehicle after the
driver “intentionally ran over” his fellow agent. Video footage of
the encounter released by authorities does not clearly show the
vehicle striking the agent.
In January, 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good was shot in the head
by a federal immigration agent during a crackdown in Minneapolis.
DHS also said Good was trying to hit the agent with her vehicle,
which local officials and witnesses disputed, saying she was only
trying to drive away.
___
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to
this report.
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