Sylvia Garcia visits witnesses who dispute ICE’s account of shooting

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia traveled to an immigrant detention facility in Conroe on Saturday to interview the men who witnessed the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo earlier this week by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

The congresswoman said that two construction workers — Daniel Tirado Pantoja and Victor Salgado, Lorenzo Salgado’s younger brother — gave a strikingly different narrative from ICE’s official explanation of the deadly shooting in East Houston.

The detainees also told Garcia that ICE hasn’t pressured them to sign any paperwork to be deported from the U.S. — a concern raised by a Houston lawyer and others who fear that federal officials could try to remove the eyewitnesses from the U.S.

READ MORE: Can Houston officials investigate Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s death? Yes, but it would be complicated.

Lorenzo Salgado was shot and killed early Tuesday when ICE agents mistakenly chased his van through Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood, confusing him with another target.

Salgado was a Mexican citizen who owned a construction business and had been living in Houston for 35 years. His son said Salgado was picking up his workers on their way to a job when ICE initiated the pursuit.

ICE said Salgado tried to evade arrest, refused to follow commands and “weaponized” his vehicle by driving at an agent, who shot Salgado in self-defense. But the two workers, who were riding in the van when Salgado was shot, said no ICE agents had been standing in the path of the van and the agents never identified themselves after exiting from unmarked vehicles.

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“It’s just shockingly, a totally different story,” Garcia, D-Houston, told reporters outside the Montgomery ICE Processing Center. “They say that there is no time that any of the agents were in front of the van.”

Garcia’s description of the meeting echoes concerns raised by Houston lawyer Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, who represents Tirado and another detained construction worker, Jose Trinidad Rojas. Garcia said Rojas declined to be interviewed Saturday without his attorney.

Garcia said she interviewed Tirado and Victor Salgado individually and they both recalled events the same way. They told Garcia that at least six agents approached the van on foot. 

“There was no command, they communicated nothing,” she said. “Not even who they were and why they were there.”

Garcia said the witnesses still appeared in shock after Tuesday’s events and were waiting for information on what will happen to them. She said the FBI interviewed Victor Salgado on Tuesday, but law enforcement hasn’t contacted any of them since then. 

“They haven’t quite processed everything that’s happened, and they’re of course missing their loved ones and they want to know when they’ll be able to get out and what is going to be happening,” she said.

Garcia sought to hear a firsthand account of the shooting as she pushes for an independent investigation into the incident. Similarities between Salgado’s death and that of Renee Good, who was fatally shot in her car by ICE in Minnesota earlier this year, have fueled skepticism among Garcia and others.

“This is a straight copy playbook of ICE,” Garcia said, referencing Good’s death. “I’m not prepared to say today that it’s all lies, but it sure is looking that way.” 

MORE COVERAGE: How will the feds investigate the ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — and can they be trusted?

The immediate detention of Salgado’s employees has raised concerns that ICE is trying to suppress witness testimony by pressuring them to sign documents to be voluntarily deported. Balderas-Ibarra said he hasn’t seen evidence of such a tactic yet, but it remains a possibility.

“They do threaten immigrants with deportation,” he said. “They threaten them with 10-year penalties. They threaten them with never being able to come back to the United States legally. This is just a tactic that they use in order to expeditiously remove as many immigrants as possible.”

Garcia said the detainees gave no indication that they were being pressured to self-deport to Mexico, and they appeared to be able to communicate with family members. 

“They have access to phone calls and to TV, they said they’re getting their meals,” she said. “I went through all the usual kinds of questions that we ask and it seems like they’re as comfortable as it can be under the circumstances.” 

The Department of Homeland Security has said that its Office of Inspector General is investigating the incident, while the FBI is investigating the potential assault of an officer.

When she arrived in Conroe on Saturday, Garcia was initially stopped at a security gate and told that she wasn’t on the approved list of visitors. She said she’s visited the facility twice before and had encountered no problems.

“I of course reminded them that I was a member of Congress. By statute, we have authority of oversight over this facility and that under the law, they had to let me in,” she said. Officials granted Garcia access to the property after a 45-minute delay.