HOUSTON (TNND) — An illegal immigrant shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during an operation in Houston was not the intended target, according to Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who said acting ICE Director David Venturella confirmed that to her.
The Democratic congresswoman said during an interview with MS Now that Venturella told her the agency has confirmed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo “was not a target.”
“We’ve got to do something. This is just one more death too many,” Garcia said. “And if we’ve got to bring outside, independent folks to come in and look at it, we should do that.”
Garcia later shared a clip of the interview on X, writing, “ICE confirmed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not the target. Yet he was killed by federal agents in an unmarked vehicle, with no body cam footage, no dash cam footage, and no answers for his family. ICE owes this family the truth.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has defended the actions of the agents involved, saying Salgado Araujo was shot after allegedly trying to ram an ICE vehicle during Tuesday’s operation.
Asked whether agents had been specifically targeting Salgado Araujo, DHS said officers had been conducting surveillance at a property where they had previously observed two white vans.
“On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop,” the department said.
DHS said the federal agents were not wearing body cameras during the encounter, and little publicly available video has surfaced in the days since the shooting.
In a statement, the department said the Houston agents had not yet been issued body-worn cameras, blaming the delay on congressional funding disputes and a record government shutdown tied to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said it will investigate the shooting. The office is consulting with local prosecutors in Minneapolis, where federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens, to learn how they handled investigations involving federal immigration officers, spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre said.
“Although access to key evidence remains under federal control, we are pursuing investigative avenues available to us and will conduct a review of any information we collect within our reach,” Lemaitre said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.
Three men, including Salgado Araujo’s brother, were detained by ICE during the fatal traffic stop, according to Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), who has been communicating with their families.
Proaño told The Associated Press that LULAC has been unable to obtain video footage clearly showing what happened in the moments before the shooting and has offered a $5,000 reward for information from witnesses. He said the positioning of Salgado Araujo’s van and ICE vehicles blocked much of the security camera footage the organization has reviewed.
“It’s going to make it even more difficult to find the truth in all this,” Proaño said.
DHS said the ICE agents involved in the shooting are expected to receive body-worn cameras within the next 60 days.
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Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.