This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.<\/p>\n
AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> We begin today\u2019s show with the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the 52-year-old father, husband, small business owner, originally from Mexico, killed by an ICE<\/span> agent last Tuesday in Houston, Texas, during his early-morning commute to work at a construction site.<\/p>\n Firsthand accounts from the men who were also in his van that morning continue to refute claims by ICE<\/span> officials that Araujo allegedly posed a threat to the agents and attempted to ram them with his van. The three men are currently detained by ICE<\/span> and are facing deportation. They\u2019re all reportedly undocumented from Mexico and had lived in the U.S. for decades. The New York Times<\/em> reports<\/a> two of them spoke at length with Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, whose district includes Houston, and told her that the shot that killed Araujo was fired into the front passenger side window. One of the men is Araujo\u2019s younger brother Victor, Victor Salgado Araujo.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security last week acknowledged that Lorenzo Araujo was targeted by mistake and that federal agents were in fact searching for a different person. This all comes as his family and advocates are demanding an independent investigation amidst fears the Trump administration will attempt to conceal or tamper with evidence. ICE<\/span> says none of the agents involved were wearing body cameras at the time of Araujo\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/em> reports<\/a> there have been at least 22 shootings involving federal immigration officers since Trump returned to office. Six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed. This all comes as the White House has demanded an increase in immigration detentions, ordering ICE<\/span> officials to make at least 2,000 arrests per day. The end of June, beginning of July, there were 10,000 arrests in five days.<\/p>\n For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we\u2019re joined by Juan Proa\u00f1o, CEO<\/span> of LULAC<\/span>, the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States.<\/p>\n Juan, thanks so much for joining us. You were there in Houston. Now you\u2019re in Washington. Can you talk about what we understand at this point happened to Lorenzo Araujo?<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> PROA\u00d1O:<\/strong> Well, Amy, thank you so much for having me. And good morning, Juan.<\/p>\n I think, you know, it\u2019s been widely reported. My perspective is that ICE<\/span> was casing Magnolia Park, which is a 97% Hispanic community. They were hunting for Latinos. They saw a Brown man, a Latino man, driving a work truck, and they followed suit. We all know now what the deadly consequences of that are.<\/p>\n And ICE<\/span> has been, you know, walking back every statement that they\u2019ve made. They said initially it was a targeted enforcement action. They said that he used his vehicle as a deadly weapon. They said that, you know, the officers acted basically in self-defense. And they\u2019ve now retracted, obviously, that he was not the target. But then they stated that there were two other men that were targeted, and they let slip that those men were of Guatemalan descent, but everyone in that van was actually a Mexican national. There was no damage to the front end of the vehicle, the back end of the vehicle, the side panels. There\u2019s a black skid mark from the black SUV<\/span> that they used to pin that car to the sidewalk.<\/p>\n And I think most egregious of all those things was the fact that once he was on the ground prone \u2014 we\u2019ve seen the videos. We\u2019ve seen his cries for help. He knew that he was dying. They waited almost 20 to 30 minutes to get him a ambulance to take him to the hospital. And in that time, they took all of his personal identifiable information off of his person, so when he was admitted into the hospital, they admitted him as a John Doe. Now, the family was there. Ronaldo was there. He was on site. I\u2019ve seen the text messages with the FBI<\/span> and the ICE<\/span> agent between the two men, and they really just strung him along for hours, until finally sending him to the hospital.<\/p>\n Family had a hard time even finding him, because when they arrived at the hospital, they said that there was no Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in their manifest, in their records. It took several hours more for them to make the connection between the two men. And he wasn\u2019t told that his father passed away until 3:00, more than six hours later. And sadly, because he was admitted as a John Doe, they then had to \u2014 family had to go through extra hoops. They had to do a biometric forensics examination to confirm he is who we always knew he was: Lorenzo. And they didn\u2019t actually get the final determination, which was that he was killed and it was a homicide, until the following day, almost 24 hours later. A really tragic event, and it was a senseless murder on the streets of Houston.