\n<\/p>\n
The builder got up every morning long before dawn, left home to pick up his construction crew and then headed out to work on yet another house somewhere across the sprawl of Houston.<\/p>\n
Fourteen hours later, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo<\/a> would return to the wife he\u2019d met as a teenager in Mexico and the modest house he\u2019d built for his family on the city\u2019s east side.<\/p>\n It\u2019s what he\u2019d done for decades, according to Ronaldo Salgado, his oldest son. He said his father built hundreds of houses over 35 years, creating a life for his family and watching as his three sons headed off to college.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot<\/a> Salgado Araujo, 52, after he was pursued by federal agents driving unmarked vehicles while he was taking his crew to their latest job site. The shooting has outraged Houston leaders<\/a> and renewed public scrutiny over ICE and Trump’s immigration crackdown. <\/p>\n \u201cThis family needs answers. America needs answers,\u201d Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, whose district includes the area where the shooting happened, said Friday. \u201cThis should not be happening in our streets or any street in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal agents were looking for someone else<\/a> when they tried to stop Salgado Araujo\u2019s white van, Garcia said, citing a briefing she receiving from ICE’s acting director. The Department of Homeland Security has said an ICE officer fired at the van in self-defense after Salgado Araujo, who officials described as an \u201cillegal alien,\u201d rammed an ICE vehicle. They have provided no evidence.<\/p>\n The three men that Salgado Araujo was driving said he was shot through a passenger window and that the ICE officer who fired was not in front of the van or even in danger, a lawyer who has spoken with them said Friday.<\/p>\n His family has also disputed the account from ICE. They said lawyers, who were helping him apply for a work permit, had explained how he should behave if immigration agents stopped him. Salgado Araujo was close to obtaining legal status when he was killed, they said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe knew what to do,\u201d Ronaldo Salgado told reporters this week. \u201cHe knew not to sign anything. He knew that the first phone call he should make should be either to myself or to my mom. So that way we can get the process started of getting him out.\u201d<\/p>\n He believes his father may have been scared that he was being followed by unmarked vehicles, worried someone was planning to steal his van or his tools. <\/p>\n