Every morning, well before the sun came up, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would leave his home, gather his construction crew, and head off to build yet another house somewhere in the Houston area. Fourteen hours later, he would return to his wife — the woman he had fallen in love with as a teenager in Mexico — and the modest home he had built for his own family on the city’s east side.
That was his life for decades, according to his oldest son, Ronaldo Salgado. He says his father constructed hundreds of homes over a 35-year career, providing for his family and living to see all three of his sons pursue college educations.
On Tuesday, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Salgado Araujo, 52, after federal agents in unmarked vehicles chased down his white van as he was driving his crew to a work site. The fatal encounter has ignited anger among Houston officials and intensified national debate over ICE operations and the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement push.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, whose congressional district covers the area where the shooting occurred, spoke out on Friday. “This family needs answers. America needs answers,” she said. “This should not be happening in our streets or any street in this country.”
Garcia said she was briefed by ICE’s acting director and learned that federal agents were actually searching for a different person when they attempted to stop Salgado Araujo’s van. The Department of Homeland Security has claimed that an ICE officer fired in self-defense after Salgado Araujo — whom officials referred to as an “illegal alien” — allegedly struck an ICE vehicle with his van. No evidence has been released to support that account.
An attorney who spoke with the three men riding in the van on Friday said they told him Salgado Araujo was shot through a passenger-side window, and that the officer who fired was not positioned in front of the van and was not in any immediate danger.
Salgado Araujo’s family has also challenged the official version of events. They said attorneys who were helping him apply for a work permit had coached him on how to respond if immigration agents ever stopped him. The family says he was close to obtaining legal status at the time of his death.
“He knew what to do,” Ronaldo Salgado told reporters this week. “He knew not to sign anything. He knew that the first phone call he should make should be either to myself or to my mom. So that way we can get the process started of getting him out.”
Ronaldo Salgado believes his father may have panicked because he didn’t realize the unmarked vehicles following him were federal agents — possibly fearing that someone was trying to rob him of his van or his tools.
The killing in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood marks at least the eighth death connected to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign.
Salgado Araujo came to the United States more than 30 years ago and built a life in Houston alongside his wife, where they raised their three children together. Education was always a priority in their household, said Ronaldo, who is now a teacher. One of his brothers became an engineer, and the other is currently studying engineering in college.
Friends who grew up with Ronaldo remembered his father as a gentle, soft-spoken man who always took the time to ask about his sons’ friends and inquire about his wife’s day — even after working exhausting hours.
“We didn’t really see him until the end of the day when he came home to have dinner, but that just shows how much of a hard worker he was,” said neighbor Jessica Alanis Magdaleno. “Everything they have now is thanks to the dedication to that.”
Josué Flores, who has been friends with Ronaldo Salgado since their freshman year of high school, said he first encountered Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at one of his son’s football games. “I think it speaks volumes of the kind of person that he was,” Flores said, noting that Salgado Araujo showed up to cheer on his son even after a grueling day of work.
A relative said Salgado Araujo’s wife is “inconsolable” following his death. “She is very upset… angry, sad, disoriented,” said Jose Torres Ramon, a nephew living in Mexico, in a Facebook message to the Associated Press.
In the evenings after coming home, Salgado Araujo enjoyed sitting on the porch listening to music and spending time with the family dog. Those who knew him described him as a man of simple, steady habits.
“He did not deserve to die,” Ronaldo Salgado said. “He dedicated his life in the United States to giving his family the American dream.”
