Photo by Ronaldo Salgado
The 52-year-old Houston man fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this week was not the target of the agency’s operation, said U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, who has called for release of any video footage capturing the deadly episode.
Garcia told The Texas Tribune that acting ICE Director David Venturella informed her in a call Thursday afternoon that ICE agents didn’t have any body-worn cameras or dashboard cameras during the shooting.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Thursday that it had received a tip from an unspecified law enforcement agency that led ICE agents to surveil a Houston residence and subsequently Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s van.
“After receiving a credible tip from our law enforcement partners, our officers conducted surveillance on a target’s address,” the DHS statement said. “Weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property. On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop.”
Agents had an administrative warrant for someone other than Salgado Araujo or his brother, who was also in the van, Garcia said Venturella told her.
According to the New York Times, ICE agents had administrative warrants for two Guatemalan immigrants. According to Salgado Araujo’s sons, their father, uncle and two other men in the vehicle are from Mexico. An administrative warrant does not have the same legal power as a criminal warrant, which must be reviewed and signed by a judge.
According to ICE intake information, two of the three men are from Mexico and were being held at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center in Conroe as of Thursday afternoon.
Garcia said she got a commitment from Venturella that all officers in the field would have a body cam by the end of the month.
A DHS spokesperson confirmed that the officers involved in the shooting didn’t wear body-worn cameras, saying that they had not been issued that equipment and blamed Democrats for holding them up. After Congress recently provided “historic funding,” the spokesperson said they would be provided.
“Body cameras have been deployed to more than half the field offices with the remaining half to receive them in the next 60 days,” the department’s statement said.
[…]
Garcia added that ICE said it would respond to a demand letter the congresswoman issued Thursday with other Democratic lawmakers after DHS’s Office of Inspector General completed its investigation, but didn’t provide a timeline for that investigation.
See here and here for some background. Untold billions of dollars appropriated for ICE, and this is what we get, a bunch of undertrained trigger-happy yahoos who couldn’t find their own asses with a flashlight and printed instructions. And the reason these tragedies keep happening is because an entire political party decided they don’t need to take responsibility for anything they do, the concept of taking responsibility is anathema to them. These are the stakes for the election this November and beyond. The Chron, the Times, and Talking Points Memo have more.
Two other items of interest: The silence from the Republicans continues to be deafening.
Three days after federal immigration agents fatally shot a man during a traffic stop in Houston, most of Texas’ Republican leaders had yet to weigh in on the incident or respond to calls from Democrats and civil rights advocates for an independent investigation.
As public outcry has rippled across the internet and the streets of Houston, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and most of the state’s GOP congressional delegation have kept mum about the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national who had lived in the country for decades. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot him to death earlier this week when authorities tried to stop his van during an operation.
[…]
At a press conference Friday, [Rep. Sylvia] Garcia and other Houston Democrats renewed their criticisms of ICE and their demands for an investigation conducted outside the agency. They also called for ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, to release evidence supporting their claims.
Garcia, who represents the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, said she had not heard from Abbott nor any of her congressional Republican colleagues.
The governor’s office declined to respond Friday when asked about Garcia’s comments. A spokesperson referred the Tribune to the Texas Department of Public Safety for “information on how Rangers investigations start.”
Garcia said the differing accounts between ICE and witnesses, as well as DHS’ original reference to the incident as a targeted enforcement operation without mentioning Salgado Araujo was not the target, underscores the need for an outside probe.
“That’s why we need a complete, thorough investigation, and a fact-finding from top to bottom — and we have to make sure that it does include our local partners,” Garcia said, alluding to calls for Houston police and DPS to step in. “ICE cannot be doing this [investigation] alone, because otherwise, we’ll end up just like in the [Renee] Good case — nothing.”
[…]
The shooting occurred in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood, a heavily Hispanic area near the Houston Ship Channel in the city’s East End. But the area was moved out of Garcia’s district when Republicans redrew Texas’ congressional map last summer, putting it in the 9th Congressional District. GOP nominee Alex Mealer is the favorite to win the Republican-leaning seat in November.
Responding Tuesday night to DHS’ post on X detailing the agency’s claim that the ICE officer acted in self-defense, Mealer expressed her belief that the feds would get to the bottom of the matter.
“Today is yet another reminder of the dangers law enforcement face everyday as they protect our safety,” Mealer wrote on X. “I have full confidence in law enforcement’s ability to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure justice is served.”
Mealer has not made any public statements about the shooting since Tuesday, and her campaign did not immediately respond Friday to questions about whether she supported an independent investigation or believes ICE should release evidence.
Yeah, that’s about what I’d expect from a lightweight like Mealer. I’m sure she’ll have something to say once she’s been told what to say by other Republicans.
And finally, this was a surprise.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire vowed Friday to “pursue an independent and transparent” local investigation into Tuesday’s deadly ICE shooting but said federal control over evidence is proving difficult to overcome.
Whitmire said he directed Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz to be “proactive” in pursuing an investigation amid witness statements that contradict ICE’s account of the fatal shooting of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
Diaz has a meeting with Houston’s FBI bureau chief next week, Whitmire said, adding that the chief asked the federal agency to “start sharing information.”
“Our hands have been tied, but I’ve instructed the chief [and] city attorney to untie those hands,” Whitmire said in an afternoon news conference.
[…]
Whitmire also expressed frustration about ICE’s handling of the shooting and offered condolences to Salgado Araujo’s family, who have lived in Houston for decades.
“Mr. Salgado was chased by unmarked vehicles, [and] before he could identify himself and speak as a Houstonian, he was shot and killed,” Whitmire said. “I’ve met with his family today and expressed the entire city’s condolences and anger, and assured them that I and the levels of government represented here today, and the DA’s office, would do everything, use all of our resources and our waking hours, to pursue an independent and transparent investigation.”
The Harris County district attorney’s office launched its own investigation into the shooting on Thursday, but District Attorney Sean Teare said his office has had limited access to evidence in part because of the federal agencies’ involvement.
Whitmire said he had spoken with Teare about the difficulty of conducting their own investigations, as the FBI is “tightly controlling” all of the evidence related to the shooting.
“They control the scene, the deceased, the van, the witnesses. So yes, they control the investigation,” Whitmire said.
Friday’s announcement was a shift from Whitmire’s statements a day after the shooting, when he indicated that the city and its police department were incapable of investigating Salgado Araujo’s death because “there cannot be two ongoing investigations.” HPD said none of its officers were involved in the shooting, which Whitmire also said meant they lacked jurisdiction to investigate.
Not sure what caused the change of direction, but I’m glad to see it. The more eyes on this, the better.
Law enforcememt partners? Could that mean HPD?
“Officers” observed a man who RESEMBLED the suspect! Meaning, he was brown.
Previously….
“Houston Mayor John Whitmire declined to seek a city-led investigation into the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, saying there cannot be a city investigation while a federal investigation is ongoing.”
Now…
“Houston Mayor John Whitmire vowed Friday to “pursue an independent and transparent” local investigation into Tuesday’s deadly ICE shooting but said federal control over evidence is proving difficult to overcome.
Whitmire said he directed Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz to be “proactive” in pursuing an investigation amid witness statements that contradict ICE’s account of the fatal shooting of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.”
Is this one of those ‘Both things can’t be true’ wordsmith/word salad parlor trick ?
This guy…. geez.
“Officers” observed a man who RESEMBLED the target! Meaning, he was brown.