Kyle McClenaghan/Houston Public Media
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado (center), speaks about his father at a news conference in Houston a day after his father was fatally shot by an ICE agent, July 8, 2026.
A day after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston’s East End, his son spoke about his father’s dedication to his family and said he didn’t deserve to die.
“He was a hard-working family man who never wanted his name to be known to anyone outside his family,” Ronaldo Salgado said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “He wanted nothing more in life than to provide for his wife and see his sons become great men.”
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said the agent shot and killed Araujo at about 6:50 a.m. Tuesday during a “targeted enforcement operation.” Araujo was from Mexico and did not have legal status in the United States, according to DHS.
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Federal officials said Araujo was trying to evade arrest and tried to run down an ICE agent with his vehicle, prompting the agent to shoot Araujo in self-defense, DHS said.
In light of other fatal shootings by ICE officers during the second term of President Donald Trump, whose administration has tightened immigration enforcement, local elected officials and civil rights groups have called for an independent investigation into Araujo’s shooting.
RELATED: Hundreds march through Houston to protest fatal shooting of Minneapolis woman by ICE agent
Just like his family.
“You (can) find him every evening after work, relaxing on the porch, listening to music and petting his dog,” Salgado said. “I am deeply heartbroken to see that the man who taught me the value of hard work, family values and education will no longer spend an evening on that porch… He did not deserve to die. He didn’t deserve to have his name reduced to a headline: ‘Mexican Man Shot by ICE.’
Araujo had lived in the United States for more than 30 years and was going through the process of obtaining legal immigration status, his family said.
“He dedicated his life in the United States to giving his family the American dream,” Salgado said. “After nearly 35 years of working to bring us the American Dream, he has decided to begin the process of realizing his American Dream through a work permit. We dotted every I, crossed every T, filled out every document, attended every meeting.”
Kyle McClenaghan/Houston Public Media
One of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s sons holds a photo of his father, who was fatally shot by an ICE agent, July 8, 2026.
U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee joined the Araujo family Wednesday along with a half-dozen other elected state and local leaders.
“I want to be clear: the killing of a person by law enforcement is a big deal,” Menefee said. “What other profession can take someone’s life in the middle of the street? … We are a city of illegal immigrants. They are our neighbors. They are our family. They are business owners and deserve to be treated humanely and with dignity.”
The FBI said Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General is investigating the shooting and the FBI’s Houston office is investigating “a potential attack on a federal law enforcement officer.”
RELATED: Mayor Whitmire: Houston Police Not Involved in Fatal ICE Shooting
Speaking Wednesday, Salgado said three other men were in the car with his father at the time of the shooting.
“All three men were detained,” Salgado said. “I haven’t heard anything from them, but I hope they can provide their own evidence to prove that my father feared for his life as unmarked cars followed my father, who just wanted to get back to work and come back to us.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, ICE had not been able to identify the three other men, and the federal agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment about them.
Salgado said his father helped him and his two brothers go to college, adding that Araujo’s hard work inspired them.
“My father was a simple man, a family man,” Salgado said. “This is how I want the world to know my father. Not as a man who was shot, but as a family man, a man who realized that good things come to those who work hard.”
Kyle McClenaghan/Houston Public Media
Ronaldo Salgado holds a photo of his father, who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Houston, at a press conference on July 8, 2026.