<\/p>\n
A crowd marches through Canal Street to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement after they shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican citizen, in Magnolia Park, Houston, July 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jacob Lujan\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
In November 2024, millions of Americans voted<\/a> for higher wages, lower housing costs, less crime and a government that actually enforces the law. They were not voting against immigrants. They were voting against a system that kept pretending unlimited low-skilled immigration would not hit their paychecks or their rent.<\/p>\n That vote was about getting results. And you do not get results by pretending the law only applies to some people. So when another one of these incidents happens in Houston and the usual crowd immediately starts screaming murder, it is worth slowing down for a second.<\/p>\n Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is dead, and his family is hurting. He was 52, a father of three sons, and worked construction in Houston for decades. That part of the story matters. His family deserves real answers, not the usual political theater.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n From what we’ve been told, he was in the country illegally. ICE had every right, and every reason, to pick him up. According to the agents on scene<\/a>, he ignored commands and used his vehicle in a way that put them in danger.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is possible Salgado did not fully grasp how fast things can go bad when you are behind the wheel and law enforcement is telling you to stop. But cars are weapons too. When someone chooses to use one aggressively instead of complying, the odds of a bad outcome go way up.<\/p>\n The record shows that vehicles are deadly. In Waukesha in 2021<\/a>, six people were killed when a guy drove through a Christmas parade. In New York City in 2017<\/a>, a pickup driver killed eight people on a bike path. In Charlottesville that same year<\/a>, one person was killed and dozens were hurt. In New Orleans on New Year\u2019s Day last year<\/a>, 14 people were killed when a Houston man drove a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n The second this story broke in Houston, the left\u2019s script started writing itself again: ICE lies. ICE is out of control. This is just like Ren\u00e9e Good and Alex Pretti.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Ren\u00e9e Good was not simply sitting in her car when agents approached. She ignored verbal commands and accelerated her vehicle in a way that, according to ICE and some video evidence, put the agent directly in danger. She could have complied and stopped. She chose not to.<\/p>\n Alex Pretti is the other name that keeps getting raised. The short video that circulated made it look like he was some random bystander who got shot for no reason. That is not what happened.<\/p>\n Pretti had been actively confronting and interfering with federal agents in the days leading up to the shooting. Eleven days earlier, he\u2019d be caught on video<\/a> kicking and breaking the taillight of a federal vehicle during a confrontation with agents. On the day he was shot, he again confronted officers. He was also legally carrying a loaded handgun during the encounter. When the situation turned physical, officers had to make fast decisions with an armed man in the mix. The short clip that went viral left out the context of his active interference and resistance.<\/p>\n Both Pretti and Good made choices that turned enforcement actions into something much more dangerous. They did not have to be there. They chose to interfere and resist. And when you do that while a vehicle is involved or while fighting with officers, the risk goes way up.<\/p>\n If you comply with law enforcement, your chances of walking away in one piece go way up. That is not a controversial opinion. The people who fight, run or turn a car into a threat are usually the ones who get hurt. The ones who follow instructions usually do not.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n This is why rushing to blame ICE in Houston is lazy. Enforcement is not just about chasing violent criminals, though in the more than 670,000 illegal aliens<\/a> that ICE says it has removed under this administration, there have been plenty of murderers, rapists and gang members. It is also about citizens\u2019 wages, housing costs and the pressure that immigrants put on our schools and hospitals. In a recent Dallas Fed working paper<\/a>, economists estimate that during the 2021-2024 surge in people crossing our borders illegally, the flow of undocumented workers drove roughly 30% of the rise in house prices and 20% of the growth in rents. It\u2019s safe to assume that when our borders tightened in 2025, that pressure eased.<\/p>\n While the media stays focused on the controversies, ICE\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations division has also pulled a lot of kids out of sex trafficking and forced labor situations<\/a> during these operations. That part almost never makes the news.