On July 7, 2026, ICE agents targeted and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while on his way to work in Houston’s Second Ward. 

For more than a year, people in Houston have been living in fear of ICE perpetrating this exact brutality on their loved ones, their neighbors, and themselves. In that time, Houston has led the nation in ICE arrests. Houston City Council failed to save lives by caving to state pressure and refusing to limit HPD’s collaboration with ICE. In the immediate aftermath of Mr. Salgado Araujo’s murder, local elected officials choose to soften the blow by encouraging cooperation with draconian, fascist ICE rather than outright demanding that ICE leave the City of Houston. Despite the Salgado Araujo family’s demands for an independent investigation, Mayor John Whitmire refuses to order a city-led investigation into Mr. Salgado Araujo’s murder.

This tragedy did not happen in isolation.

We watched ICE commit atrocities against people in Minneapolis, and in the months since, their reign of terror has only escalated. Last week alone, ICE abducted more than 10,000 people nationwide in just five days, a sharp increase from months prior. This is not the first time ICE agents have killed someone in Texas. On March 15, 2025, agents murdered Ruben Ray Martinez during an operation in South Padre Island. The Department of Homeland Security covered up ICE’s involvement in the shooting for nearly a year.

These are not isolated incidents. They are the predictable consequences of a system built on fear, violence, and the dehumanization of immigrant communities.

A father is dead, and the lives of his loved ones and community members have shifted irreparably. The wound left by his murder, and by the suffering of countless others, will not begin to heal until ICE and the fascist government that sends armed agents to ruin lives daily through terror, family separations, imprisonment, and murder is abolished. 

Houston DSA sends our hearts out in solidarity and care to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s grieving family. We unequivocally condemn the violence of ICE and the complicity of the Mayor and Houston City Council who continue to enable immigration enforcement in our city. As Democratic Socialists we will not sit idly by as fascists continue to terrorize our neighbors. We are fighting every day to organize our communities to fight back against a cruel administration, to protect each other from state violence, and to build a better future that defends the humanity of all.

Houston DSA demands ICE OUT of Houston, for the immediate release of Daniel Tirado Pantoja and his fellow workers who were detained at the scene, and for Houstonians to stay vigilant and protect one another through networks of community, support, and solidarity.

Please donate to the GoFundMe to support the Salgado Araujo family.