More than 100 people filled the council chamber at Houston city hall on Tuesday, spilling into the hallways as they waited their turn to address Mayor John Whitmire and the city council. Outside, a crowd gathered on the plaza, chanting, "Do your job! Do your job!" Nearly all demanded accountability for the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Community outrage and demands
Maria Cervantes, who immigrated from Mexico and grew up in the East End neighborhood where Salgado Araujo was shot, testified, "ICE hunts us like animals. I can't help but think, who's next? Am I going to get a bullet to the head for being brown?" Salgado Araujo, a business owner and father of three, was shot dead in his vehicle while heading to a job site with his construction crew last Tuesday. The mayor has yet to explain whether the city will launch an independent investigation, while ICE has said Salgado Araujo was not the agency's intended target.
National context of ICE shootings
Salgado Araujo's death comes amid a wave of immigration enforcement activity across the country, including fatal encounters in Minnesota and a shooting in Maine that killed 26-year-old Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. Organizers say the pattern points to indiscriminate tactics rather than isolated incidents.
For Houston's immigrant justice groups, Tuesday's protest was a continuation of organizing that began before Donald Trump's second inauguration. Among their demands: the release of three men riding with Salgado Araujo at the time of the shooting, an independent investigation, and the public release of the names of the ICE agents involved.
Know Your Rights training adapts
Jasmine Khadem González, an immigrant rights organizer with Houston Democratic Socialists of America, led a Know Your Rights training after the protest. Eight people attended the private session. González now includes instructions for documenting agents in the field, filming when safe, and noting badge numbers, license plates, and timestamps. She stressed keeping the camera focused on agents rather than the person being detained. "The day is going to come when we are going to hold these ICE agents accountable," she said, "and we need to have all of the evidence possible."
Ordinance repeal and future actions
Houston's immigrant rights activists secured a victory earlier this year when the city council passed an ordinance limiting cooperation between Houston police and ICE. However, Governor Greg Abbott moved to withhold city grant funding a week later, and the council and mayor effectively repealed the ordinance. Organizers want it reinstated.
Esmeralda Ledezma, of the immigrant justice non-profit Woori Juntos, said the killing forced a reckoning in the East End, a historically Latino community struggling with displacement and rising costs. "The connection that I draw is that our immigrant and Hispanic Latino communities are disposable," she said.
Union and coalition response
SEIU Texas, representing more than 8,000 service workers, relocated its offices to the East End weeks before the shooting. Its first event became a vigil. President Elsa Caballero noted that Salgado Araujo put three children through college, one becoming a teacher. "These are working-class people who are thriving and making this economy better," she said. The coalition's most urgent ask is for Texas's Republican congressional delegation to speak out. "The more Republicans that actually start making demands," Caballero said, "the more likely something changes, because right now they're the ones with the power."
Organizers plan canvassing efforts, protests every weekend, and a larger mobilization around the city council's 28 July evening session. "We are sounding the alarm. We need ICE out of our city," said Ledezma. "When ICE is on the ground, they kill. We cannot let this happen again."
