The lawyer for the family of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado, who died after being shot in the torso by an agent of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) in Houston, accused the agency this Friday of trying to cover up what he described as a “crime.”

Lawyer accuses contradictions in ICE's version

Domingo García, also a member of the LULAC organization, assured in an interview with EFE that ICE lied by stating that the agents were not wearing body cameras and by maintaining that Salgado tried to run over one of them.

“They are trying to cover up, in my opinion, a crime, which was the death of Lorenzo Salgado,” García stated.

The lawyer said he had seen videos recorded after the shooting in which, according to his version, cameras were seen attached to the vests of some agents.

The other three men who were traveling with Salgado in the truck when it was intercepted by ICE and who were later detained by the agency have denied that the vehicle crashed into the agents' cars or that it tried to run over one of them, as revealed by their lawyer, Hugo Balderas, in a press conference today in Houston.

“They treated him like a dog”

Given this scenario, Salgado's family does not trust that the federal government will carry out an “impartial and independent” investigation, García indicated.

"The authorities must admit that they made a mistake and the person who made it must be punished. Lorenzo's family needs justice," he declared.

The lawyer also denounced the treatment that, according to information gathered by the family, Salgado received after being injured: the agents took his wallet, handcuffed him while he lay on the ground, and took him to the hospital still handcuffed.

“I can't understand why, instead of helping a man who was lying on the floor dying, they treated him like a dog,” García said.

Salgado, 52 years old and originally from the State of Mexico, had been living in the United States for about 35 years. He owned a small construction company with eight employees and worked as a frame carpenter.

With “the sweat of his work” he supported his family and paid for his children's university studies, the lawyer said. One of them works as a high school teacher, another is an engineer and the third is still studying.

“He was a man who came to live the American dream” and was close to obtaining a work permit and permanent residency, García added.

“Hunting immigrants”

Salgado was heading to work on Tuesday with his brother and two other co-workers when ICE agents intercepted the van they were traveling in in Magnolia Park, a historically Latino neighborhood in Houston.

According to the Government's version, the agents were trying to arrest another immigrant against whom there was an administrative order and they believed he was traveling in the van. Authorities maintain that Salgado “ignored instructions,” crashed into one of the ICE vehicles and tried to run over an agent, who fired “in self-defense.”

The three direct witnesses, who remain held in an immigration detention center, claim, however, that no agent stood in front of the truck and that the shots entered through the sides of the vehicle.

Congresswoman Sylvia García also revealed, after speaking with the acting director of ICE, David Venturella, that neither Salgado nor his brother Víctor were the targets of the operation. ICE has not publicly identified the person they were looking for or the agent who fired the shot.

For the lawyer, what happened to Salgado was the product of “racial profiling” and he accused the authorities of “hunting immigrants” in Latino communities.

The lawyer announced that the family will sue ICE and is in contact with the Government of Mexico, which is also seeking to take legal action regarding this death.

García also said that the family of Víctor Salgado, Lorenzo's brother and direct witness to the shooting, remains hidden for fear that immigration authorities will detain them due to their legal status and deport them to prevent their members from testifying or participating in a lawsuit.

“They are afraid that the migra (agents) will come to their homes, arrest them and deport them so that they will not be witnesses or file a lawsuit here in the United States,” he stated.