Authorities recently discovered a “white crystal-like substance” in a work van belonging to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an illegal immigrant who was fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston last week and who has been hailed by the media as a father chasing the “American dream.”
After Salgado Araujo was shot during a traffic stop last week, federal agents spotted what they believed to be bags filled with narcotics in his vehicle, according to a search warrant application filed by the FBI.
ICE agents stopped the 52-year-old Mexican national while he was driving to work because they saw “a white van with an individual who resembled the target” of an operation. While Salgado Araujo was not the man agents were looking for, ICE says its officer shot at him in self defense after the illegal immigrant allegedly rammed an ICE vehicle with his work van.
According to the most recent FBI affidavit, Salgado Araujo initially “refused to stop and instead drove over a median in an apparent attempt to flee. Pursuant to ICE policy, the officers did not pursue the vehicle.”
The agents ultimately relocated the vehicle and attempted to stop Salgado Araujo again. An agent fatally shot Salgado Araujo after he tried to “weaponize” his car, according to ICE. However, the three other passengers of the work van dispute this version of events.
At the time of the incident, agents outside the vehicle “observed in plain view several plastic bags with what appeared to be a white crystal-like substance packaged in small plastic bags,” the search-warrant application reads. The bags agents saw from outside the vehicle are “consistent with methamphetamine, a Schedule II controlled substance,” law enforcement says.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare says that an FBI test of the substance revealed that it was not methamphetamine and an attorney for the deceased’s family says that the item in question was in fact a bag of salt. The FBI has not publicly confirmed that no drugs were found and did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
There has been intense outrage surrounding the incident, especially amid the broader unrest regarding U.S. immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
Media outlets have touted Salgado Araujo as a father of four who, having entered the country 35 years ago in search of a better life, was actively pursuing legal status in the U.S.
While the affidavit notes the FBI has the legal authority to search the vehicle without prior approval, agents say they obtained a search warrant this week out of an “abundance of caution.”
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is set to hold a hearing on the incident July 24.
“[The witnesses] say the agents never identified themselves and no officer was ever standing anywhere near the front of a van,” Representative Sylvia Garcia (D., Texas) said during a news conference Tuesday morning. “So Lorenzo’s family is being asked to trust an agency that killed him, when he wasn’t a target, had no criminal history [and] the officers never identified themselves.”
Representative Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) similarly criticized ICE and called to disband the agency.
“We have to freeze their hiring,” Castro said. “We should give them no more money. Congress has to use every leverage that it can to change ICE’s behavior. Otherwise, these killings will continue. There will be another victim in a few days or a few weeks.”
The Department of Homeland Security briefly issued a policy limiting civil arrests through the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations this week in response to the deaths of Salgado Araujo and a second man who was shot during a traffic stop in Maine. Under the short-lived policy change, enforcement and removal agents were prevented from making vehicle stops while they receive updated training on tactics.
However, Trump directed the agency to continue carrying out vehicle stops just one day after the policy was made public, calling the stops “one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools.”
Trump argued that doing away with vehicle stops would be “playing right into the criminal’s [sic] hands.”
“The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch,” he wrote. “ICE, be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect that the content of the bag found in Salgado Araujo’s car is in dispute.