ICE kills again

0:00When they write the history books about Trump to Trump harder, I imagine they'll have to dedicate an entire chapter to Minneapolis. Homeland Security called ICE's Operation Metro Surge the biggest immigration enforcement operation in the department's history. Protesters called it fascism. Two Americans were killed by ICE and the backlash went nationwide. The Trump administration had to call off the operation. The guy in charge of it lost his job. Eventually, the head of Homeland Security lost her job. There's maybe no better example of the Trump administration making a major course correction.

0:37But it's been over six months since that mess, and ICE is back. It's quieter now, there's less shock and awe, but there's a new boss and deportations are up. And the killings are back too. We had one last week in Texas and one just this morning in Maine. So we're going to talk about a second ICE age on today's Explain from Vox. Lululemon's new drop of daily essentials feels like a deep breath of fresh air. Breezely is a collection of drapey pants, shorts, and tanks designed to mix and match with your wardrobe as the weather warms up. It's all made in our lightweight, stretchy, swift fabric. Throw on these everyday staples after practice and bring an airy feel to your daily moves.

1:20Shop the Breezely collection now at lululemon.com. Plan B is a backup birth control option that's there for you when things don't go according to plan. It specifically works after unprotected sex and before pregnancy occurs by temporarily delaying ovulation. Plan B is available nationwide at all major retailers and through delivery apps like DoorDash. No ID, prescription or age requirement. It's the number one OBGYN recommended brand of emergency contraception, and it won't impact your future fertility. That's freedom to be. Use as directed. This is Today Explained. Today Explained, Sean Ramos from the thing about these ICE killings is that time and again you get the ICE version of events and then eventually you get another version that hues closer to the truth.

2:11Someone died in Maine this morning and the details are still forthcoming. But we have more to say about the shooting one week ago in Houston, Texas. So we asked Houston Public Radio's Bianca Seward on the show to tell us what we know so far. Yeah, well, we've learned a lot over the last week as to what exactly happened Tuesday morning. And there's still a lot of outstanding questions. But I can take you back to Tuesday afternoon when the first time we heard about the shooting.

2:37We had a very small statement from ICE just kind of detailing their very short account of what happened. And according to an ICE spokesperson, they were attempting to do a targeted enforcement operation, arrest Salgado Barrajo. And they say during that traffic stop, during that moment, during that encounter, they claim that Salgado Barrajo was weaponizing his vehicle, attempting to evade arrest, attempting to ram an ICE officer with his car when the officer fired his gun. He was shot in the abdomen and then taken to Bentob Hospital, a hospital here in Houston, where he later died of his wounds.

3:11But it wasn't until the early afternoon when we, the public and reporters, began to hear about what had happened. And at that moment, we had very little to go off of. Did people initially take that account as the, you know, unimpeachable truth? Or was there immediately suspicions that there may have been another side of the story? It was almost immediate that immigrant rights organizations like LULAC and the family were disputing the account. We do not believe them. They're playing by a playbook. They're using a template in shootings and murders that have happened across the country time and time again.

3:51And it is time to stop. We don't expect the truth from the Department of Justice or from the FBI. We expect a whitewash. Mostly we just didn't have a lot to go off of. We had the very short statement from ICE and we had almost no details from the family. The family themselves were looking for more answers. It took them a while to figure out what had happened to their father when he had passed. Around 7 a.m. I was notified by my mom that something bad had happened to my dad. We didn't know what. All we knew is that it was ICE related. I saw a video posted on Facebook that he had been shot. I recognized him immediately.

4:30Not from his appearance, but from his voice, crying for help as he lay on the street, bleeding out. So a lot of outstanding questions Tuesday night, and the calls for accountability, transparency, began immediately.

4:49So how long does it take until we get a differing account of what happened on Tuesday morning. The next morning, we started to hear from the family. Two of Salgado Araujo's sons, Ronaldo and Lorenzo Jr., spoke to the public and started to offer just details about who their father was and that they believed their father would have complied, that he was trying to just go to work and they didn't believe that their father would be acting aggressively, ramming his car or attempting to evade arrest. They said it didn't sound like his father, but it would take a few more days before we got any more credible accounts about people who were in the car with Salgado Araujo.

