{"id":391493,"date":"2026-07-30T03:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T03:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391493\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T03:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T03:24:12","slug":"witness-to-fatal-houston-ice-shooting-released-from-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391493\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness to fatal Houston ICE shooting released from detention"},"content":{"rendered":"

A witness to a fatal shooting in Houston<\/a> by a federal immigration agent was released from a detention center Wednesday after spending weeks in custody following the deadly encounter. <\/p>\n

Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego was one of three men riding in a work van July 7<\/a> being driven by Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot by an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Salgado Araujo was shot after the van was stopped by federal agents driving unmarked vehicles. Rojas Pliego has disputed the Trump administration\u2019s account of the shooting in court documents, calling it a \u201clie.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

A federal judge this week ordered Rojas Pliego\u2019s release and previously instructed the government not to deport him<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Rojas Pliego has lived in the U.S. for several decades and does not have legal status, according to his stepdaughter Griselda Silva. She said that the family could not afford to pay the legal fees to try to adjust his status.<\/p>\n

Around the time Rojas Pliego walked out of the detention center Wednesday, federal prosecutors asked for a stay of his release pending an appeal, arguing that U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison\u2019s ruling on Monday conflicted with decisions in other immigration cases. <\/p>\n

Wearing an ankle monitor, Rojas Pliego visited the curbside memorial commemorating his former boss on Monday and recalled when the group was followed by ICE agents. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were on our way to work when they took Lorenzo Salgado\u2019s life,\u201d he said in Spanish. \u201cInstead of giving him first aid right away, they handcuffed him and pushed him to the ground. That\u2019s not right. I want justice for Lorenzo Salgado, my boss.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the shooting that Salgado Araujo had \u201cweaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,\u201d and that the officer had fired in self-defense. But Rojas Pliego and another passenger wrote in statements submitted in court that the officers were on the sides of the van, never in front of or behind it. <\/p>\n

Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father of three, had been living in the U.S. for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal status, according to his family. He had no criminal record. <\/p>\n

His death is one of at least 10<\/a> during immigration enforcement operations since the start of President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign, sparking widespread protests<\/a> in Houston and calls for an independent investigation.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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At the memorial site, Rojas Pliego played a song over his phone on speaker and told reporters that he missed Salgado Araujo. \u201cI worked alongside him through thick and thin. My whole life,\u201d he said, describing him as a \u201cgood boss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRest in peace,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be present at your funeral, but you have me here now.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporter Valerie Gonzalez contributed from McAllen, Texas.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America<\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A witness to a fatal shooting in Houston by a federal immigration agent was released from a detention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[815,294,145,490,5603,2461,56,58,57,1724,134828,131530,129319,287,2899,3346,27,1760,5419,1499,6878],"class_list":["post-391493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-gun-violence","tag-homicide","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-immigration","tag-jose-trinidad-rojas-pliego","tag-keith-ellison","tag-lorenzo-salgado-araujo","tag-politics","tag-prisons","tag-shootings","tag-texas","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","tag-u-s-news","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391493","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=391493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}