Another witness to the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an immigration officer has been released from federal custody, according to his lawyer.
Daniel Tirado Pantoja was released Wednesday morning. He had been taken into custody, along with Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego and Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, Lorenzo's brother. They were all in the van when Lorenzo was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston on July 7.
"The Constitution comes first," Gabriela Rivero, an attorney representing Pantoja and Pliego, said in an interview withHouston Public Media. "And so that’s really what this order means. And we’re very happy for, obviously, both of our clients, and especially Daniel."
The third witness Salgado Araujo remains in detention and is represented by a different legal team than the first two witnesses.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District did not provide a comment. They are expected to appeal the decision.
Pantoja is the second witness to be released from federal custody, after Pliego was released late last month. Federal prosecutors have said they will appeal that decision to the 5th Circuit, citing a recent case,Rodriguez v. Ortega, in which the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently vacated its own ruling by a panel of justices that an immigrant in that case was entitled to due process and could not be held in mandatory detention without a hearing. That ruling was stayed so it could be reconsidered by the full court of justices. Prosecutors argued that Pliego’s case aligns with the action by the higher court.
In the order releasing Pantoja, Judge Alfred H. Bennett said Pantoja has "no criminal history, is not a flight risk, and does not otherwise pose a danger to the community."
Salgado Araujo's shooting has sparked backlash from the community and put a national spotlight on Houston. The shooting occurred during what ICE called a “targeted enforcement operation.” A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claimed in a statement that Salgado Araujo tried to ram officers with his vehicle and one of them fired in self-defense. The three passengers have all refuted ICE’s account, according to their attorneys. The New York Times later reported that none of the men in the vehicle were ICE’s intended targets.
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