ICE agents involved in the death of Lorenzo Salgado were not wearing body cameras
The case reopens the debate on accountability after an operation without video evidence of the shooting
The death of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) operation in Houston, Texas, once again put the agency under scrutiny after it was confirmed that the agents involved were not wearing body cameras, despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received $20 million to acquire that equipment.
According to The New York Times, the absence of cameras has intensified doubts about what happened during the operation, since so far there is no video evidence to support the official ICE version, which maintains that Lorenzo Salgado tried to ram an agent with his truck before he opened fire.
The witnesses who were traveling with the victim have rejected this version and claim that the driver never used the vehicle as a weapon.
DHS promised cameras for all ICE agents
Following two shootings in Minneapolis earlier this year, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the agency would deploy body cameras for officers nationwide.
However, almost six months later, the case of Lorenzo Salgado showed that the implementation remains incomplete.
Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia García, representative of Houston, harshly criticized the situation.
“Even after we specifically gave ICE $20 million for body cameras and Kristi Noem promised she was going to buy them, here we were in Houston and the agents didn't have them,” he declared during a press conference.
The DHS reported that the cameras have already been distributed in more than half of the ICE field offices and assured that the rest of the agents will receive them in the next 60 days.
The Lorenzo Salgado case increases pressure on ICE
The death of Lorenzo Salgado, who lived more than 35 years in the United States, has generated demands for an independent investigation and revived the debate about transparency in immigration operations.
According to The New York Times, the acting director of ICE, David Venturella, acknowledged to Congresswoman Sylvia García that less than a third of agents currently have body cameras, although he promised to complete the delivery before the end of July.
Meanwhile, civil organizations maintain that ICE operations should be suspended until all agents have this equipment.
“If they're going to go around with guns and arrest people, they better have some body cameras,” said Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality.