ICE is threatening to deport witnesses of its latest shooting

ICE has reportedly increased its presence in Houston in recent weeks as part of a broader enforcement push, albeit a less bombastic one than DHS’s shock-and-awe raids in Minnesota. DHS changed tactics after widespread backlash to Operation Metro Surge , opting for “targeted” arrests over mass raids. But quieter enforcement doesn’t mean less enforcement. Earlier this month, ICE reported it had arrested 10,000 people in just five days.

This sharp rise in arrests may be fueled by rampant racial profiling . Federal agents are disproportionately targeting Latinos in the New York City area, according to hundreds of federal court records analyzed by The City Reporter . Though Latin Americans make up approximately 66 percent of the region’s undocumented population, more than 93 percent of people DHS agents grabbed off city streets were Latinos. Many of these followed the same pattern as the attempted arrest of Salgado Araujo in Houston. According to court records, agents would grab someone who they claimed looked like their intended target and detain them even if they weren’t the person they were looking for.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who took over the department after the ouster of Kristi Noem, reportedly wanted to present a softer image on immigration after facing widespread criticism over its tactics in Minnesota — especially in advance of the midterms.

If DHS was hoping that its less overtly aggressive approach would keep ICE out of the headlines, the shooting of Salgado Araujo has done the opposite. Hundreds of protesters gathered in Houston on Wednesday, marching to the block where Salgado Araujo was killed. Democrats are calling for an independent investigation of the shooting. DHS’s Office of the Inspector General has reportedly opened its own probe. The FBI’s Houston field office is also investigating the alleged assault on a federal law enforcement officer — even though eyewitnesses say no assault occurred.

In fact, the three witnesses claimed that ICE agents shot unprovoked. “It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over,” Jose Trinidad Rojas, one of the men who was traveling with Salgado Araujo, said in a handwritten note reviewed by the Post , because “there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.”

Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, the attorney who shared Trinidad Rojas’ and the other witnesses’ statements with the Post , said all the survivors independently verified that government vehicles surrounded Salgado Araujo’s van on both sides and then started shooting.

This isn’t the first time that federal immigration officers have justified shooting civilians by claiming they acted in self-defense. Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Renee Good, said he feared for his life , and testified in court that he had previously been dragged 100 yards by a driver who refused to stop. Charles Exum, the Border Patrol agent who shot Marimar Martinez in Chicago in October 2025, claimed Martinez had rammed her car into his government vehicle. But footage from the scenes of both shootings shows the opposite — and federal officials even shared videos of an unrelated incident in which a black SUV rammed an agent’s truck, claiming it had been Martinez.

Given the lack of footage of ICE’s shooting of Salgado Araujo, it’s the agency’s word against those of three witnesses, whom the government is now trying to deport. Meanwhile, other Houstonians are afraid that they may end up sharing Salgado Araujo’s fate. “If this is a routine traffic stop,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) said on Hello Houston after the shooting, “then everybody in Houston has to kind of fear for driving on our roads.”

CNN reports that body cameras have been distributed to half of ICE’s field offices across the country, and DHS claims all offices will receive cameras in the next 60 days. Even if video evidence of its agents’ actions won’t force DHS to hold itself accountable, that footage can travel widely, allowing people to know the truth — even if the government tries to deport eyewitnesses.