Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Hard-Working Father of Three, Killed by Federal Agents on His Way to Work

Early Tuesday morning, 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was in his car and on his way to his homebuilding job with three members of his construction crew when he was shot and killed by an ICE officer in an unmarked car. He was a constructor of 35 years, lived with his three sons and wife in Houston, Texas, and had long focused on sending his kids to college. 

“He did not deserve to die,” Ronald Salgado, Araujo’s son, said during an emotional press conference on Wednesday. He said he found out about his father’s death from Facebook, having seen a video where he recognized the voice of the crying man bleeding out on the pavement. “He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican Man Shot and Killed by ICE,’” Salgado said. “He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father, and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream.” 

“The evidence against ICE is indisputable,” Carly Pérez Fernández, Communications Director at Detention Watch Network, told Jezebel in a statement. “ICE kills people and threatens community safety across the country. No one is safe when ICE is present—whether on the streets or in one of the agency’s more than 200 abuse-ridden detention facilities.”

Salgado said that had his father known they were ICE agents—and not random individuals looking to steal his homemaking tools—he would have complied with their demands. His family—along with lawmakers such as Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Tex.), as well as civil rights groups—are demanding an independent investigation into his death.

“We cannot allow the mistreatment of our brothers and sisters in the United States,” Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum also said of the news on Wednesday. She says the country is preparing “legal measures” to investigate his death, the 10th to happen at the hands of immigration agents since the start of Trump’s second term. 

“Ronaldo Salgado, the eldest son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, said he recognized his dad’s voice as he bled out after being shot by an immigration officer in Houston.”

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— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) July 8, 2026 at 7:37 PM

 

Araujo, a Mexican national, met his wife when the two were teenagers—and they raised their sons, all of whom have American citizenship, with education as a priority. He had no criminal record, was seeking long-term legal status, and more than a year ago applied for a legal work permit with the necessary paperwork. He was taken to a hospital after being shot, where he reportedly died from injuries. 

DHS maintains that Araujo was shot for attempting to use his vehicle as a weapon—a familiar story used also to defend the shootings of Nicole Renee Good and Alex Pretti—as well as Marimar Martinez, though video footage has since come forward showing federal agents steering their car into Martinez’s.