<\/p>\n
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare is leading an independent investigation into the ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado, but he says the federal government isn’t cooperating: \u201cI\u2019ve never seen behavior like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Conley\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
A woman places a hand on Ronaldo Salgado’s shoulder after he testified during Friday’s congressional oversight forum, “Seeking Justice: Oversight of ICE’s Use of Force in the Death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Raquel Natalicchio\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia speaks during the congressional oversight forum, “Seeking Justice: Oversight of ICE’s Use of Force in the Death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo,” at Harris County Commissioners Court in Houston on Friday, July 24, 2026. The forum examined Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of force following the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7.<\/p>\n
Raquel Natalicchio\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
More than two weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo dead on a Houston street, the U.S. federal government stands in the way of an independent, transparent investigation.<\/p>\n
ICE hasn\u2019t cooperated with local law enforcement, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told a Congressional forum in Houston on Friday. In fact, at the same time that Teare was answering representatives\u2019 questions, his key witness was in a federal hearing about whether or not he\u2019d even get to stay in the country.<\/p>\n
Salgado\u2019s brother, Victor, is \u201cby all accounts the most material witness in this shooting,\u201d according to Teare.<\/p>\n
Victor Salgado\u2019s account of the shooting directly contradicts what the Department of Homeland Security claims happened July 7 on Canal Street. DHS says that Salgado used his white van as a weapon and officers fired in self-defense. Victor tells a very different story.<\/p>\n
Teare and his investigators, though, haven\u2019t been able to interview Victor the way they\u2019d like \u2013well-rested and free. Victor and the other two witnesses are locked up, detained by the agency that shot Victor\u2019s brother.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Normally, when there\u2019s a witness like Victor who might be deported,law enforcement agencies help them secure a special visa allowing them to stay, so that the investigation and any trial can proceed. Teare\u2019s office has\u00a0moved to do that<\/a> for Victor and the other two witnesses.<\/p>\n Teare said it\u2019s essential that ICE release Victor, along with the two other witnesses who were in Salgado\u2019s van. Such detention of witnesses is \u201cunheard of,\u201d he told the members of Congress.<\/p>\n From the get-go with this case, federal officers haven\u2019t cooperated with local law enforcement. Normally, when law enforcement officers from any agency kill someone, Teare is alerted and his investigators are invited onto the scene. That\u2019s to promote transparency and accountability. But it didn\u2019t happen this time.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never seen behavior like this,\u201d Teare said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Though the Houston FBI field office has met with Teare\u2019s investigators, DHS has not responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n Weeks after the shooting, the federal government hasn\u2019t even named the ICE agents involved. It hasn\u2019t produced the weapon. ICE hasn\u2019t released reports about what happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n ICE officials have already admitted that Salgado wasn\u2019t their intended target. They claim it was a case of mistaken identity, that they were originally looking for a pair of Guatemalan nationals. According to Teare, that means there should be a field operational worksheet, or FOW, saying as much. Then the officers would have written an offense report documenting what happened when they aggressively chased down Salgado\u2019s white van.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why won\u2019t the feds release those documents?<\/p>\n These are \u201cstandard things that we get from any law enforcement agency we\u2019re investigating,\u201d Teare said. But in this case, \u201cwe\u2019ve been given nothing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, the feds shared a dubious warrant alleging Salgado may have had drugs in his van. Those “drugs” turned out to be electrolyte powder, Rep. Sylvia Garcia later confirmed.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n This behavior is unacceptable. Our federal government has abandoned accountability. It has abandoned transparency. It has abandoned our safety.<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s hearing yielded no new answers in this case that has ripped open Houston\u2019s heart. But the hearing did make clear how hard the federal government is fighting to keep the truth from coming to light.\u00a0<\/p>\n It also made clear that the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation campaign isn\u2019t making Houstonians safer. It\u2019s putting us all in more danger. Not only are our communities subject to unmarked vehicles, masked agents, aggressive quotas and apparent racial profiling, but the feds are stopping our own local law enforcement officers from doing their jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s not just in Salgado\u2019s case. \u201cThe tactics being used by ICE are threatening public safety overall,\u201d Teare testified.<\/p>\n He told the congressional representatives that in one case, a material witness in a pending murder case was \u201cliterally on a plane to El Salvador\u201d when his team was able to intervene. If the witness had been deported, Teare\u2019s team would have had a much harder time prosecuting \u2014 and possibly, a murderer would have continued to walk free.<\/p>\n There have been cases \u2013 violent crimes in our city \u2013 that Teare cannot solve because immigrants are too fearful to share information, afraid that the deportation machine will find them or their loved ones. Victims of robberies, assault, domestic violence are too scared to dial 911. According to Houston City Council Member Joaquin Martinez, calls for police services are down across the city\u2019s immigrant-rich neighborhoods, including the East End, and especially in southwest Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Community safety, many said Friday, is a nonpartisan issue. We cannot tolerate a violent and unaccountable force loose on our streets, blocking the work of our own law enforcement professionals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houston Rep. Lizzie Fletcher asked whether the current administration\u2019s policies have made us safer. Teare was unequivocal:<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve had the complete opposite effect.\u201d<\/p>\n Lorenzo Salgado is not the first person killed by ICE since Donald Trump took office 18 months ago. At least\u00a010 people have been fatally shot<\/a> at the hands of immigration agents. And just in the first 500 days of Trump\u2019s term, 52 people died in detention<\/a>. That is the agency\u2019s highest mortality rate in over a decade.Yet only a single ICE agent \u2013 one out of a force of approximately 22,000 \u2013 has been disciplined for abuse of use of force, said Rep. James Walkinshaw from Virginia.<\/p>\n The federal government disputed none of this. Predictably, nobody from ICE or DHS attended Friday\u2019s hearing or responded to the representatives\u2019 written questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Perhaps they are hoping that Rep. Garcia and Houston will stop demanding answers. But it\u2019s not just Garcia. And it\u2019s not just Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s hearing showed that the entire country is watching Salgado\u2019s case. Representatives from California, Virginia and New York came to Houston. They heard from Salgado\u2019s sons. They learned about the hard-working part of town where Salgado was killed. They demanded the answers we need.<\/p>\n They won\u2019t stop when they return to D.C. Neither should we.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare is leading an independent investigation into the ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-386210","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\/386210","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=386210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}