<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> GONZ\u00c1LEZ:<\/strong> And, Juan Proa\u00f1o, what\u2019s been the involvement of the Houston Police Department in this? Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz was supposed to meet with the FBI<\/span>?<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> PROA\u00d1O:<\/strong> Well, we\u2019ve been working very closely with the District Attorney\u2019s Office, with Sean Teare. You know, I was there at the initial meeting. I found him to be very sincere in his condolences to the family. I found him to be pretty much, very much a straight shooter and honest. And he flat-out told me that they would be doing an independent investigation. They would be moving forward aggressively in doing so. But the main limiting factor was going to be cooperation of the federal agencies involved.<\/p>\n There are multiple strings of investigations. Now we have the district attorney general that\u2019s doing an investigation. You have the FBI<\/span> that\u2019s doing an investigation. You have the DHS<\/span> inspector general that\u2019s doing an investigation. And the last investigation to be announced recently was that of Mayor Whitmire. For days and days and days, he refused to act, saying that they had no purview over the shooting because HPD<\/span> basically was not involved. And while that may be true, the fact of the matter is, is that a resident of Houston was killed on Canal Street. And my understanding is, whenever there\u2019s a shooting, whenever there\u2019s a murder, the police actually investigate. So I\u2019m glad that they are now moving towards a full investigation.<\/p>\n But my expectation is, is that their investigation will similarly be hampered by DHS<\/span>, by the federal agencies. And we already know, six days later, a week later, a week now, basically, since his senseless death, that they have turned over nothing at all, no evidence, not the van, not his possessions, nothing at all.<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> GONZ\u00c1LEZ:<\/strong> And why weren\u2019t the agents wearing body cameras? Haven\u2019t federal authorities promised to equip ICE<\/span> agents with body cameras?<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> PROA\u00d1O:<\/strong> Well, they certainly have all the money and all the resources in the world to do that \u2014\u00a0a $170 billion allocation through the Big Beautiful Bill, another $70 billion to help carry through funding through the end of President Trump\u2019s term. My understanding is that certain states have different regulations. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, they\u2019re required to actually have bodycam footage. This is Texas. It\u2019s a red state. They clearly have been slow walking the process and will probably fight it tooth and nail.<\/p>\n So, it\u2019s something that should be a national mandate at this point. Police officers are required to do so. ICE<\/span> agency has \u2014\u00a0it went from 12,000 to 22,000 employees. There\u2019s absolutely no reason from a financial perspective, from a functional or implementation perspective, that they couldn\u2019t do this. And certainly, our country would benefit from the transparency that would come from this.<\/p>\n AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> And can you talk about Greg Abbott, the well-known Trump ally, Texas governor, how he has weighed in on this, Juan Proa\u00f1o?<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> PROA\u00d1O:<\/strong> He\u2019s been silent. I mean, he has said nothing about it. Paxton has been on vacation in Europe. He has said nothing about it at all. Representative Sylvia Garcia has been an incredible advocate for the family, and the Houston community is rallying around her and rallying around the Salgado Araujo family, as well. And so, what you would expect, Amy: silence from the right, outrage from our progressive Democratic community, and Latinos have been rising up. They\u2019ve been rising up out in the community in Houston.<\/p>\n We ran a petition that has over 165,000 people who\u2019ve signed it. I\u2019d encourage folks to go to the LULAC<\/span>.org<\/a> website to do the same. Lorenzo\u2019s family has been fortunate enough to raise $500,000 on GoFundMe, but that will not go very far. Lorenzo was the primary provider for his family. He was paying and has paid for his young \u2014\u00a0three young sons to go through university, and he still has one that\u2019s in university. And so, I don\u2019t believe that there will be justice here. There\u2019s nothing that will bring him back. And the only thing that we can hope for is full accountability.