White House Border Czar Tom Homan said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is making “record arrests” and expects enforcement to accelerate as the agency expands staffing — comments that come as Houston leaders and civil rights advocates demand transparency in a fatal ICE shooting in the city’s East End.
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Homan said ICE increased arrest activity after gaining additional resources, according to remarks he made to Fox News on Tuesday.
“ICE is making record arrests right now. We turned the heat up after we got the reconciliation bill, we’re able to open up the entire DHS. ICE in the last week and a half is making record arrests every single day, and we’re going to continue that,” Homan said, according to the Fox News clip.
Homan also pointed to additional agents still in training.
“We still got 2,000 agents to bring on, because they’re in the academy, so slowed down by the DHS being shut down, but we get those 2,000 additional agents on, you’re going to see those numbers even go higher,” he said, according to the clip.
Homan’s comments follow a deadly encounter in Houston that drew a heavy law enforcement presence Tuesday morning in the Magnolia Park area.
According to ICE, agents attempted a traffic stop around 6:50 a.m. July 7 in the 6800 block of Canal Street as part of what the agency described as a “targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien.” The agency identified the man who was shot as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national ICE said was in the United States illegally.
ICE said Araujo tried to flee, rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused verbal commands, and used his vehicle in an attempt to run over an agent. The agent fired “in self-defense,” ICE said. The Houston Fire Department said Araujo suffered a gunshot wound to his right flank and was transported to Ben Taub Hospital while CPR was in progress; officials said he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
ICE said the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General is leading the investigation into the agent-involved shooting and FBI Houston is investigating a potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.
More on this developing situation is expected to come out Wednesday.