A man was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston on Tuesday after he allegedly tried to escape arrest using his vehicle during an enforcement operation, according to the agency.
The Department of Homeland Security released a statement saying the man disregarded orders to stop and attempted to use his car to ram one of the agents. The agent opened fire in self-defense, and the man’s vehicle collided with an ICE vehicle. DHS, which oversees ICE, confirmed the details in its statement.
The man was identified in the statement as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who was living in the United States without legal authorization. Federal agents had specifically targeted Araujo in the operation. He was transported to a hospital, where he later died.
The FBI’s Houston field office has opened an investigation into a potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer, according to spokesperson Connor Hagan. He also noted that the office’s evidence response team went to the scene at DHS’s request to collect and process evidence.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia stated that the shooting took place within her Texas congressional district during what she described as an “ICE enforcement operation.” In a post on the social media platform X, she acknowledged that ICE had released an initial account of events but stressed that the information must be independently confirmed and thoroughly investigated.
“All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation,” she wrote.
This incident marks at least the sixth deadly shooting involving federal officers since the start of the current administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement push.
In a prior incident, a federal immigration agent shot and killed a 23-year-old U.S. citizen named Ruben Ray Martinez during a late-night traffic stop. A grand jury chose not to bring criminal charges against the agent. DHS stated the agent fired after the driver “intentionally ran over” a fellow agent, though video released by authorities does not clearly show the vehicle making contact with the agent.
Earlier this year in January, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen named Renee Good was shot in the head by a federal immigration agent during an enforcement action in Minneapolis. DHS claimed Good had attempted to strike the agent with her vehicle, but local officials and witnesses disputed that account, saying she was simply trying to drive away.
