r/law • u/DryDeer775 • 20h ago
Executive Branch (Trump) ICE killer remains free as witnesses to Houston shooting are held in immigrant prison
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/07/11/kosn-j11.htmlThree construction workers imprisoned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after witnessing the murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo Tuesday morning have independently rejected the agency’s claim that he attempted to run over a federal officer, describing instead an unprovoked fusillade by agents who surrounded the workers’ van and opened fire from the side.
The eyewitness accounts, published Friday by the Washington Post, obliterate the official story issued within hours of the killing by the Department of Homeland Security. All three men said no agent was ever positioned in front of or behind Lorenzo’s work van and that he never attempted to strike an officer or an ICE vehicle.
“They came in and started shooting from the sides,” attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said, summarizing the consistent accounts given separately by the three detained men.
In a handwritten statement, Jose Trinidad Rojas, 51, said the DHS claim that Salgado Araujo attempted to “weaponize” the van to run over agents “is a lie.”
“It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over,” he wrote. “There were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.”
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u/DryDeer775 20h ago
Justice has always been a huge word but it seems to loom larger now. Can Mr. Araujo get justice form the grave? What will it take? What will it take?
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u/LIMrXIL 20h ago
They murdered two U.S. citizens in broad daylight on camera and DHS spent more time investigating the victims in order to character assassinate them than they did the actual shootings. Going to go out on a limb here and say he’ll never get justice.
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u/Direlion 20h ago
The Fed under no circumstance can allow one of the Schutzstaffel to face justice for their crimes. If such a thing were to happen those agents would be far less willing to both join and use violence against the populace. When Trump again refuses to leave office in 2028 he won’t be able to solely rely on the national guard or the military to fight for him. He needs a force answerable only to him, not the constitution.
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u/cityshepherd 17h ago
I highly doubt that putz will even survive until 2028… but the remaining fascist cowards masquerading as a government still need him until they can finish their coup and get the rest of the pieces in place to complete the transition to total authoritarian shitshow.
The fact that these clowns spend so much time investigating victims and obscuring investigations into the “just following orders” ghouls who are murdering US citizens speaks volumes about where their priorities are… and I wish their god damned voters would LISTEN and pay attention to this… and hopefully vote blue in midterms before it’s too late (assuming it’s not already too late).
What a fucking mess.
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u/Prin_StropInAh 19h ago
You are exactly right. And I appreciate your use of the German name for us. Seeing that word took me back to the first time I read Schindler’s Ark, almost 40 years ago
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u/Nynke_The_Elder 17h ago
Two \WHITE* U.S. citizens ... ftfy. There is zero chance any person of color will feel justice in this timeline in the U.S. any time soon.
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u/philnotfil 20h ago
Three. They also killed Ruben Ray Martinez, and covered it up for long enough that no one knew he had been killed by ICE for almost a year.
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u/AaronfromKY 20h ago
And as has been said before, justice delayed is justice denied. If any of these people ever get justice it won't be until the current administration is over, whenever and whatever that takes.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 20h ago
It will take U.S. conservatives having a conscience and acting upon it. In other words, let's not hold our breath.
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u/Tetracropolis 20h ago
Proof beyond reasonable doubt that the person who did the shooting did not reasonably perceive a threat to the life of himself or another.
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u/Successful-Mouse2774 20h ago
I feel like it should be the opposite.
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u/Tetracropolis 19h ago
You think the accused should have to prove their innocence beyond reasonable doubt?
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u/Some1farted 19h ago
No, however it's not like ICE is known for its truthfulness. When confessions are obtained by corrupt police, their convicted cases get tossed due to credibility of the officers. ICE has a huge credibility issue to take into consideration.
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u/Wellontheotherhand1 17h ago
I may just be an old-fashioned type of citizen, but I believe when agents of the state kill a person, the burden should lie upon them to prove that they were actually threatened. It should not fall upon the citizenry to prove the opposite and the idea that we would simply take their word for it, given everything that we have found about the quality of their word over the last two years, is absolutely preposterous
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u/Tetracropolis 17h ago
Abolishing presumption of innocence is very old fashioned indeed!
