EDITORIAL: ICE has no credibility. Investigation needed after latest shooting in Houston

Details about the fatal shooting in Houston of a 52-year-old Mexican national by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are emerging, but even as we learn more, the need for an independent investigation is clear.

Other federal shootings this year by federal immigration agents in Minnesota loom over the Houston shooting, even as another man was killed Monday in a shooting involving ICE in Biddeford, Maine, according to news reports. This administration simply can't be trusted with its account.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was killed July 7, was a married father of three who had lived in the United States without authorization for 35 years. He had no criminal convictions, his family members said. He was killed while driving his white van.

Salgado and his three passengers were heading to work when two black SUVs began pursuing them. The Department of Homeland Security has said Salgado "weaponized his vehicle" by ramming one of the vehicles and attempting to run over an ICE agent who fired in self-defense.

Salgado was shot in the abdomen, and video shows him face down on the street, handcuffed, groaning and bleeding. The three men with him were arrested and, through an attorney, have denied DHS' version of events.

This isn't the first time federal officials have responded to a questionable shooting by saying someone had weaponized a vehicle only to have video evidence counter the claim.

During ICE's "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago last year, a Border Patrol agent shot Marimar Martinez five times. She was accused of being among a group of vehicles that "ambushed" and "rammed" federal agents, but video countered this official narrative.

After an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis in January, she was falsely accused of weaponizing her vehicle.

Salgado was not even the man ICE agents were looking for that morning. The DHS now says its agents were looking for two men from Guatemala, one possibly driving a white van. There were no Guatemalans with Salgado.

So why did agents pursue him?

This is just one of the questions that needs to be answered through an independent investigation. The American public overwhelmingly disapproves of these tactics, and there is little reason to think the federal government will hold itself to account.

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This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 11:06 AM.