Anti-ICE protest draws thousands after fatal Houston shooting

Over a thousand protesters on Wednesday gathered in Houston near the spot where a Mexican national was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer while driving ​to work. The deceased, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, was stopped by ICE agents during a traffic stop as part of a "targeted operation," and he was shot by an officer as he attempted to evade arrest, an ICE spokesperson told CNN. The latest in a string of lethal encounters from deportation raids nationwide led to massive outrage against the immigration crackdown. 

The demonstrators waved Mexican flags, carried signs and echoed mounting ‌demands for an independent inquiry into Tuesday's shooting of Salgado, 52, a Mexican national living in the U.S. illegally for three decades. People were seen in traditional Mexican outfits carrying signs that read "ICE Melts in Texas" and chanting "ICE out of Houston, ICE out of everywhere." As the crowd swelled to over 1,000, a contingent of police officers, some on horseback with helmets and riot gear, closed off surrounding streets to traffic, Reuters reported. 

The evening rally began with a few hundred people at the site where Salgado was shot in Houston's heavily ​Hispanic, working-class East End, and other protestors marched to a nearby park about a mile away. "We are all in this together, and they are coming for all of us," former City Council member Letitia Plummer shouted at the demonstration in the center of the park, where several organizers addressed the crowd.

While around sunset, the ​protesters dispersed on their own, roughly 100 returned to the shooting site to hold a solemn candlelight vigil, the publication reported. The family of Salgado said he had resided in Houston for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal U.S. ​residency. His case marks the sixth shooting at the hands of ICE officers since January 2025, after President Donald Trump launched a broad campaign of mass deportations. 

Salgado's son, Ronaldo, addressed the press on Wednesday, when he shared that his father, a construction worker, "should have been picking up the last of his guys before heading to North Houston to finish up construction on some houses," before he was stopped. "Unbeknownst to all of us, my dad had been shot inside his van by ICE agents in unmarked cars," he added. The agency claimed that Salgado rammed into a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow several verbal commands before an agent fired his weapon in self-defense. He later died in the hospital from his wounds, as per the agency's official statement. 

Reuters reported that Salgado had no criminal history and, according to his son, he was afraid when unmarked cars began following him. Now, the protestors and the Democrats in Washington are demanding an independent investigation. "Lorenzo Salgado Araujo should be here with us today. No family should have to spend the day after their father was killed demanding answers. ICE must be held accountable. We deserve a full, independent, transparent investigation," Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) wrote in a post on X.

Salgado Araujo's family also demanded an explanation from the agency. "I learned of my father's passing from a news report on social media, not the hospital, not law enforcement. He did not deserve to die," his son said at the conference.