The Southern District Court of Texas ordered the federal government this Tuesday to the “immediate” release of the second eyewitness to the death of the Mexican migrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. This is Daniel Tirado Pantoja, one of the passengers in the van they were traveling in on July 7 when they were detained by unidentified agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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“The defendants are ordered to proceed with the immediate release from custody of the plaintiff within 48 hours from the issuance of this order,” reads the document signed by district judge Alfred H. Bennett, who labels the detention as “illegal.” “He must be released in a public place within the Southern District of Texas.” It adds that the lawyers or family must be notified three hours before the time and location where ICE will release the migrant.
The judge assured that the authorities must submit to the court within the next 72 hours an update report on the release of Tirado Pantoja.
The court issued the order following a habeas corpus petition from Tirado Pantoja’s lawyers. The Mexican migrant, who has resided in the United States since 1996 and has no criminal record, had been in detention since July 7. Tirado Pantoja is one of the three material witnesses of the immigration operation in which Salgado Araujo died after being shot by an ICE agent.
“They cannot re-detain him while his removal processes continue without a prior hearing where the Government would have to again demonstrate that he does not represent a flight risk or a danger to the community,” explained to EL PAÍS Tirado Pantoja’s lawyer in the habeas corpus petition, Raed González.
On July 7, Tirado was traveling in the back seat of the van driven by Salgado Araujo. They were on their way to a construction site where they would work. When the agents’ pursuit ended on Canal Street in the Hispanic neighborhood Magnolia Park, Tirado Pantoja was detained and taken to the Montgomery Processing Center along with José Trinidad Rojas, 51, and Víctor Salgado, 44, brother of the deceased migrant.
Rojas, 51, was released on July 29 after a judge ruled that keeping him detained could violate his constitutional rights. Only Víctor Salgado remains in federal custody. This Tuesday marks 50 days since his detention.
What happens with Víctor Salgado
With frustration, immigration lawyer Ruby L. Powers, who represents Salgado’s brother, explained this Tuesday to EL PAÍS that they are still awaiting a response to Víctor’s habeas corpus petition.
Last week, Powers said, she filed a petition to expedite the court’s decision, but it is not possible to know when a possible order for Víctor Salgado’s release will be issued.
“It has already been a long time. He has to be released,” the lawyer said on the phone, explaining that during her last visit to him last Sunday, she noticed he was thinner and with a deterioration in his mental health. Powers explained that Víctor Salgado has not been able to sleep well since his detention: “Every time he hears a door close, he thinks about the shot. He is not well.”
Powers has opened several avenues for Víctor to leave the Montgomery center and have immigration protection: a habeas petition before a district judge; a parole petition because he has a pending application for a U Visa, for being a witness to his brother’s crime, and a previous decision says that applicants for that benefit should not be detained or deported; and a motion to terminate the case before the immigration court, because he already has pending petitions and cannot be deported until they are resolved.
The testimony of the three witnesses to the death of the Mexican migrant is key to understanding the sequence of events that led ICE agents to shoot Salgado Araujo, although none of the passengers in the van were sought by ICE in the operation that morning, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) specified.
Their versions differ from those shared by the DHS with the media after the incident. The agency initially claimed that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo had tried to evade arrest and ram one of the ICE vehicles. They said that led the officer to shoot at them and that he did so in self-defense.
In a previous interview, Powers explained — citing her client’s testimony — that the agent who fired ran from a vehicle parked behind Salgado’s van to the passenger window. From there he gave the order to stop and almost simultaneously fired the bullet that killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
The official verification of the facts is complicated because the ICE officials involved in the operation were not wearing body cameras nor did their vehicles have cameras. That is why these three men are a fundamental piece in the investigation into the death of the Mexican migrant.
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