<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> GONZ\u00c1LEZ:<\/strong> And, Juan, what about the three men who were in the van with Lorenzo Salgado? What\u2019s their situation right now?<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> PROA\u00d1O:<\/strong> So, they are in \u2014\u00a0you know, they\u2019re in Conroe, Texas. And so, you know, we have been engaged with them. I was actually on with Ruby Powers last night, and we were chatting. So, she\u2019s representing Victor. The other two men have a different attorney.<\/p>\n Initially, they were being pressured to sign self-deportation orders. We talked with the families and discouraged them from doing so. But it was a significant amount of pressure. My initial sense was that they were inclined to do so, first and foremost because they are undocumented; second of all, because they have mixed-status family households and were concerned about, you know, bringing any additional legal perjury, prosecution, if you will, against their own family members.<\/p>\n And in a way, it could have been the easy way out for them. But the fact of the matter is, is that we need them to stay in the United States. They are witnesses to a crime, and the only witnesses to what actually happened on that day. Of all the video footage that we\u2019ve collected, nothing actually shows the actual shooting itself. And so, that\u2019s one thing that we lack in this particular case.<\/p>\n AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> And, Juan Proa\u00f1o, before we go, we\u2019re going to go up to Biddeford, Maine, for our next segment, but you are the CEO<\/span> of the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. You represent the whole country. And yet another Latin American immigrant, this person 25 years old, apparently had work authorization \u2014\u00a0not that that should be an issue when it comes to being shot dead in the streets \u2014\u00a0was shot dead as he drove, the father of a 3-year-old, as he drove to work. Your final comments on reeling from this one in Houston, this killing, to what\u2019s happened in Biddeford?<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> PROA\u00d1O:<\/strong> Well, thank you, Amy. I have to tell you that these both have hit me really hard. Lorenzo was one year younger than I am. He was 52. I\u2019m 53. Johan in Biddeford, Sebasti\u00e1n, is Colombian. My mother\u2019s from Colombia. My family is from Colombia. Twenty-six years old, as you said, a father of a young girl, 3 years old, and a beautiful wife. And it\u2019s a senseless, senseless tragedy. The same circumstances, Amy. He was targeted initially, targeted by mistake. OK? The officers were not in any jeopardy at all. They actually were the aggressors here, tried to open the vehicle as he plainly said he was trying to actually stop.<\/p>\n The fear in the community is prevalent. And it\u2019s my honest belief \u2014\u00a0and if you take a look at the numbers \u2014 that they are targeting Latino men. Of all the men, of all the people currently in detention, 80 to 90% of them are Hispanic men, predominantly from Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, Nicaragua. It is the majority, significant majority. And the escalation has been significant.<\/p>\n Biddeford is a small town. It\u2019s 22,000 people. It has about 550 Hispanics. If they are hunting immigrants in Biddeford, Maine, and in Houston, just imagine what they\u2019re doing across the country. It has been underreported since the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Let\u2019s be clear about that. You mentioned early on \u2014\u00a0right? \u2014\u00a02,000 men, 2,000 detentions, over the course of a week, 2,000 per day. But we haven\u2019t raised this enough. It is a critical moment in this country. We are not leading. This is not leadership. And it is time to demand change. And LULAC<\/span> \u2014<\/p>\n AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Juan Proa\u00f1o, we thank you for being with us, CEO<\/span> of LULAC<\/span>, the oldest, largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States, joining us from Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n Coming up, we go to Biddeford, Maine, to talk about the ICE<\/span> shooting of 25-year-old Johan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero. We\u2019ll talk about that, also the senatorial race, where the longtime senator, Republican Senator Susan Collins, whose offices were protested yesterday, was the deciding vote for tens of billions of dollars more for ICE<\/span>. This is Democracy Now!<\/em> Back in 30 seconds.<\/p>\n [break]<\/p>\n AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band, \u201cBabe, No Cheatin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License<\/a>. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.<\/p>\n