By Karina Tsui, Chris Boyette

(CNN) — A Mexican immigrant was on his way to finish construction on several Houston homes with a crew of workers Tuesday morning when he was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, his family said.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving in Houston’s East End area when ICE agents tried to conduct a traffic stop as part of a “targeted operation” and he attempted to evade arrest, an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

“He should have been picking up the last of his guys before heading to North Houston to finish up construction on some houses,” Salgado Araujo’s son Ronaldo Salgado said at a Wednesday news conference.

“Unbeknownst to all of us, my dad had been shot inside his van … by ICE agents in unmarked cars,” he added.

The agency says Salgado Araujo rammed into a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow several verbal commands before an ICE agent fired his weapon in self-defense.

Salgado Araujo had no criminal history and was afraid when unmarked cars began following him, his son said. He does not appear to have a criminal record, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s office.

“Had my father seen an emblem of ICE, or an emblem that says anything about a law enforcement agency, my father would have complied. He would have stopped,” Salgado said. “He drove fast, because he feared that someone would take his tools.”

He was later taken to a hospital where he died from his injuries, ICE said. Three other men in the van, including Salgado Araujo’s brother, were detained, according to his family.

Salgado Araujo was living in the US without legal permission, the agency said, but did not specify whether the agents had been looking for him.

He had submitted an application for a work permit, according to his son, but ICE did not share further information about Salgado Araujo’s immigration status.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General is leading an investigation into the shooting, according to ICE. A spokesperson for the FBI’s Houston field office said the agency is investigating the alleged assault on a federal law enforcement officer.

CNN has reached out to DHS-OIG for more information.

Tuesday’s incident is the second ICE-involved shooting in less than a week and comes amid an uptick in immigration enforcement prompted by President Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda.

Demanding a transparent investigation

Salgado Araujo’s death has brought an outpouring of grief and calls for transparency, with activists and Texas Democratic lawmakers demanding all evidence from the scene be reviewed.

“We demand a full, independent investigation, the immediate release of all available evidence, and accountability for the wrongful death of Lorenzo. The public deserves the truth, and the Salgado family deserves justice,” the League of United Latin American Citizens said in a Tuesday statement.

“ICE has released an initial account, but the facts must be independently and thoroughly investigated, including the circumstances that led to the use of deadly force,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia, whose district includes the area of the incident, said on X.

“All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation,” she said.

Echoing Garcia’s remarks, Rep. Christian Menefee, who represents parts of Houston, said all information gleaned from the investigation must be made public.

“ICE’s actions across the country have caused them to lose the faith and confidence of communities,” he said on X.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her administration is planning to take action “beyond diplomatic notes” by taking more significant legal measures regarding Salgado Araujo’s death.

“We cannot allow the mistreatment of our brothers and sisters who are in the United States, our fellow nationals. So we are proposing other measures,” Sheinbaum said in her Wednesday news conference.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire has said he believes federal officials must conduct a “transparent, independent investigation.” During Wednesday’s city council meeting, he also noted the city’s police department was not involved in the traffic stop or the shooting.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said his office conducts investigations parallel to the lead agency when anyone in the county dies during an interaction with law enforcement, but “at this time, federal authorities continue exclusively handling all aspects in this case.”

Teare also urged anyone with videos and photos or who witnessed the shooting to come forward in a X post.

A father who gave his family the American dream

Salgado Araujo had been living in the United States for nearly 35 years, raising three sons with his wife, and was dedicated to giving his family “the American dream,” his son told reporters Wednesday.

He was a hard-working man who spent the last three decades building homes in the Houston suburbs. He ended his day “by coming home, sitting on the porch, eating a hearty meal made by my mother, going to sleep, and doing it all over again the next day,” Ronaldo Salgado said.

His son recalled how Salgado Araujo recently gathered pictures and statements from employers and loved ones for a work permit application, saying he was “close to obtaining his legal status.”

“We dotted every ‘i’, crossed every ‘t,’ filled every document, attended every appointment,” Ronaldo Salgado said.

Salgado also called for a full investigation into his father’s death.

“He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican man shot and killed by ICE,’” Salgado said. “He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father, and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream.”

Several immigration enforcement operations in the US over the past year have resulted in fatalities –– with initial descriptions from authorities of clashes between agents and suspects sometimes later contradicted by video evidence.

A federal agent last year shot and killed 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez, a US citizen, during a traffic encounter, which DHS claimed was in response to the driver’s attempt to run over of a fellow agent. It is not clear in footage of the encounter, however, that the vehicle struck the agent.

In January, 37-year-old Renee Good, also a US citizen, was shot in the head by a federal immigration agent during a crackdown in Minneapolis. DHS again claimed Good was trying to hit the agent with her vehicle, which local officials and witnesses disputed.

In May, a former federal agent was arrested and charged with multiple counts of assault and falsely reporting a crime after making false statements under oath regarding the nonfatal shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis in January.

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