<\/p>\n The same people who spend all day yelling about billionaires are usually the first ones to defend the exact policies that give those billionaires what they want most: cheap, abundant labor that keeps wages down and housing prices up. Unrestricted immigration is not some grand act of compassion. It is good for the people at the top who do not have to deal with the consequences.<\/p>\n It is also worth pointing out that most developed countries have stricter immigration rules than the United States had before Trump took office again. Places like Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and Canada get praised all the time for their quality of life, yet they have all kept tighter control than the United States over who gets in and who stays.\u00a0<\/p>\n Salgado was here without papers. He also worked hard and raised American kids. Both things can be true. His family is grieving now, and they deserve the facts, not people turning his death into a political weapon before anyone knows what actually happened.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Then there is the mayor. John Whitmire is unfairly being hammered by critics<\/a> over this news because that is what happens when federal officers do their job inside city limits. Whitmire is a lifelong Democrat, but apparently that is not good enough<\/a> anymore, so now he is being called complicit<\/a> no matter what he says. His job is the city budget, local crime and fixing potholes. It is not running federal immigration enforcement. He is in the classic no-win spot.<\/p>\n Using this man\u2019s death to go after Whitmire, as if any of this were his fault, does not make sense, and it is more than a little tacky.<\/p>\n Let the federal investigation happen. Release any videos. Figure out what actually went down in Houston. Salgado\u2019s family deserves that much, and so does everyone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n But let\u2019s not immediately assume that ICE is guilty. The pattern in these cases has been pretty consistent: The people who died during this immigration-enforcement surge generally did not just happen to be standing there. Some of them chose not to comply during a lawful stop. Others chose to interfere, provoke and resist. That part of the story keeps getting left out.<\/p>\n Kenny Webster can be heard weekdays on KPRC 950 in Houston and dozens of other radio stations around the country. He\u2019s also the executive producer of the Walton and Johnson radio network and a touring stand-up comedian. \u00a0 <\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed. What should Houston do next? <\/p>\n Submissions become property of this newspaper and may be published online and in print. We may edit for clarity or spelling and grammar.<\/p>\n Timothy<\/p>\n Houston, TX<\/p>\n 07\/09\/26<\/p>\n 0<\/p>\n You can not trust ICE. Must be an independent investigation and charges if warranted against the rouge agency<\/p>\n Colin <\/p>\n Houston, TX<\/p>\n 07\/09\/26<\/p>\n 0<\/p>\n Local authorities need to stand up to the lawless behavior of the federal government. Frankly, no one gives a **** when Whitmire says it’s not his jurisdiction. As we’ve seen with the trump administration, the law is complex enough to make an extraordinary argument if you have the political will to. When he says “it’s not our jurisdiction,” he’s really saying I won’t fight for you because I don’t need you on my team. That’s always been Whitmire’s style of patronage politics.<\/p>\n I have a hard time accepting that the local leaders can’t do anything because it’s a federal matter. John Whitmire from my view lives in fear and probably hopes this goes away. That’s not leadership. Why does ICE get to roam our streets in unmarked vehicles? My take is to intimidate and scare. I feel for the family so much and my anger is palpable. A federal lawsuit needs to be filed and a GoFundMe page established. Many will donate to support this cruel injustice. I’m a lifelong Houstonian, 81 yrs old and if nothing is done by our leaders I’ll be truly ashamed.<\/p>\n Jim Fulenwider Both the City of Houston and Harris County need to “pull out all the stops” to investigate this killing. ICE has killed undocumented immigrants with criminal records, undocumented immigrants with no criminal records and American citizens. As the German pastor Niemoller said, “I did not speak out, then they came for me.”<\/p>\n Yes, the event brings pain to the family and community. While it is right to report this, so few facts about the event are reported. The tribe of ICE will say what protects the tribe. If the Chronicle can not get more details, hire an investigator and request local contributions to cover the cost.<\/p>\n See More Responses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A crowd marches through Canal Street to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement after they shot and killed Lorenzo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-367277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n1720 Nicholson St
\nHouston Tx 77008<\/p>\n