5:24And when did that happen and what did they say? On Thursday, we started to see reports online that the detainees, the men who were in Salgado Araujo's car, who were also detained by ICE, started to kind of come out through their lawyers, speak out about their experience. On Friday, the lawyer for two of the men who were detained, Hugo Balderas, said that... I can tell you with conviction that my clients' versions of the events are extremely different from what ICE agents are saying or what the agency is saying. Essentially, they were saying that at no time was there an ICE agent in front of the car, that he came, the approach to the side of the car, that the shots fired from the side of the car, basically discredited in the idea that Salgado O 'Rejo was ramming his car with an officer or was ever trying to run an officer over.

6:07They allege that the account happened completely from the side and that the officer fired immediately upon exiting his vehicle. How does the city respond to this differing account? Yeah, there's been a lot of calls for Houston Police Department to do an independent investigation for anybody on the Houston official level to launch an investigation. And it's kind of unfolded over the week in a bit of a confusing manner, I think, for the public. District Attorney Shantier did say on our radio that. My office is running an investigation, but we do not have the same level of access that we do in almost any other officer-involved shooting.

6:45We ourselves have seen people from the district attorney's office going to different gas stations in the area and other businesses to ask for surveillance footage. But the problem that Tear is outlining is that they haven't been invited by the federal authorities to collaborate or work alongside them. So Tier is clear that he may not be privy to all of the evidence that federal authorities do collect during their own investigation. Right now, the Federal Bureau of Investigations is the one leading the inquiry, but their investigation is clearly into the potential assault on a law enforcement. It doesn't say that it's into the shooting as a whole to find exactly what happened.

7:20And how is ICE responding to this account that disputes theirs? We've asked repeatedly about allegations that their account is not fully accurate or that it's missing details or that it implies that Salgado O 'Rejo was behaving in a way that he might not have been. And we've gotten no answers. We haven't got any kind of comment about the allegations that the account is not credible or if they want to add any more to their initial statement. So how are we going to find out the truth, if we are at all? It's going to be a difficult process. And part of the thing that complicates that is that ICE and DHS has said that the officers on the scene were not wearing any body cameras and they had no dash cam video of the incident.

8:01So they're saying that the ICE agents on the ground have no video to share with the public. Like, we are starting to see clips on social media from those surveillance videos, from the footage at gas stations or from witnesses who were filming as well. Start to circulate online that show different parts of the shooting and different parts of the encounter. But we're still not getting the most full, clear picture yet. Hmm. Could you tell us about this individual, Lorenzo Salgado Rajo? Who was he? Yeah, from what we've learned from his sons, he got to Houston in the early 90s and has been here since, working in construction, helping build homes in the Houston area.

8:39They said, you know, he would go to work all day, come home and be with his family. My father was a simple man, a family man, a man of routine.

8:52He dedicated his life in the United States to giving his family the American dream. My father was a private man, a man who dedicated his life to work. You can find him every evening after work, resting on his porch, listening to music, petting his dog. You know, he's the father of three sons, all of whom have gone on to college and are now working in teaching professions or as engineers. And they describe him as a shy man, a man who loved his family, a man who cared for his sons, a man who loved the Chivas soccer team from Mexico. So, you know, someone that they deeply miss.

9:34And was he undocumented? Did he have warrants out for his arrest or anything of that sort? As far as we can tell, we've done our searches within Harris County and in other databases that we found no criminal record so far. And the Suns also say that there was no criminal record for him, that he hadn't had any issues with the law. He was undocumented. But the sons shared with us last week that he was working to obtain a work permit, so could have been on the path. His sons were all born here in the United States, so are themselves citizens. And I think the family was starting to look at ways to legitimize their status here.

10:07And was ICE after him on Tuesday morning, or was this like a case of mistaken identity or what? Well, no. Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of their investigation. They did say that they were targeting another man and Salgado Arrajo was picking up men on his way to work. So DHS spokesperson has said that they were targeting another man that they believe got into the van with Salgado Arrajo. It's not clear if they were correct, if the man that they were targeting was the man that got in the van. They have confirmed that Salgado Arrajo was not the intended target, that his brother who was in the car was not the intended target.

10:43But they haven't come out and said that, yes, it was one of the other men who had final removal orders or had an administrative warrant out for his arrest. They just say that they were targeting an individual and they believe he got in the car with Saigado Orojo, which is what prompted their chase. Houston obviously is not Minneapolis, but there are some similarities between what happened here. And I mean, most obviously, I think what happened to Renee Good in Minneapolis, if you think about someone behind a car and ICE's account, which says that, you know, an agent was at risk from someone behind the wheel of a vehicle.

