The attorney representing the family of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the Houston man fatally shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, is calling the agency’s version of events “completely false.”
Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said he interviewed three men who were in the vehicle with Salgado Araujo during the Tuesday shooting. According to Balderas-Ibarra, each witness contradicted the official ICE account, which claims the driver tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against agents.
“After speaking with these three men that were in the vehicle with Lorenzo, I have no doubt that what these ICE agents are saying is completely false,” Balderas-Ibarra stated in a video posted to Instagram on Friday. “At no point did they ever use the van to ram into the ICE agents, and at no point were these ICE agents’ lives ever in any danger.”
The attorney is calling for an independent probe into the incident. “We are demanding an independent investigation so that we can get them the justice and the answers that they deserve,” he said. “The ICE agents’ accounts of what happened do not reflect, and are very inconsistent with the stories – with the recollection that I got from the three people that were in the vehicle with Lorenzo.”
Salgado Araujo was shot in the abdomen by ICE officers and later died at a hospital. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Balderas-Ibarra’s assertions. However, DHS has previously maintained that Salgado Araujo attempted to harm its agents.
In a statement, DHS said: “The driver of the vehicle, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo—an illegal alien from Mexico—attempted to evade arrest. From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”
That account is now sharply disputed. The three coworkers, currently held in detention centers, told Balderas-Ibarra that ICE agents surrounded the van he was driving. In accounts first shared with The Washington Post, the men said ICE approached from the side in unmarked cars, and that it was the agents who initially rammed their slow-moving van before pulling alongside.
“That is a lie,” wrote Jose Trinidad Rojas, one of the witnesses, in a statement obtained by the outlet. “It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over … there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.”
The Hill has reached out to Balderas-Ibarra’s office for the witness statements. The controversy comes amid heightened scrutiny of ICE tactics, with some local officials renewing calls to abolish the agency following the fatal shooting. Meanwhile, the Mexican government has signaled it will file criminal complaints over the incident, further escalating the diplomatic stakes.
