The 52-year-old Houston man fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this week was not the target of the agency's operation, said U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, who has called for release of any video footage capturing the deadly episode.

Garcia told The Texas Tribune that acting ICE Director David Venturella informed her in a call Thursday afternoon that ICE agents didn't have any body-worn cameras or dashboard cameras during the shooting.


The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Thursday that it had received a tip from an unspecified law enforcement agency that led ICE agents to surveil a Houston residence and subsequently Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's van.

 After receiving a credible tip from our law enforcement partners, our officers conducted surveillance on a target's address,  the DHS statement said.  Weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property. On July 7, officers were almost at the target's address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop. 

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, speaks at a July 8 press conference alongside family members of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent on the morning of July 7, 2026. REUTERS/Antranik Tavitian

Agents had an administrative warrant for someone other than Salgado Araujo or his brother, who was also in the van, Garcia said Venturella told her.

According to the New York Times, ICE agents had administrative warrants for two Guatemalan immigrants. According to Salgado Araujo's sons, their father, uncle and two other men in the vehicle are from Mexico. An administrative warrant does not have the same legal power as a criminal warrant, which must be reviewed and signed by a judge.

According to ICE intake information, two of the three men are from Mexico and were being held at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center in Conroe as of Thursday afternoon.

Garcia said she got a commitment from Venturella that all officers in the field would have a body 

#click2houston   #crimewatchhouston