A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a man in Houston after he attempted to evade arrest in his vehicle during an operation Tuesday, the agency said.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the man, a Mexican national, ignored commands to stop and attempted to ram an agent who fired his weapon in self-defense. The man was targeted in an operation because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to the department, which oversees ICE. The man’s car struck an ICE vehicle, the department added.
The statement identified the man as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and said he died at a hospital.
The FBI’s Houston field office is investigating a potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer, said spokesperson Connor Hagan. In addition, representatives of the office’s evidence response team responded to the shooting at the request of DHS to process the scene, he said.
The shooting occurred as immigration enforcement is ramping up to carry out the Trump administration's mass deportations agenda. In late June, ICE made more than 10,000 arrests during a five-day stretch.
Texas' largest city has experienced heightened enforcement operations since the crackdown began last year, and not without public backlash. The Houston City Council voted to pass an ordinance limiting ICE cooperation but reversed course after Texas' GOP Governor Greg Abbott threatened to cut more than $100 million in state funding for public safety.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Tuesday's shooting occurred during an “ICE enforcement operation” in her Texas district. She said in a post on X that the initial account released by federal authorities needs to be independently verified and investigated.
“All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation,” she said.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire, a Democrat, declined to comment.
Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, called for a transparent investigation conducted by local authorities.
“We don’t take DHS at their word at all,” Proaño told The Associated Press. “There should be an independent investigation and they should release all the videos.”
There have been at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since the start of the Trump administration's intensive immigration enforcement crackdown.
Initial descriptions by immigration officials have been contradicted later by video evidence. In February, federal authorities launched an investigation into two federal immigration agents who appeared to have made untruthful statements under oath regarding a nonfatal shooting of an immigrant in Minneapolis in January.
Last year, a federal immigration agent shot and killed a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, Ruben Ray Martinez, during a late-night traffic encounter. A grand jury declined to file criminal charges against the agent. DHS said the agent had fired at the vehicle after the driver "intentionally ran over" his fellow agent. Video footage of the encounter released by authorities does not clearly show the vehicle striking the agent.
In January, 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good was shot in the head by a federal immigration agent during a crackdown in Minneapolis. DHS also said Good was trying to hit the agent with her vehicle, which local officials and witnesses disputed, saying she was only trying to drive away.
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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
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