ICE agents ‘looking for someone else’ when they killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo | First Thing

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were reportedly seeking two people from Guatemala. Plus, readers recommend the best films of 2026 so far

Good morning. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a man killed by federal immigration agents during a traffic stop in Houston this week, was not the intended target of the “enforcement operation”, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were reportedly seeking two people from Guatemala when they attempted to stop Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant who had lived in the Us for 35 years.

Salgado Araujo, who was on his way to work early on Tuesday morning, was driving three other people in a white van. After the shooting, the three men were taken into custody. One of the three men has been identified by advocates as Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, the brother of the victim. It was reported that he was still in an immigration detention center.

How have authorities justified the killing? The ICE agents who stopped Salgado Araujo claimed he “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer” who then fired his weapon “in self-defense”, but did not provide evidence to corroborate that account. It is a defense the agency has used in other high-profile incidents, including when Renee Good was killed in Minneapolis, when video evidence later contradicted the description. The officers involved in shooting Salgado Araujo were not wearing body cameras, DHS said.

How is Trump endangering the midterm elections? The US president has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections. The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees, were notified of their terminations via email.
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