North Texas community organizers are asking for accountability in the death of a man killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot early Tuesday morning as he was on his way to work a construction job.
“If it just happened in Houston, it could happen here,” said Azael Alvarez, with Dallas grassroots organization El Movimiento.
Alvarez said he and other activists are pushing elected officials to “have more transparency” and pass an ordinance “in order to prevent this happening again.”
Carlos Quintanilla, president of the nonprofit Accion America, said the incident is not unique to Houston, calling it an “ongoing war” against immigrant communities.
“He should be alive today,” Quintanilla said. “What happened to Mr. Araujo could happen to any Juan Gonzalez or Jose Rios or whomever may be living in Dallas, and who is undocumented and who wakes up at 4 o'clock in the morning to go work and perform a duty that America needs.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Salgado Araujo — who had been in the country for 35 years — didn’t have legal status and was trying to evade arrest Tuesday morning. A spokesperson said he attempted to run over an ICE officer with his car when the officer shot in self defense, something his family disputes, Houston Public Media reported. The DHS inspector general is investigating the shooting, and the Harris County District Attorney’s office is conducting its own investigation.
Speaking alongside Salgado Araujo’s son Ronaldo Salgado at a news conference Wednesday, Dallas civil rights attorney Domingo Garcia also called for an outside investigation.
“We're asking that the chief of police of Houston investigate the murder of a citizen, a resident, a father of several citizens here to make sure that we find out the truth," Garcia said. “We don't expect the truth from the Department of Justice or from the FBI. We expect a whitewash.”
Garcia also asked for any witnesses with video to come forward, and mentioned a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest, indictment, conviction, or exoneration of any person involved.
Quintanilla said ICE agents are “acting with impunity, with complete disregard to the law, without any fear of retribution.” He’s organizing a vigil at Dallas City Hall Saturday evening to remember Salgado Araujo.
Noemi Rios, the founder of Vecinos Unidos DFW, has witnessed people being taken into custody in immigration court and in public spaces. She said she had been processing what happened to Salgado Araujo.
“I think when it comes to how we honor his memory, we should listen to his sons,” Rios said. “I wanted to highlight yesterday how heartbreaking I felt it was that they had to take time in their mourning process within 24 hours of losing him and remind all of us of his humanity.”
Rios said the language used by some media outlets and government officials has caused a “desensitization to the abuse, the violence and the harm that is being put on immigrants in this country.”
“It doesn't start by people being murdered in the streets, ”Rios said. “It starts by us calling them things that diminish their humanity so that when they're abused, we no longer really even see the human being. We just see the label, the label that we've accepted as less deserving of justice, less deserving of dignity.”
She said every American should be outraged by Salgado Araujo’s death.
“Someone's legal status should not be a way for us reasoning away or justifying how they've been treated," she said.
Vecinos Unidos DFW is partnering with El Movimiento for a separate vigil tonight at Huitzitzilin Cafe, where a mural was recently dedicated in honor of Norlan Guzman Fuentes and Miguel Angel Garcia Hernandez, the two men killed in last year’s shooting at the Dallas ICE facility.
“I think it's important to show awareness and highlight what happens and show solidarity with Houston because we're also facing the same situation that they are,” Alvarez said.
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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