The Death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

We are wrapping up the 109th week of The Latino Newsletter and are still deep in production of American Colony. If you haven’t listened to Episode 2, which tells the story of Vietnam veteran José Raphael, you can listen to the English version here and the Spanish one here.

During our summer editorial schedule, I was going to use Fridays to write about the American Colony episodes that drop each Wednesday, but with the harrowing ICE killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, The Latino Newsletter received statements from several organizations responding to his death.

Here is a selection.

Voto Latino launched a campaign called “One Death Is Enough” and called for the resignation of DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

“Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a hard-working father of three, should be alive today,” said Beatriz Lopez, Executive Director of Voto Latino. “His story is the embodiment of what it means to seek the American Dream — the same dream that drives so many of us to call this nation home. Lorenzo called the United States home for nearly 35 years, and his family deserves immediate answers that come from a completely independent process, not from the very agency that upended their lives.”

Voto Latino is collecting signatures at OneDeathIsEnough.com.

The Detention Watch Network issued a statement from Carly Pérez Fernández, Communications Director. “The evidence against ICE is indisputable. ICE kills people and threatens community safety across the country. No one is safe when ICE is present — whether on the streets or in one of the agency's more than 200 abuse-ridden detention facilities.”

The Hispanic National Bar Association called on authorities to immediately preserve and publicly release all available evidence — including body camera footage, dash camera footage, bystander video, and dispatch logs — and demanded an independent investigation and the release of three co-workers detained at the scene.

“The death of Mr. Salgado Araujo is not an isolated incident,” the HNBA said. “It is the latest in a pattern of fatal enforcement encounters in which initial official accounts have been incomplete or contradicted by subsequent evidence.”

America’s Voice noted that Salgado Araujo’s death marks at least the eighth fatality tied to federal immigration agents since the current enforcement surge began, and that agents have fired into or at civilian vehicles at least 21 times since last July, with no agent facing consequences.

“This is the same playbook the Trump administration used in Minneapolis,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America's Voice. “A masked agent in an unmarked car killed Lorenzo in his own neighborhood, where he lived for 35 years, working and raising a family. How many more families have to bury a father, a mother, a son before Trump and Miller’s mass deportation machine is held accountable?”

The National Partnership for New Americans called for immediate oversight of ICE. “An ICE encounter should never result in death, yet under this administration, that is what we continue to see,” said Nicole Melaku, NPNA executive director. “We cannot take ICE's account at face value; we've heard it before.”

The Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative connected the killing to the broader collapse of due process. “No one should be killed because of a system designed to deny them a path to permanent immigration status,” said Zenobia Lai, HILSC executive director. “This is not how America should commemorate its 250th birthday.”

Voces de la Frontera issued a statement from Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director. “Immigrant workers are not criminals. The actions of ICE are criminal. This surge in harm by ICE does not make our communities safer. It makes us less safe, harms families and our state economy.”

This story is tragic, and I don't know what else The Latino Newsletter can add to it, but I do want to close with what the team at La Cuenta wrote:

I have been trying to write this all morning, but grief makes it difficult to put together the proper words to describe the anger and the sadness. So I apologize for the unusually late post.

This week, ICE shot and killed another member of our community. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was a Mexican national who resided in the United States for 35 years. He was a father, a husband, and a community member who created job opportunities and made this country a better place. He did not deserve this heinous violation of his human rights.

In this moment, we grieve with Lorenzo’s family, his wife, and his three sons. We grieve together for the brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers — members of our collective family we have lost to state-sanctioned violence. And we hold space for our rage, our sadness, and our fear of living in a country where they can kill us on the street for simply being black or brown and trying to make it to work.

We can’t give up. We owe it to our neighbors and community members to work toward a better world for us all, because a better world is possible.

Con mucho amor y todo mi corazón.
—Christián

The Latino Newsletter is an independent nonprofit journalism outlet and production company. Your support will get us to a second season of American Colony. Give now to support our work.

Pew and Latinos: From Pew Research, “For most Hispanics living in the United States, their Hispanic identity is an important part of how they see themselves. But there is no single view of what that identity means for their lives: some people see it as a source of connection or advantage, while others associate it with obstacles to getting ahead.”

The Last Our Copa Episode: Here’s the last episode of the Our Copa podcast that I had the joy of co-hosting with Merritt Mathias and Musa Okwonga. We get personal with Merritt about her experience on the front lines fighting for equal pay in the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. She reflects on the clandestine meeting where the players gathered and decided to pursue legal action, and on what the fight and subsequent victory mean for the sport moving forward.

Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. He is also its current part-time publisher and executive director. He edited and published this edition.

Consider donating to The Latino Newsletter. Any contribution, no matter how small, helps keep this newsletter free and accessible to all. ¡Gracias mil!