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Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas and across the country have increasingly targeted people who are not already in law enforcement custody, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of federal data.

In Houston, where the killing of an immigrant by an ICE agent has garnered national attention, the monthly number of ICE arrests outside of detention facilities has more than quadrupled, even as in-custody arrests are still more common. The number of arrests in public spaces and homes jumped from a monthly average of 150 under former President Joe Biden to more than 640 under the first 13 months of the Trump administration. Those made up nearly a third of all ICE arrests in the city as of early March 2026, rising from 16% under Biden.

Statewide, the share of community arrests jumped from 14% to 36% of all arrests. Meanwhile, the increase nationwide was smaller, growing from 34% to 43%.

This shift in strategy from jail pickups to arrests in broad daylight can raise risks of violent altercations in public places, an immigration professor and immigration lawyer warn.

That’s what happened this week when ICE agents fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, they said.

DHS’s Account of Salgado Araujo Killing Is “A Lie,” Witness Says

“The shooting of the gentleman in Houston is exactly the tragic outcome to the kind of on-the-street encounter between ICE and residents of local communities that has become increasingly common — but also increasingly violent,” said César Cuauhtémoc García-Hernández, an immigration law professor at Ohio State University.

Salgado Araujo, a father of three, was driving his van to work Tuesday morning when ICE agents in unmarked black vehicles stopped them. A Mexican citizen who had lived in Houston for 35 years, he had no criminal record. He was also not the target immigration agents were looking for when they stopped his van, and his son said he was also in the process of obtaining legal residency.

An updated........

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