11:19How is Houston responding? Yeah, there's been protests and there's been vigils this week. ICE out of Houston! ICE out of Houston! People are here to work. Families are dying. People are dying. What are they doing? Murdering, innocent Mexican people. They come to work. They come here to work. So what if they don't got papers? So what? And yeah, they're kind of latching onto that confusion to the similarities of the narratives, not only with Renee Good being accused of ramming her vehicle into an ICE officer agent and later the video showing that that was not necessarily the case. But it's also happened here in Texas in South Padre Island, just way south in the Rio Grande Valley.

11:59A year ago, another man was accused of ramming an ICE officer and the video didn't really conclude that to be the case. So this is a narrative that Houstonians have heard before, and immigrant rights advocacy organizations immediately find suspicious. That's what they've said. They don't have trust in the organization. They don't have trust in the narrative. And they want more transparency. They want accountability. They want to know what happened as best as they can recount.

12:27Do you see any signs that the death of Lorenzo Salgado-Rajo might lead to changes in how ICE is operating in Houston? It'll be hard to tell. This is an organization that's been really emboldened by the Trump administration. So it'll be hard to see if there will be motivation to change practices. One thing that we did learn is that Representative Sylvia Garcia said she spoke with acting ICE director David Venturella, who specifically about the lack of body cameras on these agents. He promised her that all agents in the field would have body cameras by the end of the month. But DHS spokesperson later clarified it would be within 60 days.

13:02So that may be a change that we see coming on the horizon. When we asked DHS about why the agents weren't wearing body cameras, they blamed the, quote, Democratic government shutdown. They said it takes time and money to outfit these agents. And because of the government shutdowns, they were held up in distributing the cameras.

13:32We're going to talk about the surge in ice activity and the new guy in charge of the agency when we're back on Today Explained.

13:57support for the show today comes from built there's no way around it housing is expensive rent mortgage it doesn't matter which one you're paying built was created to help ease The Sting. Built started out rewarding members on their rent. That's what they were known for. But now, in 2026, this current year, it's not just for renters. Built members can now earn points on mortgage payments wherever they live. Every housing payment earns you points you can use toward flights with top travel partners like United and Hyatt, Lyft rides, Amazon.com purchases, and much more. You can download the Built app and join the Built membership for where you live at joinbuilt.com.

14:48slash explained. Don't spell it with a U because it's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash explained. Use our link so they know we sent you.

15:07Support for the show today comes from Shopify. If you've been sitting on a business idea, this could be your sign. Don't wait. Shopify can help you get it off the ground because everything you need to start selling is included and ready from day one. Shopify can be your day one. Shopify lets you choose from hundreds of beautiful templates that you can customize to match your brand. Setup can be fast with Shopify's built-in AI tools that write product descriptions and headlines and even help you edit product photos. Marketing is built in too. You can create email and social campaigns that can help you reach customers wherever they shop.

15:39As your business grows, Shopify grows with you so you can handle more orders, expand new markets, and do it all from the same dashboard. With Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business, so go make it one. Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash explained. That's Shopify.com slash explained. Shopify.com slash explained.

16:06Support for the show comes from Hymns. If bedroom performance has been on your radar lately, you're not imagining it, and you're not alone. ED is more common than most people think. But getting real treatment is simple. And through HIMSS, it's 100 % online, like your nephew. With HIMSS, you just complete a short online intake and a licensed provider will review your information to see if treatment may be right for you. To get simple online access to personalized affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, Visit hims.com slash explained. That's hims.com slash explained. For your free online visit, hims.com slash explained.

16:52Not available in all 50 states, sorry. Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Sidenafil is the generic version of Viagra. Viagra is a registered trademark of Viatris, specialty LLC. Hims is not affiliated with or endorsed by Viatris.

17:15This is Today Explained. My name is Eric Bazeli-Miel, and I'm a national security reporter at Politico, who covers the Department of Homeland Security. Eric, you and your colleagues recently reported on Mark Wayne, Mullen's first few months leading the Department of Homeland Security. How has he changed this department, if he has at all? The biggest change has been optically, right? We're not seeing less enforcement. In fact, we are still seeing, you know, the Department of Homeland Security carry out the president's ambitious immigration crackdown. ICE is intensifying operations across the country.

