Fatal ICE shooting in Houston sparks mass protest, demands for transparency

HOUSTON: More than a thousand protesters chanting “ICE out of Houston” marched on Wednesday near the spot where a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a man driving to work, the latest in a spate of lethal encounters from increasing deportation raids nationwide.

The demonstrators, many waving Mexican flags and carrying signs that read, “Stand with immigrants,” and “ICE Melts in Texas,” also echoed mounting demands for an independent inquiry into Tuesday’s shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, a Mexican national living in the US illegally for three decades.

A contingent of police officers, some on horseback with helmets and riot gear, closed off surrounding streets to traffic and moved around the perimeter of the demonstration, which was boisterous but peaceful.

“I feel devastated not only for Lorenzo, but for his family and all of us because it could have been any of us, honestly,” 18-year-old student Ana Daniela told Reuters.

“My mom literally goes shopping at the Dollar Store across from where he was killed. So to think that it could have been my mom or it literally could have been any of us.”

The evening rally began with a few hundred people gathered at the site where Salgado was shot in Houston’s heavily Hispanic, working-class East End. As protesters marched to a nearby park about a mile away, blowing whistles and chanting “ICE out of Houston, ICE out of everywhere,” the crowd swelled to more than 1,000 people.

“We are all in this together, and they are coming for all of us,” former City Council member Letitia Plummer shouted from the steps of a gazebo in the center of the park, where several organizers addressed the crowd.

Around sunset, the protesters dispersed on their own, though roughly 100 returned to the shooting site to stage a solemn candlelight vigil.

The killing of Salgado, a construction worker who family said had resided in Houston for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal US residency, brought to at least six the number of people shot dead in immigration enforcement operations since January 2025, when President Donald Trump returned to office and launched a campaign of mass deportations.

That crackdown has recently gained new momentum in cities across the country, with federal agents detaining around 2,000 migrants a day nationwide last week, according to two people familiar with the matter.

In Houston alone, home to a large and deeply rooted Mexican immigrant community, the number of ICE arrests per week more than tripled from mid-June to late June — to around 100 — according to preliminary data shared with Reuters by a source.

In a statement issued Tuesday after the fatal shooting, ICE said that Salgado rammed his van into an ICE vehicle, refused to obey multiple verbal commands and tried to run over an officer, who then fired on him in “self-defense.”

He was caught up in a “targeted enforcement operation” when ICE officers tried to stop his vehicle, the agency said.

Reuters could not verify the circumstances of the shooting.

Initial accounts from federal agencies about their use of force have often been challenged by video footage or other evidence. As of Wednesday afternoon, no video had emerged of the shooting itself.

Open season on Latinos

At a Wednesday news conference, Salgado’s son Ronaldo described his father as a peaceful man who had “dedicated his life in the United States to giving his family the American dream.” Ronaldo said his father had been working to get his legal immigration status and was close to securing it.

Salgado was on his way to pick up his construction crew en route to a work site in north Houston, according to family.

Flanked by several members of Congress, leaders of Latino advocacy groups and Houston officials, Ronaldo called for “a full investigation” into his father’s killing.

He only learned about what had happened after seeing a video posted on social media, Ronaldo said, showing his father on the ground next to his white van.

“I recognized him immediately, not from his appearance, but from his voice, crying for help as he lay on the street, bleeding out,” he said, choking back tears.

“It is un-American to use a fatal force against a human being, then lock away the evidence,” Roman Palomares, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told the press conference. “For too long, we have watched an open season declared on Latinos, and communities of colour, under the guise of public safety.”

Dispute over investigation

ICE said on Tuesday that its parent agency, the US Department of Homeland Security, would lead an investigation into the shooting, while the FBI would spearhead an inquiry into the “potential assault on a law enforcement officer.”

But many in this city were unwilling to wait for a federal probe: “I am calling for an immediate and impartial investigation, with all available video and findings released as soon as possible,” Alejandra Salinas, a Houston City Council member, wrote in an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday.

US Representative Sylvia Garcia, a Texas Democrat who represents the neighborhood where the shooting took place, made a similar appeal.

“We need independent investigations, we need body cameras, clear identification, no masks and an end to paramilitary-style immigration enforcement in our streets,” Garcia said at the press conference.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire, speaking at a City Council meeting on Wednesday, called for a “transparent, independent” investigation, but ruled out a city-led inquiry, saying there “could not be two ongoing investigations.”

The case has already made waves across the border in Mexico.

In a news briefing on Wednesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government was preparing legal measures after “another unfortunate death” of a Mexican national whose “only fault was not having legal papers yet.”