Man fatally shot by ICE in Houston was not intended target, DHS says

The incident has prompted protests in Houston – the most populous city in the state of Texas – and four Democratic members of Congress have demanded an independent investigation into Salgado’s death.

In a letter to DHS, Sylvia Garcia, Al Green, Lizzie Fletcher and Christian Menefee wrote, wrote that the incident was “not the first time ICE agents have used unnecessary, deadly force”.

They urged Markwayne Mullin, head of the Department of Homeland Security, to not forget the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two US citizens killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in January.

Referring to Salgado’s shooting on Tuesday, they wrote that “instead of answers and accountability, DHS and ICE released a statement echoing the same stories we have heard before, claiming an evasion of arrest, weaponization of a vehicle, and that the fatal shooting was a result of self-defense”.

Federal investigations have already begun, but according to the Houston police chief, there are restrictions on a state probe.

The Office of Inspector General for DHS, an internal watchdog, is investigating the shooting death and FBI Houston is leading an investigation into the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer, an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC.

The BBC has contacted the FBI for comment.

At the request of the Houston mayor, the head of the Houston Police Department (HPD) also sent a letter to DHS on Friday indicating that he will make resources available to support the investigation into the fatal 7 July shooting in “a timely, transparent, and thorough manner”.

“The HPD recognizes the seriousness of the matter and supports a thorough investigation,” Chief Noe Diaz’s letter said.

Diaz also said that, under federal law, local law enforcement has no independent jurisdiction to investigate federal agencies or federal law enforcement personnel who are acting in their official duties.

In the wake of the shooting, the Mexican government said it would file criminal complaints in the US over the deaths of more than a dozen of its citizens in US custody.

Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco said 14 Mexicans had died while in ICE custody and another three during ICE “arrest operations”.

Velasco said that he had been instructed by Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum to file the complaints and that their aim was to have the deaths of Mexicans in ICE custody or operations investigated “as criminal matters”.

Salgado Araujo is at least the eighth person to die during the Trump administration’s immigration operations, according to the Associated Press. No immigration officers have been charged in the deaths.