17:48Sources telling NBC News almost 10 ,000 people have been arrested in just five days. You're going to see these arrest numbers climb because we've got to arrest these people. We can't wait for them to commit another crime to find them. We've got to find the criminals and the non-criminals, and that's exactly what we're doing. But optically, perceptively, it is a significantly more discreet and professionalized operation. They're not focusing on the shock and awe tactics. that were really common under Secretary Kristi Noem and the deputies that she had elevated within the department. Oh my God, ISIS is here at the car wash.

18:22Like they're animals, they're human beings.

18:28Policía! It was an early morning shock outside Sabrina Medina's front door. Video captured by Medina and neighbors shows a large number of ICE agents, accompanied by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. You're seeing grandmas, you're seeing children, You're seeing families. You're seeing business owners. You're seeing people who are just standing in line waiting to go to work, being snatched out of those lines, hauled off by men in masks, never to be heard from again, presumably. Arrest as many people that touch you as you want. Gas on bill! Gas on bill! Instead, we've seen an emphasis of the arrest when people are already in local or state custody.

19:08That's governed by something called a 287G agreement, which allows ICE to cooperate with those jurisdictions and pick people up who are on unrelated crimes that may have a final order of removal. We're just not seeing as many of those, you know, incidents where we see, you know, a band of ICE agents go surrounding a car and pulling people out. And we're not seeing surges of immigration officers into major U.S. cities that are, in the eyes of the Trump administration, not doing enough to collaborate with federal law enforcement and with federal immigration officers. So that change has meant that even though the numbers are still high, they're still deporting and detaining thousands of people, you know, throughout the courses of weeks, right?

19:46Like, we're not seeing that register in the same visceral way that it did, you know, under Kristi Noem in such a way that it actually really tainted the Trump administration's standing with voters on immigration. Why were we ever seeing that? Did Kristi Noem have some sort of mandate from the president to make this look as horrendous as it looked? There's a couple things that were going on there. There was a school of thinking that is especially championed by immigration hardliners, really like the toughest hawks on immigration enforcement, that the only way you deter people from coming to the United States is not just to shut down the border, but to make it difficult to live in the United States and to create a culture of fear, you know, that you could be rounded up and deported and separated from your family.

20:30These shock and awe tactics, in at least some vein, were intended as a deterrent. We will hunt you down. If you come to this country, you will not get the chance to return. And Noem's decisions, elevating Gregory Bravino, who was a pretty, like, random-off Border Patrol commander, to be essentially the point person for how deportation operations were taking place, was a sign that she believed that that message was important. We're going to turn and burn to that next target, and the next, and the next, and the next, and we're not going to stop. There's also the factor that we can't separate with Kristi Noem, is that she had higher political ambitions.

21:05And clearly, her messaging strategy was not about the department, but a lot of it was about her. The advertising campaign that had her at Mount Rushmore. You cross the border illegally, we'll find you. Her standing with the big cowboy hat at the border. What is she, hiding her face like her ICE agents now? By the way, is this what the$800 billion went to? Every day we see her after there's some new tragedy in Homeland, she's wearing a different outfit with a different hat. Those photo optics also fit into this idea. She was the face and the implementer of this immigration crackdown. And so that public strategy also played into the secretary's personal ambitions at the time.

21:42Markway Mullen just isn't that kind of guy. He doesn't need that kind of optical performance to have a good relationship with Trump. Their relationship goes back to, and Mullen talked about this in his confirmation hearing, to when his son had a traumatic brain injury when Trump was president the first time, and Mullen at the time was a House member. The president found out about it and he gave me a call immediately and the president didn't understand the severity of it, but he heard it in my voice and immediately he went to work. I told him we had to get to Bakersfield, California, to the Center for Neural Skills.

22:08And the president offered to send his plane, his personal plane. So they have a longstanding relationship. Mullen's also a man, which, as we've seen with the cabinet firings recently, like if you're a woman, your position is potentially more precarious in the cabinet. And that certainly plays a role in those discussions. And so it's also just a question, too, of who was leading the department and the tone they were trying to set. So we're not seeing the Operation Metro Surge-style tactics that were toxic for this administration earlier this year and got a reaction all over the country, if not the world.