Houston Newsroom

A crowd chants outside of City Hall on July 14, audible from the chamber room on the second floor. Both the demonstrators and over 70 speakers during the public session demanded justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the 52-year-old man shot and killed by ICE agents a week before. Photo by Paola Hoffman, Houston Newsroom.

On July 14, Frida Adame stood at the podium in front of Houston’s City Council, pointing her finger at her elected officials.

“You failed our community,” she said. “We are being hunted like dogs. We are getting killed and no one is doing anything.”

It was not Adame’s first time giving public comment at a City Council meeting. On Jan. 27, she stood in the same place, demanding an end to ICE operations in the city. 

Since then, her worst fears have come to pass. On July 7, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by ICE agents in Houston’s East End. 

“I could be next,” Adame said. “I’m brown. I’m an immigrant. Who is it going to be next?”

Adame isn’t alone in her concern.

In the wake of Salgado Araujo’s killing, Houston communities have joined arms to help one another through a time of tragedy.

Downstairs from where Adame was speaking, a crowd was watching the City Council meeting in a viewing room. Every seat was filled, leaving visitors to sit on the floor and stand against the walls.

Some wore shirts and pins bearing affiliation to local advocacy groups. One woman held a sign in her lap depicting an ICE agent covered by the word “murderers.” 

The crowd clapped for Adame and for each of the over 70 speakers calling for an independent investigation into Salgado Araujo’s death and for ICE out of Houston.

Esmeralda Ledezma of Woori Juntos was one of those speakers. She said she felt the turnout at City Hall represented something powerful for the city.

“I’ve seen people from different walks of life, talking different languages, and it’s been a very beautiful demonstration of solidarity, especially because it’s a Tuesday at 2 p.m.,” she said. “A lot of people are supposed to be at work, but some people chose to come here to make their voices heard and to make sure that something like this never happens again in our city.”

Abraham Espinosa was another of the visitors in the crowd. As a founding member of FIEL Houston, a civil and immigrant rights organization, Espinosa said he has been advocating for the community since 2007. 

FIEL had been collecting data on ICE activity in Houston through a rapid response sheet, which is why Espinosa said he wasn’t surprised to hear about the shooting of Salgado Araujo. 

He said the trends showed that after a slow period from February to early June, ICE operations in the city were ramping up in the weeks before Salgado Araujo was killed. 

“It’s not shocking in the sense that we had a bad feeling that things were going to escalate if things didn’t change,” Espinosa said. “So unfortunately, while devastating to our community, at least from our perspective, we were afraid that there was going to be this type of escalation.”

Watching the response throughout the city, Espinosa said he sees two main reactions. From the activists and allies, he said there is anger, but there are also swathes of the community living with immense fear.

“There’s the ones that are directly affected, that are undocumented immigrants or immigrants, they’re scared,” he said. “There’s already a lot of, ‘I’m afraid to go to work. I’m afraid to go out and get groceries. I’m afraid to drive.’”

Knowing this, Espinosa said he faces a difficult task with his role at FIEL. 

“It’s hard as an organizer, it’s hard as a community member to kind of sort of call action when you know that people are afraid, when you know that people are scared and angry,” he said. “A lot of people turn to us for guidance. They turn to us for, I guess, even support and comfort. And even us ourselves, we’re worried.”

That worry extends beyond the attendees at City Council meetings. 

Sitting at a restaurant in Houston’s East End, Aremy Rodríguez of Ruiz Tortilleria y Taqueria said she feels it, too.

“There’s this uncertainty in the air where a lot of people are just not going out of fear, you know, regardless of their status,” she said. “We knew business was slow and now it’s extra slow.”

Local businesses hold hands in grief

On July 15, a line formed behind the register at Taqueria Monchy’s. Pictures of Salgado Araujo decorated a wall. 

The restaurant had partnered with Ruiz Tortilleria y Taqueria to host a fundraiser for the Salgado family. Ruiz Tortilleria y Taqueria donated tortillas, and Taqueria Monchy’s served $15 fundraiser plates.

Rodríguez said the fundraiser had come together naturally. She knew the owner of Monchy’s from high school. Both of them have immigrant parents.

“As soon as something happens in the community, there’s always that need that we can’t be quiet,” Rodríguez said. “We want to speak up and just make a statement that we’re with everybody, we feel the pain.”

Seeing the flow of customers, she said she felt less alone.

“Having the community show out despite all of the uncertainty, there’s hope,” Rodríguez said. “It gives us hope that things are changing for the better. How long it’s gonna take, that’s unknown, but there’s hope in there that maybe one day, it won’t be like this.”

Lucinea Canyfer Vasquez, the owner of Taqueria Monchy’s, spent most of the day at the register, but she joined her friend Rodríguez for some time as well. 

They sat at a table covered in printed QR codes. The papers led to fundraiser pages for the Salgado family and other families affected by ICE violence or detentions. 

Vasquez said the stories on the pages felt personal.

“My parents migrated from Mexico for a better future, for better opportunity, for a better education for their children,” she said. “So la familia Salgado resembles the hopes and dreams of all the Hispanic families.”

Vasquez knew Ronaldo, one of Salgado Araujo’s sons, from middle school. The situation was “heartbreaking,” she said, but the fundraiser was a way to give back and not face the pain alone.

