Lorenzo Salgado Jr., left, and Ronaldo Salgado, right, sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, are shown during a news conference about the ICE shooting death of their father in Houston Wednesday, July 8, 2026.
Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle
On July 7, we learned that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, our friend Ronaldo’s dad. The news hit us as though it had happened to our own family. Ronnie is a reflection of his father, and to hurt the Salgado family is to hurt the East End community that raised us.
In Spanish: ICE mató al papá de nuestro amigo. Únete a nuestras demandas por justicia.
We grew up with Ronaldo. We sat next to him in geography class, shared lunch tables at the old Eastwood Academy campus, and watched him grow from a quiet, determined kid into the serious, kindhearted man he is today. Even back then, Ronnie carried himself with a maturity that commanded respect.
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Today, he is a teacher right here in Houston, pouring that same steady dedication back into our city’s youth and representing his community with immense pride.
Ronaldo always stood out in school. Even before turning 15, he demonstrated his social commitment by launching a school campaign against cyberbullying, successfully raising awareness among the school community about the dangers of cyberbullying and the dynamics of both online and in-person harassment targeting minors. From an early age, he showed signs of deep empathy and a natural calling to lead, human qualities that were undoubtedly planted and nurtured in his home.
Although our interactions with Lorenzo were limited, one memory stands out vividly. One fall weeknight, after a grueling football match, Lorenzo arrived to pick up Ronnie. Lorenzo, like many of our own fathers, worked exhausting days doing manual labor, and Ronnie could have gotten a ride home from any teammate. Instead, his father made a point to be there.
That is how immigrant fathers show love: They show up to watch a son play when every muscle in their body is begging them to lie down, knowing they have to be back out under the scorching Texas sun in just a few hours.
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That quiet devotion shaped the man Ronnie became.
Lorenzo Salgado was 52 and had lived in this country for nearly 35 years, working tirelessly to build homes for Houston families. He had no criminal record and was on path to obtain legal status. On the morning of July 7, he set out to pick up his construction crew just as he always did, but he never came home.
The public facts keep us up at night. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. The ICE agents wore no body cameras. Federal officials now admit Lorenzo Salgado wasn’t even the target of their operation. Witnesses say the government’s account — that he tried to run over an agent — is entirely false.
Hours after the shooting, our phones buzzed incessantly from friends and former classmates. Lorenzo could have been any of our dads, the messages said. Our fathers’ shared journeys and relentless work ethic are nearly identical.
We refuse to stand by while another son has to bury his father while fighting on television for basic dignity and the truth.
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That is why we formed Amigos de los Salgado (Friends of the Salgados). We are young Houstonians seeking justice for our friend’s family and to ensure this never happens again.
On Tuesday, July 14, we ask Houstonians to pack the City Council session to demand a local investigation. We’re also planning a series of actions and rallies alongside other organizations this upcoming weekend. Anyone interested in cohosting or helping should reach out to us. We hope Houston will stand united for justice with the Salgado family.
For safety, we ask those who are undocumented or of uncertain status to support us in other ways.
We ask Mayor John Whitmire and Governor Greg Abbott to demand full investigations by the Houston Police Department and the Texas Rangers. Furthermore, we call on lawmakers to pass a Lorenzo Salgado Araujo Act. This critical legislation should address the dangerous accountability loophole by mandating that agents wear active body cameras during all field operations and that they display clear identification. It mandates medical response, evidence disclosure, independent investigations, enforceable consequences, and protections for witnesses. It eliminates detention quotas, prioritizes demonstrable public-safety threats, creates a screened pathway to legal status for millions of long-term residents, strengthens officer training, ends child, family and for-profit detention and establishes independent oversight of federal enforcement.
A federal badge should never be a license to operate in the shadows of our neighborhoods. We knew Ronnie in the hallways of Eastwood Academy. Now we ask our nation to honor his father and bring millions out of the shadows.
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We are all Lorenzo. Somos Lorenzo.
Vanessa Escobar Acosta, Josue Flores and Tomasa Garcia are former classmates at Eastwood Academy in Houston and the leaders of Amigos de los Salgado. For more information, email Amigosdelossalgado@gmail.com.