CONROE, Texas — In the month since construction worker Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while driving to work with three co-workers July 7, several events have been held here protesting his death.
A car caravan protest advertised by the Texas AFL-CIO drove past the site where he was killed in this heavily Mexican East End neighborhood Aug. 7. The site is marked by a memorial of candles, flowers, signs and photos of Salgado, set up by community members immediately after the shooting. Over the last month working people from the Houston area and other parts of Texas have gone there on a daily basis to honor Salgado. His family announced to the media that the memorial will be moved to the Houston public library, where it will be set up as a permanent exhibit.
Later that evening his family and community members held a vigil and celebration of his life at the memorial, which is now marked with a big wooden sign saying “Somos Lorenzo.” (We are all Lorenzo.)
The next day, Immigrating Youth Texas organized a march to the Immigration Detention Center here, where the three workers — including Salgado’s brother — who were in the van with Salgado when he was killed, were taken.
One of the witnesses, Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, was released July 29 and within hours he visited the memorial. “They took Lorenzo Salgado’s life away. Instead of giving him [help], they immediately handcuffed him and slammed him to the floor,” he told the media, “and that’s not right. I want justice for Lorenzo Salgado.”
In addition to releasing Rojas, U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison barred the government from deporting him.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office, which is conducting its own investigation into the killing, says it is helping all three of the construction workers who were in the car with Salgado get special U visas to remain in the U.S. as material witnesses to the shooting.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest Latino civil rights organization in the U.S., hailed the judge’s decision and spoke out against the jailing of the three riders and killing of Salgado. “This community will not rest until all of them are home and until Houston is told the truth about what took place on Canal Street,” LULAC Chief Executive Officer Juan Proaño told the press.
Immediately following Salgado’s death, the Department of Homeland Security claimed Salgado “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer” and that the officer fired in self-defense. The three witnesses have disputed that account, saying the ICE agents were on the side of the van, not in its path. Rojas said the government’s version is “a lie.”
Shortly after his release, the federal government filed an appeal seeking to return him to ICE custody.
Protest at Conroe detention center
At the march to the ICE detention center, Stephy Padilla from Immigrating Youth Texas, told the Militant that Rojas “is forced to wear an ankle monitor and cannot work.” The Conroe detention center, one of more than 20 in the Houston area, is owned by GEO, a private prison system.
“We should focus our fight for immigrants’ rights on amnesty for all immigrants who live and work here, not ‘ICE out,’” Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Texas, told Padilla. “Getting rid of ICE would not stop attacks on immigrant workers. The bosses knowingly hire workers without papers and superexploit their labor, dragging down wages for all workers. They aim to divide the working class and deal blows to the unions. That is why this needs to be a central issue for the labor movement. We must focus the fight on demanding amnesty and justice for Lorenzo Salgado.”
After Salgado’s killing, the FBI sought a search warrant to test “crystal-like substances” found in the van that they claimed could be methamphetamine. A week later, U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz told the Texas Tribune, “I can confirm what’s already public: lab testing showed the substance in the baggies was not meth.” Salgado’s family always insisted it was salt that the men mixed with water and lemon to stay hydrated while working.
On Aug. 6, Harris County commissioners voted to release $2.5 million to fund an investigation by the District Attorney’s office into Salgado’s death.