1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

On July 7, an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on a street in Houston’s Magnolia Park. I’m asking you to direct the Texas Department of Public Safety to open an independent investigation through the Texas Rangers, who have jurisdiction over officer-involved shootings on Texas soil, and to demand that federal authorities preserve and turn over every piece of evidence to state investigators. Lorenzo was 52. He had built homes in the Houston suburbs for more than 30 years, raised three U.S. citizen sons, and had no criminal record. That morning he was picking up his work crew. ICE has since admitted he wasn’t even the man agents were looking for. The officers wore no body cameras. No dashboard camera recorded the stop. Federal officials have released no video. The only account of how Lorenzo died is ICE’s own, and the agency says he tried to run an officer over. His family says he would have stopped had he known who was following him. The county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. The agency that fired the shot now controls the only record of what happened, and Texas officials have been locked out. We’ve seen where this goes. When federal agents killed Renee Good in Minneapolis in January, the government said she tried to run down an officer. Video showed otherwise. Texans shouldn’t have to take a federal agency’s word when one of its officers kills a man on a Houston street. Thirteen state lawmakers have already asked DPS to step in. Accountability isn’t anti-enforcement. A Texas Rangers review protects officers who act lawfully and exposes those who don’t. If ICE’s account holds up, an independent investigation will confirm it. I urge you to order DPS and the Texas Rangers to investigate this shooting. And I urge the Legislature to require an independent state review of every death caused by law enforcement in Texas, federal officers included. Texas shouldn’t hand that duty to anyone.