One of the witnesses to the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at the hands of a federal agent was released from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention Wednesday, under a federal judge's order from two days earlier.
Federal prosecutors, in a motion filed in court Wednesday, called for the judge to overturn his order that allowed Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego to be released after more than three weeks in custody, arguing the ruling conflicted with a recent action by a federal appeals court.
Pliego was one of three passengers in Salgado Araujo's van when he was fatally shot July 7. All three were detained by ICE shortly afterward. The legal teams for the other two witnesses, Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo – Lorenzo's brother – and Daniel Tirada Pantoja, have filed similar petitions for their release from detention. The three witnesses are immigrants, as was Salgado Araujo.
The witnesses were traveling with Salgado Araujo on their way to a construction site in North Houston for work, when the shooting occurred during what ICE called a "targeted enforcement operation." An ICE spokesperson claimed in a statement that Salgado Araujo tried to ram officers with his vehicle and one of them fired in self-defense. The three passengers have all refuted ICE's account, according to their attorneys. TheNew York Timeslater reported that none of the men in the vehicle were ICE's intended targets.
RELATED: Congressional Democrats demand ICE reforms in wake of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s killing in Houston
Pliego was reunited with his family Wednesday afternoon, according to videos posted on social media by one of his attorneys, Hugo Balderas-Ibarra. The videos showed Pliego embracing his loved ones.
The first stop Pliego made after leaving the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe was the memorial at the scene of the shooting in Houston's predominantly Latino East End.
"He wanted to go and pay tribute to – pay respects to – his former boss and longtime friend, Lorenzo," Balderas-Ibarra said in a video posted to his social media page.
A video of Pliego at the memorial, captured by KHOU, shows him laying flowers at the site on Canal Street and speaking briefly in Spanish. He told reporters there he wants justice for Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father of three, and that he misses him.
Balderas-Ibarra says Pliego is asking for privacy and space to grapple with the shooting.
"He wants time to mourn and really grasp everything and spend time with his family," the attorney said.
Federal prosecutors challenge release order
The same day Pliego was released, prosecutors filed a motion to stay the federal judge's order to release him pending an appeal.
The motion had no immediate impact on Pliego as U.S. Judge Keith Ellison had not ruled on it as of Wednesday night, court records show. According to his lawyers, Pliego is allowed to remain out of detention unless the judge or a higher court rules in the federal prosecutors' favor.
In the filing, submitted to the court by the newly-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Aaron Reitz, prosecutors cite a recent case,Rodriguez v. Ortega, in which the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently vacated its own ruling by a panel of justices that an immigrant in that case was entitled to due process and could not be held in mandatory detention without a hearing. That ruling was stayed so it could be reconsidered by the full court of justices. Prosecutors argued that Pliego's case aligns with the action by the higher court.
One of the immigration attorneys working on Pliego's case toldHouston Public Mediathey will file an opposition to the motion by the end of this week, adding that many of the arguments made by the prosecutors were already addressed by Ellison in his Monday order.
Cesar Espinosa, the co-founder and executive director of FIEL Houston, an immigrant rights advocacy group, said his organization is calling for Pliego and the other witnesses to be protected. Espinosa has joined several calls for an independent and transparent investigation into the killing of Salgado Araujo.
"If the government wants to guarantee transparency then we must do all we can to protect these key witnesses," FIEL Houston wrote in a statement. "We have to use all the resources available to make sure we keep everyone safe."
Copyright 2026 Houston Public Media News 88.7