THE WASHINGTON POST: ICE officer fatally shoots Mexican man in Houston during traffic stop

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a Mexican immigrant in Houston on Tuesday during an attempted traffic stop arrest, federal authorities said.

ICE identified the man as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and said he was in the United States illegally and refused to comply with officers during an enforcement operation.

“From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponised his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defence,” the agency said in a statement.

ICE stated that “emergency services were immediately contacted” and that Salado Araujo died from his injuries at an area hospital.

The incident appears to be the first fatal shooting involving federal immigration agents since US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed in separate incidents in Minneapolis in January during an enforcement surge in that city.

Those killings sparked a wide public backlash to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign and the aggressive tactics employed by federal officers.

ICE’s account of Salado Araujo’s killing echoed many of the statements the agency quickly issued in other shootings that resulted in fatalities or injuries to undocumented immigrants and US citizens.

In several instances, however, video evidence and testimony from witnesses contradicted the agency’s initial accounts, establishing that the officers were not in danger and, in some cases, acted as the aggressors.

Federal prosecutors dropped assault charges against some of the people who had been shot and wounded in light of the additional evidence.

ICE stated that the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General is leading an investigation into the shooting.

The FBI’s Houston office said it is separately investigating “the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”

Texas Democrat Senator Sylvia Garcia who represents the district where the shooting took place Tuesday, said in a post on social media that all footage and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed “as part of a full an impartial investigation”.

She added that Salgado Araujo’s family, constituents and the community “deserve a complete and transparent accounting of what happened”.

The League of United Latin American Citizens said that according to Salgado Araujo’s family, he was in the process of obtaining legal status in the US.

He was picking up employees in a work vehicle during the traffic stop, LULAC chief executive Juan Proaño said.

The Hispanic civil rights organisation called for an investigation by city police and prosecutors and announced a $5000 reward for anyone who comes forward with information about the shooting.

“We can’t count on the FBI,” said Domingo Garcia, a former LULAC president and former Texas state lawmaker.

He called ICE an “out of control agency that requires oversight.”

The shooting took place in Houston’s historic Mexican American and Latino immigrant neighbourhood, Magnolia Park, which annually hosts Día de Los Muertos celebrations and community events commemorating its multicultural heritage.

“People were crying on the streets as he was dying,” Garcia said.

Houston police have been at the centre of an explosive debate over how much local law enforcement should cooperate with ICE operations.

Local leaders amended a city ordinance that limited how long police could hold migrants for pick up by ICE after Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott threatened to withhold security funding grants, including money slated to help prepare for World Cup matches in the city.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire, a Democrat, has struggled to strike a balance between the demands of community advocates and state laws requiring Houston police officers to make immigration checks during traffic stops.

The region that includes Houston and Harris County is among the jurisdictions with the highest number of ICE arrests, federal data show.

Cesar Espinoza, of the immigrant advocacy organization FIEL, said the organization has detected an surge in ICE activity in the Houston area in recent days as the agency pressed to increase arrest totals.

“We expected something like this to happen,” said Espinoza, who has fought to limit local police cooperation with ICE.

FIEL has worked closely with immigrant families who have experienced aggressive enforcement, including the Bazan family, Espinoza said.

Arnulfo Bazan and his son, Arnoldo, 18, were accused of ramming an ICE vehicle last fall, but video footage from witnesses later contradicted that account.

The elder Bazan was deported and the son testified in Congress about being assaulted by immigration officers during the incident.