Democratic members of Houston’s Congressional delegation called for a major overhaul of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s tactics and cautioned that immigrants are being “hunted down” during an oversight forum Friday.

The panel was spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, in the aftermath of the July 7 fatal shooting by ICE agents of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant and small business owner from Houston’s East End.

Garcia was joined by Houston Democrats Lizzie Fletcher, Al Green and Christian Menefee; U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio; U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, and U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-NY, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, among others.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's two adult sons, Ronaldo Salgado and Lorenzo Salgado Jr., implored lawmakers to keep the pressure on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to amend its immigration-enforcement policies during President Donald Trump's unprecedented national crackdown. 

Though ICE officials were not present, they posted a thread of recent arrests during the hearing: 

“Despite coordinated attacks by local officials & the media attempting to undermine ICE's mission, we continue to work tirelessly to defend public safety & national security by removing gang members and other violent criminal illegal aliens from the local community.”

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare fielded most questions from lawmakers, who pressed him for details on his office’s independent investigation into the shooting.

Federal officials boxing out local investigators

Garcia and Espaillat told the panel that officials from the FBI, DHS and ICE were asked to attend the forum and declined. The lawmakers said those refusals added to the shroud of secrecy federal investigators are operating under as they decline to cooperate with local officials on several levels.  

“We're here to support the family and to listen to the community,” Espaillat said. “Our federal authorities have refused to come forward, and so we are here to hold them accountable.”

Garcia said House Democrats have sent six letters to ICE and DHS officials seeking details about the investigation, and all have gone unanswered.

“One letter is asking for parole for a victim, and one letter is requesting all of the evidentiary materials to be given to the local partners so that we know what is going on,” she said. “And I have been told by the Director of Homeland Security that they don't intend to give us any answers until their investigation is complete. So that's why hearings like these matter.”

Garcia later pressed Teare on what new information his office had gleaned, but the district attorney gave limited answers, citing his intent to preserve the integrity of the investigation.

“I can't provide information about potential charges or potential targets,” he said. “And I'm not going to speculate on the timeline for our investigation.”

Teare criticized the continued detention of three witnesses to the July 7 shooting — Salgado's brother and two workers who rode in the van.

"They're the only witnesses we have," Teare said. 

Already, Teare's investigators have interviewed one of the work van's occupants.

He cautioned that further interviews are not conducive to privacy amid a guarded investigation. The witnesses may not speak freely while in immigration detention as the rooms are not intended for privileged conversations with lawyers — unlike at the Harris County Jail, which has rooms for defendants to speak with their attorneys without being recorded by authorities.

"We don't know who's listening when they give witness statements," Teare testified.

Teare told lawmakers that he has repeatedly reached out to the DHS to no avail. 

"We haven't gotten a response to anything," Teare said. 

In response to a question from Garcia, Teare said DHS had not revealed to his office the identity of the ICE agent responsible for fatally shooting Salgado. He later declined to say whether he personally knew the agent's identity, when pressed by a reporter after the forum. 

He also said he doesn't know whether the agent is still working or on administrative leave. 

"They haven't told us anything," Teare said, adding "we've been able to identify some pieces of evidence without the official notification."

Teare commented later on how ICE’s tactics are eroding trust in the community and his concerns about an unsealed search warrant the FBI issued to inspect Salgado’s van.  

ICE tactics eroding trust in law enforcement

Aside from the Salgado case, Teare said ICE’s street tactics are hindering his office’s ability to investigate major crimes in Harris County.

“Those of us in law enforcement don't take issue with deporting violent felons. However, here in Harris County, there are crimes and cases my office has not been able to prosecute because witnesses are scared of immigration consequences,” he said.

Teare added that a witness in an unrelated capital murder case was on a plane to Central America before his office was able to intervene and keep the person in Texas. Teare declined to tell lawmakers which case that was, but in the past, the district attorney has publicly said the father of an 11-year-old Pasadena girl who was raped and killed in 2023 was deported to El Salvador following his misdemeanor arrest. Teare's office intervened to bring the father back to Texas as a material witness for the accused assailant's death penalty trial.

Teare said the uncertainty has had a significant impact on the office’s ability to investigate cases of domestic violence.

“They refuse to come forward or testify for fear of being deported,” he said. “What's happening isn't helping public safety. It's certainly not justice. And it's un-American.”

The unsealed FBI search warrant

FBI agents took more than a week to execute a search warrant for the white construction van Salgado was driving on July 7. The FBI said in an unsealed court filing that agents had reason to believe bags of a white, powdery substance found on the van’s dashboard and cargo area were narcotics, possibly methamphetamine.

Teare said the speed at which the FBI gave details about the search warrant was unusual.

“This is the first time in my career that I've ever seen a search warrant in a criminal case on the federal side unsealed, at least prior to a grand jury presentation of the facts,” he said.

Teare called the request for a search warrant “unusual.”

“There was no one alive that would have had standing to object to a search, and the stated goals of the search warrant had nothing to do with the shooting investigation at all," he said.

Salgado’s family said their father did not use drugs and that he “abhorred” them. They said any powdery substance found in the van was likely a mix of salt and lemon that’s added to water to combat dehydration.

“I feel very confident that in short order we're going to get the laboratory results back and I think it'll be confirmed what the family has said,” Teare told the panel.

A few hours after the hearing ended, Teare confirmed the substance was not a narcotic or any other illicit substance. 

Garcia's office quickly spread the news.

“As his family has said all along, this was an electrolyte powder to stay hydrated working outside in the hot Texas summer. The attempt to cast a shadow over Lorenzo Salgado’s name has failed," Garcia said in a post on X.

'Targeting' Latinos

Green and Castro said Salgado’s killing should alarm all people of color, as the DHS and ICE target minorities under Trump’s immigration-enforcement operation.

“(Salgado) was a part of a quota that had to be met. And as a part of the quota that had to be met, he finds himself in a position such that he is being chased through a Latino neighborhood,” Green said. “The president of the United States of America is engaged in ethnic cleansing. Latinos, wherever you are in the country now, you are considered not just undocumented, but unlawful.”

Castro later piled on.

“They said that (Salgado) was not their target. That's because everyone is their target,” he said. “Everyone who is brown, who is speaking Spanish in public. Donald Trump's campaign of mass deportation is an assault on the Hispanic community in the United States of America.”

Castro then took aim at the governor’s office for demanding local authorities work with ICE.

“Let us also remember that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is a full partner in that brutality,” he said. “We see it on the streets and behind the prison walls of places like Dilly and Pearsall and Karnes in those detention centers. Gov. Abbott has forced state and local law enforcement to assist ICE despite its reckless brutality. No identification, no warrants, full masks and guns drawn.”

 Garcia ended the forum with a promise that Friday’s hearing would not be the last as the Salgado family and Democrats continue to seek answers. 

“All of us are gathered here today to ensure the public, to ensure the public that we will find justice for Mr. Salgado,” she said.

View this article in Houston Chronicle.