The son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, spoke at a press conference Wednesday, stating his father did not deserve what happened to him.
Press Conference on ICE Incident
Ronaldo Salgado called for a full investigation at a press conference on July 8 into his father’s fatal encounter. He recalled his father’s final moments, his final morning, and remembered him as a hardworking man who focused on providing for his loved ones.
“For the majority of the last 35 years of his life in the United States, he began the day the same way, and always ended it by coming home, sitting on the porch, eating a hearty meal made by my mother, going to sleep and doing it all over again the next day,” Ronaldo Salgado said.
As Ronaldo recalled, his parents woke before sunrise, and his mother prepared his father’s lunch and coffee for the morning. Salgado Araujo left their home before 6 a.m. and drove to pick up his construction crew and head to the job site. However, he never made it.
ICE Murders Hardworking Man
“Unbeknownst to me, at 6:55, unbeknownst to all of us, my dad had been shot… by ICE agents in unmarked cars,” Ronaldo said. He continued to explain that all they knew in the beginning was that the incident involved ICE.
Ronaldo searched unsuccessfully for his father’s work van; instead, he found social media posts about activity near Canal Street in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood. He found his father’s van at the scene, but not his father.
“I saw a video posted on Facebook that he had been shot,” Ronaldo said. “I recognized him immediately, not from his appearance, but from his voice, crying for help as he lay on the street, bleeding out.”
Ronaldo learned firsthand from social media what had happened to his father, rather than from the authorities. He spent hours asking for information, but found out from local organizations and elected officials that his father was taken to the hospital.
“I learned of my father’s passing from a news report on social media, not the hospital, not law enforcement,” he said. “Had to call my mom right away to give her the terrible news of my dad’s passing before she had to find out the same way I did.”
Remembering Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was described as a loving and devoted husband, father, and hardworking construction worker who spent the last several decades providing his family with more opportunities than they had. “My father was a simple man, a family man, a guy of routine,” he said. “He dedicated his life in the United States to giving his family the American dream.”
His father spent his time building homes in the Houston area and was in the beginning process of obtaining legal residency through a work authorization. “After nearly 35 years of working to give us the American dream, he made the choice to begin the process of attaining his American dream through a work permit,” Ronaldo said.
“We dotted every ‘i,’ crossed every ‘t,’ filled every document, attended every appointment. He was close to obtaining his legal status.” Ronald asks for people to remember his father for the man he was, and the life he lived, not for how he died.
“That’s how I want the world to know my father — not as someone who got shot and killed, but as a family man,” he said. “Yesterday, July 7, he did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican man shot and killed by ICE.’ He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father, and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream.”
Immigration Services Responds
ICE sent PEOPLE a statement explaining that officers attempted to stop Salgado Araujo’s vehicle around 6:50 p.m. local time during a “targeted enforcement operation.” After refusing multiple verbal commands, Salgado Araujo allegedly “rammed” into one of the agency’s vehicles and nearly ran over an officer, so that officer fired “in self-defense.”
Bring on The Investigation
In addition to Ronaldo’s pleas for an investigation, hundreds gathered outside the Magnolia Park neighborhood and protested, also asking authorities to launch one. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also joined in, saying the agency should accept accountability for Salgado Araujo’s death and ensure that “all the facts are clarified.”
