1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

This past Tuesday, a man named Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was murdered by an ICE agent in Houston, Texas. Is there any American, descended from immigrants, who doesn’t think this is an abomination? Regardless of immigration status? Mr. Salgado Araujo was 52 years old. He had lived in Houston for 35 years. He was a husband. He had three children. He owned a construction business. He had no criminal record whatsoever. He had picked up three members of his construction crew and they were on their way to work when their van was targeted by unmarked vehicles. There is surveillance video of the unmarked vehicles driving aggressively and cutting the van off. An ICE agent shot Mr. Salgado Araujo in the abdomen. Bystander video shows Mr. Salgado Araujo on the ground, calling for help. ICE agents removed all identifying information from Mr. Salgado Araujo before he was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It has since been revealed that neither Mr. Salgado Araujo, nor any of the other men in the van, were the person the ICE agents were actually looking for. (Which is not to say that shooting him would have been OK if he had been who they were looking for.) ICE is claiming that Mr. Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle” and tried to run over an agent, who fired “in self-defense.” That, of course, is exactly what they claimed when one of its agents murdered Renee Good in broad daylight earlier this year in Minneapolis — a claim irrefutably disproved by video evidence. The three other men in the van — who were separated immediately after the shooting — have each independently stated that Mr. Salgado Araujo did not use his vehicle as a weapon, that he did not attempt to run over the agents, and that no agent had been positioned in front of the vehicle. ICE agents were not wearing body cameras, and federal authorities have released precisely zero video footage related to the shooting. What stands out to me is the cruelty of removing all of his ID before dumping him at Ben Taub. This action is devoid of humanity. Because he had no ID on him he was classified as ‘John Doe’, making locating and informing his family of his death delayed. These are all actions by our federal government. By agents who did not even have the decency to let the man they killed have a name. He was treated as of no consequence. The primary concern being that they might be held accountable for their actions. Let’s make sure they are.