'A hardworking Mexican man': Son of man killed by ICE in Houston demands investigation - News Beep

HOUSTON – The son of a man fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent said Wednesday that he wants his father to be remembered as “a family man,” not simply as another immigration headline.

Speaking during a news conference alongside Latino civil rights leaders, Ronaldo Salgado described his father, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, as a hardworking construction worker who had lived in the United States for nearly 35 years and dedicated his life to providing for his family.

“He was also a man of routine,” Salgado said. “For the majority of the last 35 years of his life in the United States, he began the day the same way and always ended it by coming home, sitting on the porch, eating a hearty meal made by my mother, going to sleep, and doing it all over again the next day.”

Salgado recounted what he said was his father’s final morning. He said his parents woke up around 5 a.m., his mother prepared him breakfast and lunch, and after saying goodbye to his wife and petting the family dog, Araujo left to pick up members of his construction crew before work.

About an hour later, Salgado said, his father had been shot by ICE agents near the intersection of Canal Street and Wayside Drive.

After receiving a call from his mother that something had happened, Salgado said he first drove to his father’s job site before finding posts on social media reporting ICE activity in Houston’s East End.

When he arrived near the scene, he recognized his father’s work van but said he could not find him.

“I saw a video posted on Facebook that he had been shot,” Salgado said. “I recognized him immediately, not from his appearance, but from his voice crying for help as he lay on the street bleeding out.”

Salgado said he spent hours trying to learn what had happened before eventually driving to the hospital, where he said he was unable to get information about his father’s condition.

Instead, he said he learned his father had died through a social media news report.

“I had to call my mom right away to give her the terrible news of my dad’s passing before she had to find out the same way I did,” he said.

Salgado said his father spent decades building homes across the Houston area while helping raise three American-born sons.

He said Araujo had recently begun the process of obtaining legal work authorization and immigration status.

“We dotted every line, crossed every T, filled every document, attended every appointment,” Salgado said. “He was close to obtaining his legal status.”

Salgado said one of his father’s dreams was to build a home for his own family after spending decades building homes for others.

“That’s how I want the world to know my father,” he said. “Not as someone who got shot and killed, but as a family man.”

He also called for a full investigation into the shooting.

“He did not deserve to die,” Salgado said. “He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of a Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserves to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father and a job creator.”

Salgado also said three other men who were with his father, including his uncle, were detained during the operation. He said he hopes they will be able to share what they witnessed, saying they could help explain what happened before the shooting.

‘A hardworking Mexican man’: Son of man killed by ICE in Houston demands investigation

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