Houston — A federal judge on Monday ordered U.S. immigration authorities to release a key witness in the fatal shooting of a Mexican homebuilder by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ordered the release of Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego from ICE custody within 48 hours, after the judge previously blocked his deportation. Ellison agreed with Rojas Pliego’s argument that his detention violates his Fifth Amendment due process rights.
Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, an attorney for Rojas Pliego, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under Ellison’s order, CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV notes, ICE must release Rojas Pliego in a public place within the Southern District of Texas and give his attorney at least three hours’ notice before doing so. The agency must also return all of his personal property, including identity documents such as a driver’s license or passport.
Rojas Pliego was one of three passengers in a van driven by Lorenzo Araujo Salgado when Araujo Salgado was shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop. All three passengers were taken into ICE custody.
The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the July 7 shooting that Salgado Araujo had “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer” and that the officer had fired in self-defense. But Rojas Pliego and another passenger wrote in statements submitted in court that the officers were to the sides of their van, never in front or behind it. Rojas Pliego described the government’s account as “a lie.”
The top prosecutor in the Houston area, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, told CBS News his office is “more than prepared” to prosecute federal immigration agents if it finds criminal wrongdoing in Salgado Araujo’s shooting.
Araujo Salgado, a 52-year-old father of three, had been living in the U.S. for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal status, according to his family. He had no known criminal record. His killing, one of at least 10 during immigration enforcement operations since the start of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign, sparked widespread protests in Houston and calls for an independent investigation.
Rojas Pliego also had entered the U.S. decades ago and had not gained legal status, according to his stepdaughter, Griselda Silva.
He has a pending application for a U-Visa, a special legal status for victims of certain crimes who have suffered physical or mental abuse and assisted law enforcement, according to the judge’s order. If granted, he would receive a four-year work permit, protection from deportation and a path to a green card.
If immigration agents seek to detain Rojas Pliego again, they’re required to notify him and hold a pre-detention hearing, the judge wrote.