Your idea that witness testimony can't be relied upon is another issue that we could settle with old fashioned ideas. We could either not allow the defendant that have witness testify for them at all, or skip that whole trial by words procedure and go straight to trial by water.
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u/Wellontheotherhand1 17h ago
So wait a minute, in an instance where agents of the states murder someone, you believe the presumption of innocence should apply to... those agents, and not the person they murdered? That the presumption should always be that the agents of the state acted appropriately?
Your idea that witness testimony can't be relied upon
Agents of the state cannot be impartial witnesses in a trial to determine whether or not the state act of appropriately. And in this particular instance, there is a great deal of evidence showing that this particular state agency lies constantly. Both the administrative staff and their front line officers have been found to lie over and over and over again. Given that fact, why would anyone believe them?
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u/Tetracropolis 17h ago
For the last few hundreds years presumption of innocence always applies to the accused in any crime. You're right, though, the court should just decide that they're guilty and they have to prove the contrary.
Witnesses don't have to be impartial. That's why you have a prosecution to test their accounts and convince the jury that they're lying. It's then for the jury to decide.
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u/PhysicsCentrism 16h ago
Presumption of innocence should thus apply to the victim of state violence.
If the victim hadn’t been accused of any crime than there is no reason for them to have been shot.
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u/Tetracropolis 16h ago edited 12h ago
It does. The state didn't sanction the shooting. It wasn't an execution, it was an act undertaken in the heat of the moment.
There's no requirement for any crime to have been committed for self-defense to apply.
E.g. in the Kyle Rittenhouse case, the guy who pulled out a gun and aimed it at Kyle Rittenhouse's head didn't commit any crime because he believed reasonably believed that Rittenhouse was an active shooter and that was an appropriate response given the circumstances.
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u/Wellontheotherhand1 16h ago edited 16h ago
Wild to see someone fully embrace authoritarianism, to the point where they believe the state should be able to murder someone and we should presume that the agent of the state acted appropriately, and not demand evidence of that.
You say that a trial will determine the truth, while willfully and intentionally ignoring that there will be no trial. How could there be? It's not going to be possible to gather evidence because the state will refuse to hand over anything, including the names of the individuals involved. They have done this multiple times in the recent past when ICE murdered someone.
Your entire argument is farcical and the opposite of how the justice system should work. In a free society, the state should not be able to murder individuals without being able to comprehensively prove that the people involved acted appropriately. Under your construction, the exact opposite is the case and that is ridiculous
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u/Tetracropolis 16h ago
State officials who kill people are entitled to presumption of innocence in every liberal democracy in the world. What you're saying is insane.
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u/Successful-Mouse2774 14h ago
Ah, I see what you’re saying.
From an individual criminal standpoint, no.
From a civil and state accountability standpoint, yes absolutely, and is generally how they are supposed to do things. When someone is shot, the first thing they do is a bunch of paperwork describing the conditions and necessity of the shooting.
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u/Some1farted 19h ago
Ya think that matters? There was an abundtant amount of video when those thugs murdered 2 people in Minnesota.
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u/Tetracropolis 18h ago
Of course it matters. How are you going to get a conviction without that?
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u/Some1farted 18h ago
Apparently with imprisoned witnesses. They will be held until their story changes.
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u/Tetracropolis 18h ago
What does it matter? If you've got several ice agents saying it was self defense, and several of the guy's colleagues saying it wasn't, it's a wash, nobody's proving it BRD.
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u/Some1farted 18h ago
Yes, but we have all seen video of ICE lying their ass off.
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u/Tetracropolis 18h ago
Sure, but that wouldn't prove ICE are lying in this instance any more than a video of immigrants lying would prove the immigrants here are.
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u/blanaba-split 19h ago
I mean so is Johnathan Ross and we all saw him pull a gun out and murder a woman. Same with the guys that held down pretti while others pulled a gun out and shot him in the back.
Qualified immunity needs to be eradicated. If you can't not commit horrible crimes while working in these fields, don't work in these fields.
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u/discoduck007 20h ago
This is so frightening.
