Early on Tuesday morning, 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo took his coffee and a meal his wife had prepared for him, said goodbye to his dog, and left the house he built. He drove his white van, picked up three co-workers, and headed towards a construction site to work on some houses.<\/p>\n
But Salgado never made it to work. During a \u201ctargeted enforcement operation\u201d, officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot and killed Salgado and arrested the three other men.<\/p>\n
Salgado\u2019s death marks the 10th fatal shooting by federal immigration officials nationwide since the second Trump administration<\/a> took office, a review of public reports by the Guardian shows, as the Trump administration continues with its anti-immigrant crackdown.<\/p>\n ICE<\/a> officers and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have been responsible for the fatal shootings. Not all of the shooting deaths took place during immigration enforcement operations. In one case, CBP agents shot and killed a man who fired on a border patrol station in Texas. And in another, an off-duty ICE officer shot and killed a man in California.<\/p>\n Details of Salgado\u2019s shooting remain murky, with the Department of Homeland Security alleging that Salgado \u201cweaponized\u201d his vehicle when ICE officers tried to stop and arrest the four men. Salgado\u2019s family, public officials and civil rights groups have called for<\/a> an independent investigation into the shooting, saying that the DHS claims are unreliable.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did not deserve to die,\u201d Ronaldo Salgado, the son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, said at a press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The homeland security department has been grappling with its agencies\u2019 involvement in high-profile deaths in the past year. Last month, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights released a report calculating that in the first 500 days of Trump\u2019s second administration, 52 people died in ICE custody. The United Nations high commissioner for human rights has raised alarm<\/a> about the increasing number of deaths in US government immigration custody.<\/p>\n Ronaldo Salgado, the son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, on Wednesday. Photograph: David J Phillip\/AP<\/p>\n Now critics are saying that the administration\u2019s aggressive efforts to engage in its \u201cmass deportation\u201d campaign are heightening the likelihood of violence and death.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deaths of people in immigration prisons has reached new terrifying levels \u2013 21 people have died in ICE detention this year alone, and now we are learning of yet another shooting death by an immigration agent on the streets of another US neighborhood,\u201d said Jesse Franzblau, the associate director of policy with the National Immigrant Justice Center.<\/p>\n \u201cCongress has given ICE and CBP billions of dollars, $70bn alone in a bill passed just last month, with no accountability for the violence they have brought to our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Two of the highest-profile shootings in the past year have been those of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota during the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement surge. In January, Good and Pretti, US citizens, were killed by federal immigration enforcement officials. Good was killed by an ICE officer, while Pretti was shot and killed by CBP agents. Their deaths led to mass protests.<\/p>\n An ICE spokesperson said its officials are trained to use the \u201cminimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the public and our officers\u201d and that, starting this month, ICE officers will receive additional training to respond to \u201ccoordinated campaigns of violence against them\u201d.<\/p>\n In at least four of the immigration-related shooting deaths, including Salgado\u2019s, the victims were driving vehicles when they were shot. Law enforcement officials are trained<\/a> to move out of a car\u2019s path, rather than shooting at a moving vehicle. From July 2025 to January 2026, the Wall Street Journal identified<\/a> over a dozen incidents of federal immigration officials firing at people in vehicles.<\/p>\n A person kneels near posters with images of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Photograph: Seth Herald\/Reuters<\/p>\n \u201cThe pattern is NOT of law enforcement using deadly force. It\u2019s a pattern of vehicles being used as weapons by violent agitators to attack our law enforcement,\u201d a DHS spokesperson told the Guardian in a statement after publication. \u201cDangerous criminals \u2013 whether they be illegal aliens or U.S. citizens \u2013 are assaulting law enforcement and turning their vehicles into weapons to attack law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the DHS\u2019s claims, the Guardian was unable to find any evidence that the people shot and killed in their cars by ICE officials had any criminal records.<\/p>\n As in Salgado\u2019s case, the DHS claimed Renee Good \u201cweaponized\u201d her vehicle against ICE officials. That claim was called into question by footage later released that seemed to contradict the Trump administration\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n In a separate case, from March 2025, an ICE agent shot and killed 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez, also a US citizen, during a traffic incident. ICE\u2019s involvement in his death was revealed nearly a year later, leading congressional Democrats to demand an independent investigation.<\/p>\n Officials claimed Martinez had \u201cintentionally\u201d run over a federal agent, but video released later<\/a> painted a more complicated picture.<\/p>\n \u201cDHS\u2019s repeated lies and omissions about the shooting of Mr Martinez reflect a troubling pattern in which official statements about the use of lethal force are later challenged by video footage, witness testimony, or subsequent investigations,\u201d congressional representatives Robert Garcia and Greg Casar said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ruben Ray Martinez, who was shot and killed in Texas by a federal immigration agent last year. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n Due to the contradictory statements put forward by the homeland security department, and its repeated claims of people weaponizing their cars against federal officials, the Salgado family and civil rights groups have called for an independent investigation into this week\u2019s shooting by local officials.<\/p>\n \u201cAnytime someone is killed by a federal law enforcement agent, federal authorities should legitimately investigate to see if that killing is criminal,\u201d said Steve Descano, the Fairfax county commonwealth\u2019s attorney, in a statement to the Guardian. \u201cThe Trump administration has made it clear that this is a duty they have no interest in fulfilling \u2013 and unfortunately their moral abdication means that state and local prosecutors must be the ones to pursue transparency and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Descano, a co-founder of Fight Against Federal Overreach, a national coalition of district attorneys looking to hold federal officials accountable, said that he could not comment on the specifics of Salgado\u2019s case, since it did not happen in his jurisdiction.<\/p>\n Congressional representative Sylvia Garcia called for an independent investigation into Salgado\u2019s death. James Talarico, a Democratic Texas<\/a> state representative who is running for US Senate, also urged for a \u201cfull, independent investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPrevious incidents have shown that this agency cannot be trusted to report all the facts,\u201d Talarico added in a statement.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the Houston mayor\u2019s office said local city officials do not hold jurisdiction over federal law enforcement matters. Instead, Houston\u2019s mayor, John Whitmire, said<\/a> during a city council meeting that he was insisting on a \u201ctransparent, independent investigation\u201d by federal authorities.<\/p>\n