ICE’s Shift to Street Arrests Culminates in Fatal Houston Shooting

On Tuesday morning, 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican construction worker who had lived in Houston for 35 years and was a father of three, was fatally shot by ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle. He was not the target of the stop; his van was halted while he was driving to work. In Houston, the monthly average of ICE arrests made outside detention facilities rose from about 150 under the Biden administration to more than 640 during the first 13 months of the Trump administration, accounting for roughly one-third of all ICE arrests in the city by early March 2026. Statewide, community arrests climbed from 14 percent to 36 percent of total arrests, while the national share increased from 34 percent to 43 percent. In February 2026 ICE made roughly 7,100 arrests nationwide, including 1,660 in Houston, a sharp rise from the 4,200 arrests recorded in February 2025.

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Immigration scholars say ICE has moved from “jail pickups” to “non-custodial” arrests to meet the Trump administration’s “aggressively unprecedented” deportation goals. The data illustrating this shift come from the Deportation Data Project, which obtained federal records through Freedom of Information Act requests. The Department of Homeland Security publicly rejected the analysis, calling the project’s work “cherry-picked…to peddle a false narrative” and questioning its methodology. Texas, home to more than 1.6 million undocumented residents, and Harris County, with an estimated 600,000 undocumented people, provide a large pool of potential targets.

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The DHS statement disputed the project’s findings, while Governor Greg Abbott threatened to withhold state funding from Houston over policies limiting police cooperation with ICE. In response, Houston altered its ordinance to retain $114 million in public-safety grants. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged legal action following the killing, and local civil-rights groups have called for an independent investigation.

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Experts warn the new strategy raises the risk of violent confrontations and racial profiling. Immigration-law professor César Cuauhtémoc García-Hernández notes a “mathematical limitation” as immigrants are statistically less likely to commit crimes, while Houston lawyer Paúl Pirela warns that “mistakes will happen and then you’re putting people in danger.” Community organizer Getsy Hernandez observes that “the operations have purposely been done behind the scenes.”

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• “The shooting of the gentleman in Houston is exactly the tragic outcome to the kind of on-the-street encounter between ICE and residents of local communities that has become increasingly common — but also increasingly violent,” — César Cuauhtémoc García-Hernández, immigration law professor, Ohio State University

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• “To meet the aggressive and historically unprecedented deportation promises that the Trump administration has made, ICE has to start targeting people who are not on the radar of the local police or incarcerated,” — César Cuauhtémoc García-Hernández

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• “By doing the non-custodial arrest and doing these public raids in crowded areas, mistakes will happen and then you’re putting people in danger,” — Paúl Pirela, immigration lawyer, Houston

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• “And the dangerous part is that it could lead to more violence,” — Paúl Pirela

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• “This data is being cherry-picked by the Deportation Data Project to peddle a false narrative,” — Department of Homeland Security statement

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