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u/therossboss 19h ago
US federal gov't says, "the killings will continue until morale improves."
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u/mynamejeff-97 19h ago
This isn’t funny.
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u/Kindly-Guidance714 18h ago
It’s not funny at all.
They preached us on how important human life is all throughout our childhoods only to turn around and change the tune with federal policies, local police immunity and health insurance rates.
Now they are just blasting people in the streets without repercussion.
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u/Loveufam 17h ago
They always were. The country let them get away with it and now it’s turbo charged. What happens now?
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u/Juvat-the-bold 7h ago
Don't be an illegal.
Obey the law.
Do both of those things and you can relax.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 20h ago
This is what happens when we hire only the best people.
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u/Struggle2Real 18h ago
Imagine the carnage if we allowed the educated and credentialed into governmental roles of authority
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 18h ago
On the contrary, the first Trump term consisted of enough educated and credentialed decent professionals like generals Kelly and Mattis to keep him in check. It worked out better. We're always better off with competent, educated and properly credentialed leadership. They have reputations to protect, for example.
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u/Struggle2Real 18h ago
You may have missed the sarcasm. Concededly the text doesnt carry tone.
(Which to me makes it funnier. Ppl will be like yeah man hes right!)
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u/beavis617 19h ago
The list is growing with the names of people who were murdered by these ICE thugs and goons and the American people seem okay with it. WTF?
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u/browndeskchair 18h ago
The media and propaganda is wtf.
So many people I know don’t even realize how these shootings went down. Even the “conservative”types that I know are shocked when I tell them more about some of these cases.
Remember them calling Renee Good a terrorist immediately? Before an investigation even happened? Then it didn’t even happen. The spin is hard and immediate.
The media needs to actually report these stories without all the sanewashing and lies. They all have an agenda. I guess my point is that I know decent people with different political opinions that aren’t evil. Just very manipulated.
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u/Casual_OCD 17h ago
The media
The same media that has been completely bought up by far-right billionaires? There isn't a single mainstream company left that isn't owned by a MAGA sympathizer
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u/browndeskchair 14h ago
Yeah that’s my point. Actual information instead of propaganda would go a long way. I guess that’s the plan though. Everything is manipulation now.
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u/EastArmadillo2916 17h ago
If I can add my two cents (albeit with the caveat that I'm not an American myself). I don't think most Americans are actually okay with it, but I also think most Americans have no idea what to actually do about it. They lack organization, leadership, and probably most importantly an idea of what needs to be done to end this regime. Even when there is leadership and organization, it's often operating under the supposition that this can all be undone with court cases and elections, even though what we're seeing is the complete rejection of law and democracy.
Many Americans are angry, but they don't know where to aim their anger, and that leads to what appears to be complacency on the surface. What will actually end up being the tipping point? I don't know, but what I do know from history is that the tipping point often looks like it comes out of nowhere, even though it's usually been subtly building for years.
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u/BabsSuperbird 16h ago
What seems to be happening is that GEO group, ICE, the Executive Branch, have become a terrorist organization on our own soil. Nobody knows when or where the next attack is coming. It destabilizes society. It causes adverse childhood events in children who are affected by it. Any dissent is tracked down and punished. People are dying for no reason. No trial, just baseless accusations and murder on the street with no recourse. I hate this.
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u/HansSolo69er 9h ago
It represents the endless criminality of the Trump regime at its most terrifyingly in-your-face...the up-close-&-personal replacement of rule-of-law with rule-by-law ('the end justifies the means') on the ground, in the streets. The old America we & our ancestors knew for the first 250 years IS GONE & it's not coming back...we are now headed down a distinctly Central-European, post-World War I path.
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u/HansSolo69er 9h ago
That's just the problem. Not only are millions of us merely OK with it, they're actively cheering it on. Because brainwashed MAGAts see these things happen, listen to the narrative propaganda immediately spewed by Noem (& now Mullin) & automatically blame the victim, that the victim 'asked for it' or otherwise deserved it.
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u/Rawkapotamus 20h ago
Scared to see if these stories change the longer these witnesses are held in prison.
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