A federal judge on Monday ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release from their custody one of the witnesses to a federal immigration agent\u2019s fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.<\/p>\n
Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego must be released from detention within 48 hours of the order, which was issued Monday evening. Authorities must release Rojas Pliego in a public space and give his attorneys notice at least three hours beforehand, according to the order.<\/p>\n
Roja Pliego, a Mexican citizen, was one of three men who were passengers in Salgado Araujo\u2019s van when Immigrations and Custom Enforcement officers began following the group and ultimately shot the longtime Houston resident. Rojas Pliego has lived in the United States since 1998, has several children and stepchildren who are U.S. citizens and has no criminal record, according to the order.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because the officers who stopped the men had no body cameras or dashcams, Rojas Pliego and the other men are the only known witnesses to the shooting. He and another passenger have countered federal officials\u2019 recollection of events, asserting that agents rammed<\/a> Salgado Araujo\u2019s van with their vehicles prior to shooting him. Federal officials have maintained Salgado Araujo attempted to ram an agent\u2019s vehicle before he was shot.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison\u2019s order for Rojas Pliego\u2019s release comes less than a week after he issued a separate order blocking<\/a> Rojas Pliego\u2019s deportation, and he noted in Monday\u2019s order that Rojas Pliego\u2019s request is \u201cone of hundreds of similar petitions\u201d amid the Trump administration\u2019s application of immigration detention protocol.<\/p>\n Ellison\u2019s order states that the government is not permitted to detain noncitizens without \u201cindividualized justification\u201d only because they did not enter the country lawfully. It also stipulates that DHS must seek a pre-detention hearing before it seeks to re-detain Rojas Pliego.\u00a0<\/p>\n DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the order.\u00a0<\/p>\n The agency and the Trump administration have provided little detail about the circumstances leading up to Salgado Araujo\u2019s death beyond their initial statement. More than a dozen attorneys and law enforcement officers who The Texas Tribune asked to review available footage<\/a> of ICE agents\u2019 pursuit of Salgado Araujo said it raised red flags and possibly violated the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n The relative speed of the federal judge\u2019s decision, coming a week after the petition was filed, is the latest in a series of unusual circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting that experts have said raise further questions about whether it was justified.<\/p>\n In addition to the lack of footage of the shooting, federal officials sought and subsequently unsealed a search warrant that claimed there may have been methamphetamine in Salgado Araujo\u2019s van. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare and U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said on Friday that the substance was tested and found not to be<\/a> an illicit substance.<\/p>\n