Harry Litman: A Foul Smell from the ICE Fatal Shooting in Texas

[Nevilledog]

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/a-foul-smell-from-the-ice-fatal-shooting

There was a time when the federal government’s record justified withholding judgment, when, in the wake of another gut-wrenching killing by ICE agents, a fair-minded person could count on the Department of Justice to investigate its own officers and bring charges if the facts warranted them.

That time is long past. ICE is now a rogue agency. It has lied about and obstructed the investigation of previous killings, and it has been regularly contemptuous of court orders. As the chief judge of the federal district of Minnesota wrote, “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.” The presumption of regularity—the baseline courtesy we once extended to the government’s account of what its agents did—has been put through a wood chipper.

So when word emerged of another ICE killing—this one in Houston, of a longtime resident named Lorenzo Salgado Araujo—and ICE immediately claimed that the victim had “weaponized his vehicle” to run down an officer who fired only in self-defense, there was every reason to expect the worst.

And the worst is just what we’ve gotten—not just in the facts of the killing itself, but in the federal government’s apparent determination to circle the wagons and smother any effort to achieve justice.

It is a fetid, still-unfolding scandal, and it has come in four stages: the killing; the official excuse; the evidence that gives that excuse the lie; and the wagon-circling to foreclose any accountability.

*snip*