“When the community is hurting, we come together,” Vasquez said. “And that’s what I love the most.” 

By the end of the day, Taqueria Monchy’s had raised over $6,000 for the family. 

From friendship to advocacy

Vanessa Escobar Acosta was also at Taqueria Monchy’s on Wednesday. Part of Amigos de los Salgado, a recently formed organization made up of friends and classmates of Ronaldo, she said they’re advocating to make sure the family’s wishes are seen through.

She said their work in the past two weeks has included community organization, pushing for a thorough investigation of Salgado Araujo’s killing, and drafting legislation.

“We don’t want this to keep happening and we truly believe that change will come at the legislative level, at the federal level as well,” Acosta said.

She said organizing from a place of personal connection has proven to be a matter of balance. The group wants to make sure they’re respectful of their place in relation to the Salgados, advocating for them, but never speaking for them. 

“It’s really difficult not to put yourself in the shoes of other folks who have lost family members, either by being detained or who have lost family members like the 10 deaths that we’ve had at the hands of ICE agents, right?” she said. 

“They can definitely sympathize with Ronaldo, but I think we just want to maintain a very respectful approach to the cause, the situation, how we carry ourselves, because it’s important to, like I said, just at the end of the day, honor the family’s wishes.”

Acosta said she sits with questions at the end of the day. Is she honoring those wishes as well as herself and her community?

But regardless of those questions, she said she doesn’t want people to shy away from taking steps forward.

“It’s really important that we keep mentioning Mr. Lorenzo’s name as humanly, as respectfully as possible, because another one of the unfortunate truths that we’re going to encounter is that  in the next few days, the news will blow over,” she said. “So however long it takes, the news will kind of just stop mentioning him.

“We don’t want to forget. We don’t want to forget that this happened.”

Remembering is a large part of Jessica Alanis Magdaleno’s experience in Amigos de los Salgado as well. Magdaleno, who sat with Acosta at Taqueria Monchy’s, said her connection with Ronaldo and his family formed in middle school. 

“I have memories of just being there with them, enjoying time there, being in the trampoline with them, my brother playing soccer with Ronaldo, the infamous chorizo that his mom would make,” she said. 

The time she spent at the Salgado’s house left an impact on her. But at the same time, she said, her encounters with Lorenzo himself were brief.

“We saw him towards the end of the day, it was a ‘hi and bye’ type of thing because he was always working, always, always working,” Magdaleno said. “He would come home late and tired, but he always still asked us how we were, or asked his wife how she was doing, how the day went.”

She said that ethic is what many members of Amigos de los Salgado knew him by. 

“That’s how we remember him, just a provider for his family, wanted the best for his family,” Magdaleno said. 

Taking to the streets

On July 19, a crowd gathered in Ervan Chew Park. Under tents for shade from the 95 degree heat, organizers passed out water, popsicles, and food. 

The crowd, organized by a coalition of 30 local groups, was calling for justice for Lorenzo. Members of the organizations said many of them might never have worked together if not for this cause. 

Christine Vo with Stand Up! Houston gives a speech during the mobilization on July 19. “We’re sick and tired of our city government refusing to do anything to protect our immigrant neighbors,” they said to the crowd. “Lorenzo could have been any one of us. He could have been any of our fathers, uncles, brothers. The entire city should be shutting down in the wake of this tragedy.” Photo by Paola Hoffman, Houston Newsroom.

Organizers said this would not be the last action for Salgado Araujo. 

There would be outreach training and press conferences still to come. Groups also put out a call to Shut It Down for Lorenzo with no business as usual on July 24.

But that Sunday, the rallying cry was “Justice for Lorenzo.”

Waiting in the shade for the program of speakers to begin, rising 7th grader Scarlett Castillo sat with her mother. She shared a sentiment that many of those speakers would go on to echo: “We’re fighting for our justice because no one’s gonna do it for us.” 

“Lorenzo was very hardworking and I’m pretty sure he was happy, but ICE just came and took that away from him,” she said. “And I don’t know if ICE calls that helping the country, because I don’t think that’s helping the country.”

Castillo said she thought about Salgado Araujo’s children and the sad moment they were in. 

Soon after, his two eldest sons, Ronaldo and Lorenzo Jr., took to the makeshift stage in the center of the crowd to speak.

Ronaldo and Lorenzo Jr. stepped up to the microphone to a wave of reactions.

The cheers and scattered exclamations eventually came together into a chant: “no están solos” – you are not alone.

Ronaldo reiterated his family’s demands for a transparent, independent investigation into his father’s death. 

He also took a moment to speak about the death of Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Maine less than a week after Salgado Araujo. 

“Out there in Maine, there is a young 3-year-old child who saw the worst of the worst,” Ronaldo said. “And it is terrible to think that this could happen again. We don’t want that to happen ever again.”

Lorenzo Jr. spoke as well. He ended his remarks with “I love you, Houston.” This was echoed back with chants of “we love you” from the crowd.

Ronaldo then took the microphone back.

“We as a family are extremely extremely thankful for all the support,” he said. “It’s very nice to see so many people, so many people of all backgrounds, races, colors, creeds, religions come together and try to ask for what’s right. Trying to ask for the bare minimum and it’s going to be justice. Is that too much to ask? 

“I hope you guys have a safe, powerful march. And thank you all for being here for my dad, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.”