Protestors gather at Evan Chew Park to protest the killing of Lorenzo Salgadodo Araujo and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent actions in Houston, Sunday, July 19, 2026.
Jacob Lujan/Houston Chronicle
Protestors gather at Evan Chew Park to protest the killing of Lorenzo Salgadodo Araujo and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent actions in Houston, Sunday, July 19, 2026.
Jacob Lujan/Houston Chronicle
Protestors gather at Evan Chew Park to protest the killing of Lorenzo Salgadodo Araujo and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent actions in Houston, Sunday, July 19, 2026.
Jacob Lujan/Houston Chronicle
In 95 degree heat Sunday afternoon, hundreds of people protesting the fatal ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo spread across Dunlavy Park in Montrose. One protester carried a weather-appropriate sign: ICE melts in Texas heat.
Since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fatally shot the Mexican construction worker on his way to work July 7, protesters have marched the streets of the East End, lit candles at vigils and paid their respects at a public viewing.
Cailtin McQuay has attended every demonstration since Salgado’s death. McQuay said the turnout Sunday at the park, which was dotted with flags and signs, gives her a bit of hope.
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JOY SEWING: The headlines told how Lorenzo Salgado Araujo died by ICE. His visitation revealed how he lived.
“Every time, there have been more people,” McQuay said. “That’s heartening.”
Salgado was the first Houston victim of an ICE shooting, but others around the country, including that of a 25-year-old Colombian man in Maine just days later, continue to spark protests.
“You need to band together as a community because it’s not going to go away by itself,” said McQuay’s friend, Zach Kelm. “The killings aren’t gonna stop by themselves. The only way that we can hope to make an impact is by showing up in groups, in numbers, as the American people, to show that this is not what we want from our country and our government.”
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Salgado’s sons, Ronaldo and Lorenzo, thanked attendees for continuing to protest the killing of their father and encouraged them to fight to prevent future ICE shootings.
“I really, really hoped that my dad would be the last person that this would happen to,” Ronaldo Salgado said. “But you saw what happened less than a week later. Out there in Maine, there is a young 3-year-old child who saw the worst of the worst.”
The young daughter of the Maine victim, Johan Sebastián Guerrero, witnessed the fatal shooting.
EDITORIAL: Magnolia Park is showing up for Salgado. In November, voters must show up too.
Elda Felix Cartwright, 88, and her husband, John, 94 stood under a tree for shade and pinned ICE shootings on lawmakers who voted this summer to continue to fund ICE.
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“Our rights are being stolen from us,” Cartwright said. “It’s happening everywhere … and I still blame Congress.”
Cartwright, short and softspoken, said she is getting too old to fight. Her granddaughter, Lori Carruthers, 51, disagreed.
“These are our neighbors,” said Carruthers, tears welling in her eyes. “It could be my grandma.”
Carruthers complained about the amount of funding Congress has approved for ICE and what appears to be a severe lack of training for officers.
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Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s recent calls for a thorough investigation into the shooting aren’t giving her much confidence either, she said.
“(Whitmire) was talking about doing an investigation after everybody made a big stink about it, but I don’t think anything,” she said. “I think it’s gonna be one of those things trying to be swept up under the rug.”