Man fatally shot by ICE is mourned at vigil: ‘dedicated to the American dream’ | Texas

The builder would rise well before dawn each morning, leave the house to pick up the construction crew, and then head off to work on another house somewhere in the greater Houston area.

Fourteen hours later, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would return to the wife he met in Mexico in his youth and to the modest house he had built for his family on the city’s east side.

That’s what he’s been doing for decades, according to his eldest son, Ronaldo Salgado. He said his father built hundreds of homes over 35 years, created a life for his family and watched his three sons go to college.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot 52-year-old Salgado Araujo on Tuesday after he was pursued by federal agents driving unmarked vehicles as he led his team to their final job site. The shooting enraged Houston leaders and renewed public scrutiny of ICE and Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Four Democratic members of Congress representing the Houston area said at a vigil Saturday that they would push for an independent investigation into the shooting.

“We will never forget that his blood is on Donald Trump’s hands,” US representative Christian Menefee said. “We are not at war. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not a casualty. He was a human being killed by our government.”

Democratic congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, quoting a briefing she received from ICE’s acting director, said federal agents were looking for someone else when they tried to stop Salgado Araujo’s white van. The Department of Homeland Security said an ICE officer fired into the van in self-defense after Salgado Araujo, whom authorities described as an “illegal alien,” crashed into an ICE vehicle. They offered no evidence.

An attorney who spoke to them Friday said the three men Salgado Araujo was driving were shot through the passenger window and that the ICE officer who fired the shots was not in the front of the van or even in danger.

His family also disputed ICE’s account. They said lawyers who helped him apply for a work permit explained how to act if immigration officials stopped him. Salgado Araujo was said to be close to gaining legal status when he was killed.

“He knew what to do,” Ronaldo Salgado told reporters. “He knew he shouldn’t have signed anything. He knew the first phone call had to be either to me or my mom. So we could start the process of getting him out.”

He believes his father may have been afraid of being followed by unmarked vehicles, worried that someone was planning to steal his van or tools.

Salgado Araujo’s death was the 10th fatal shooting by federal immigration officers in the United States since the second Trump administration took office, according to public reporting by the Guardian.

Salgado Araujo came to the United States more than 30 years ago and settled with his wife in Houston, where they raised their three children.

Ronaldo Salgado, now a teacher, said homeschooling is his constant focus. One of his siblings is an engineer and the other is studying engineering at university.

Several of Salgado’s childhood friends recalled that his father was a kind and soft-spoken man, always asking about his wife’s day and how his sons’ friends were doing after a long day at work.

“We didn’t see him until he got home for dinner, but it just shows how hard-working he is,” said neighbor Jessica Alanis Magdaleno. “Everything they have now is because of their dedication to that.”

Josué Flores, who has been Ronaldo Salgado’s friend since his first year of high school, said that he saw Lorenzo Salgado Araujo for the first time at his son’s football match.

Recalling how Salgado Araujo would come to his son even after a hard day’s work, Flores said, “I think this speaks very well to the kind of person he is.”

A relative said Salgado Araujo’s wife was “inconsolable.”

“He is very upset… angry, upset, confused,” his nephew Jose Torres Ramon, who lives in Mexico, told The Associated Press in a Facebook message.

Ronaldo Salgado said he hoped he made his father proud at Saturday’s vigil.

“I will continue to fight for him,” he said.

His brother, Lorenzo Salgado Jr., said his father’s shooting was “a difficult moment to be an American.”

“Even if my government, my federal government, takes away my father, we, as a people, will ensure justice,” he said. “We the people are America.”

After coming home in the evening, Salgado Araujo liked to listen to music on the porch and spend time with the family dog. His family described him as a simple and routine man.

Ronaldo Salgado added: “He devoted his life in the United States to helping his family live the American dream.”

Guardian staff contributed to reporting