Beyond the Border: Another fatal shooting by ICE, asylum application details shared with Iran and government critic intimidation

Here's what happened this week in immigration news.

Written by Rami Alarian, Edited by Kate Morrissey

Welcome to another edition of Beyond the Border, which summarizes immigration news from across the country in a weekly roundup. Did we miss something? Message us via kate@daylightsandiego.org or on Instagram.

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Killings by ICE

NBC News reported that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a Mexican immigrant named Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had been in the United States for roughly 35 years. The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Araujo rammed an officer’s vehicle. The department has made similar claims in the past that did not turn out to be true. The FBI said it sent an evidence team to investigate the claim of assault on a federal officer and not the killing.

Migrant Insider pointed out that the department has made similar claims in at least three other cases of fatal or near-fatal shootings by ICE in the past year and a half.

The federal agencies are not allowing Texas officials to participate in the investigation, The Washington Post reported.

The shooting took place about five minutes away from Houston’s FIFA Fan Festival, The Bulwark reported.

The Department of Homeland Security later said that Araujo was not the target ICE was seeking, The New York Times reported.

KPRC reported that Araujo's son described him as a devoted family man and hard worker who was trying to adjust his status. In an Instagram video posted by Families Belong Together, the son says that he recognized his father in the videos of the shooting by the sound of Araujo's voice.  

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has vowed to take legal action over the killing, KPRC reported.

The Washington Post reported that protesters have gathered in the area to denounce the shooting.

The federal government still has not charged anyone roughly six months after immigration officials killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, The Atlantic reported. The Department of Justice has declined to investigate Good’s killing, and federal agencies have blocked investigators from evidence. 

Intimidating critics

ICE officials visited a Syracuse poll worker, warning her to remove a social media post that named Jonathan Ross as the officer who shot Renee Good and asking her to sign a document that said her Instagram account had engaged in unlawful behavior, Syracuse.com reported.

The Associated Press reported that a United States citizen from Rochester, New York, sued ICE after officers visited his home in June over an email the man wrote to the former head of the agency in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Renee Good.

ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility, which acts as the agency's internal watchdog, has investigated more than 100 cases in which the agency said someone doxed or threatened an ICE employee, WIRED reported.

Deaths in custody 

Houston Public Media reported that Dallas County blocked the release of a full autopsy report for Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, a 41-year-old Afghan man who served alongside U.S. troops and who died less than 24 hours after ICE detained him earlier this year. 

Paktiawal's death certificate says that he suffered a fatal allergic reaction and lists “anaphylaxis complicating acute asthma exacerbation” as the reason and methamphetamine toxicity as a factor, the Associated Press reported. Paktiawal’s family denied drug use and said officers rejected the family's attempts to give them his inhaler. 

Augusta Free Press reported that Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones has joined 23 other state attorneys general in urging the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to reverse a policy that ended reporting of deaths occurring within 30 days of release from ICE custody. 

Operation Midway Blitz 

Block Club Chicago reported that most Border Patrol agents deployed during Operation Midway Blitz had over a decade of experience as veteran officers, many trained in crowd control. 

Since Operation Midway Blitz, fewer day laborers have shown up to a once bustling Chicago corner for contract work, Borderless Magazine reported. 

Five people filed lawsuits against unidentified Border Patrol agents and ICE officials over tear gas use and unlawful detention during Operation Midway Blitz last fall, Block Club Chicago reported.

End of asylum 

A lawsuit filed by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund alleges that the Trump administration shared confidential asylum application details of hundreds of Iranian detainees with Iran’s government since March 2025, NPR reported.

Borderless Magazine reported that a Chicago immigration judge ordered a Venezuelan asylum seeker deported to Ecuador.

Other stories to watch

CalMatters reported that CoreCivic, a private prison company, sold its Otay Mesa and California City immigration detention facilities to the Department of Homeland Security for $1.5 billion. 

The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration’s end to Temporary Protected Status for more than 330,000 Haitians has led to a fear that mass deportations could cause economic setbacks for Haiti. 

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has adopted a lower-profile approach to implementing President Donald Trump's immigration policies, scrapping former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s more public displays, POLITICO reported.

CalMatters reported that GEO Group, a private prison company, agreed to pay more than $100,000 to settle a case alleging it failed to protect immigrant detainee workers properly in California ICE facilities. 

The U.S. government sent 11 more immigrants to Eswatini, where most remain imprisoned, Reuters reported.

The New York Times reported that former Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan received a $5,000 fine and no jail time after she ushered an undocumented immigrant out of a side door as federal immigration officials waited for him. 

El Faro reported that a 24-year-old Salvadoran man’s whereabouts remain unknown nearly 16 months after the United States deported him to CECOT, a notorious mega prison in El Salvador, despite his family's efforts in court to find and help him.