The Mystery Of Lorenzo Salgado

Did he or didn’t he? Without body camera evidence, this latest killing incident is another case of “He said, but he said,” regarding the actions of illegal immigrants and ICE agents. 

Let’s just lay out the facts as we know them. Lorenzo Salgado, an immigrant from Mexico who had lived in the U.S. for 35 years, ran a construction business and was, by all accounts, a positive contributor to his community. However, for whatever reason(s), he never bothered to apply for U.S. citizenship. That is mystery #1.

According to his family, Salgado left home last week, heading for another typical workday in his van. Allegedly, per ICE statements, the agents were conducting a “targeted enforcement operation” when they detained Salgado. And, allegedly, Salgado attempted to break free of ICE’s detaining action by allegedly ramming an ICE vehicle and driving toward an ICE agent, who then shot Salgado in self-defense. The Salgado family and eye-witness passengers deny that Salgado did any such thing, and therefore, the shooting was needless. Which version of events to believe is Mystery #2. More on this later.

In defending ICE’s action, the Department of Homeland Security noted that the reason the ICE agents were not equipped with body cameras was the lack of funding brought on by lengthy government shutdowns engineered by leading Democrats. DHS also noted that now that funding has finally been secured, the body cameras will be provided to all field agents. This is not only to capture incidents involving immigration enforcement, but to protect the agents who have experienced an exponential increase in attempted and actual assaults against them.

Those locals who believe the Salgado family’s version of events are demanding that the Houston mayor open an investigation into the shooting. Thus far, the mayor has declined to do so. Is this Mystery #3? Seems like if this mayor (a Democrat) has anything in common with his counterpart in Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, an investigation would already be underway. Certainly, Democratic leadership in Congress (Hakeem Jeffries) is loudly demanding an investigation. The DHS will assuredly conduct an internal investigation, but it’s doubtful that the Democrats will give that any credibility, unless it actually determines wrongdoing on the part of the ICE agent(s). And, if ICE’s account is to be believed, that is a doubtful conclusion.

Mystery #4 could be this: Who was Salgado employing in his business? One version of events claims that he was picking up employees on the way to the job site that fateful day. What employer does that, unless there is perhaps something to keep hidden about your employees? Why else would ICE have this man on their radar, unless he was possibly providing jobs for illegal aliens and sheltering them from deportation? There were three people in the van at the time of the incident, including Salgado’s brother. Were they employees of Salgado’s business? All we know for sure is their eyewitness denial of ICE’s version of the events that led to Salgado’s shooting.

Rather than playing the blame game, it’s way past time for the politicians on both sides to have a serious discussion about how to handle situations like Salgado’s – people who came into the country illegally, but have been productive members of their communities ever since, although they never have fully assimilated by applying for U.S. citizenship. There are obviously many such individuals nationwide, and if Democrats had their way, we’d just leave them alone and allow them to live out their lives here in the USA. However, shouldn’t there be a “statute of limitations” on how long someone can stay in the country without attaining citizenship status? Unless and until some meaningful parameters are built into immigration laws, the Democrats will continue to demagogue about how heartless Trump and Republicans are to continue chasing down “innocents” like Salgado. And, without proof that Salgado was doing something more nefarious than not seeking U.S. citizenship, that is a tough argument to overcome.