US federal agents gun down Mexican man in Texas

WASHINGTON, July 8 — US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said Tuesday that a federal immigration agent shot and killed a Mexican national during an attempted vehicle stop in Texas.

In a statement posted to X, DHS said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents attempted to stop Lorenzo Salgado’s vehicle in Houston early this morning, but the man “attempted to evade arrest.”

“From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponised his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defence,” DHS alleged in the post.

Salgado was shot and transported to a local hospital where he died of his injuries.

In a statement posted to Facebook, Salgado’s son Ronaldo said his “hardworking Mexican” father was on his way to work in construction when he was killed.

“My father did not deserve this,” Ronaldo Salgado said. “My father has been in this country for nearly 35 years, working in construction to provide for myself, my two brothers and my mother.”

DHS also said the FBI will investigate “the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”

The incident marks the first fatal shooting involving federal immigration agents since the January deaths of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti during separate incidents in Minneapolis amid President Donald Trump’s broadspanning crackdown on immigration.

In both cases, federal officials accused Good and Pretti of being threats to federal agents early on, blaming them in their own deaths, but videos of the incidents later cast doubt on the narratives and inspired widespread accusations of federal overreach and inadequate officer training.

Ronaldo Salgado noted in his post “there are a lot of videos and pictures out there of my father’s final moments that I do not wish to see.” — AFP