HOUSTON (AP) — The family of a man who was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Houston is holding a public vigil Thursday evening, in response to what the man’s son says is an outpouring of support amid renewed criticism of enforcement tactics.The ceremony for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who was fatally shot last Tuesday by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston, comes amid mounting scrutiny on President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. Encounters with ICE have resulted in at least 10 deaths since the start of Trump’s second term last year — two of which happened in the days after a federal agent killed Salgado Araujo.“My family would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the unbelievable and incredible support we have received,” Salgado Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado, said in a Facebook post Thursday. Salgado Araujo, 52, who had no criminal record, had lived in the U.S. for 35 years.
In the fallout of the shooting, three men whom Salgado Araujo was driving when he was killed have adamantly disputed the government’s official account.The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said Salgado Araujo had rammed an ICE vehicle, and that a federal agent fired a weapon in self-defense. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration crackdown, said Wednesday that the state’s top law enforcement unit would investigate the fatal shooting.
