At 6:50 am on Tuesday, July 7, Houston resident Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was on the way to his work of running a construction business when ICE agents tried to stop his white van. Video footage shows an agent’s car swerve into the van, and the vehicle come to a stop. Other footage starts moments later: men, including Araujo, on their stomachs, handcuffed. Araujo, 52, had been shot in the abdomen. He would die in the hospital.
The Department of Homeland Security promptly issued its standard denial, used to excuse other, comparable killings like that of Renée Goode. It claimed that Araujo had “weaponized his vehicle” and tried to hit an ICE agent with it, “resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”
The three other men who were in the van with Araujo—the only full witnesses to the shooting—remain in custody, reportedly under pressure to self-deport. But from behind bars they were able to reach Araujo’s family’s lawyer. They disputed the official account.
“That is a lie,” wrote Jose Trinidad Rojas in a handwritten statement to the lawyer, obtained by the Washington Post. “It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over … there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.”
Araujo’s family, too, were outraged by the official explanation. His sons said that their father knew exactly the consequences of resisting ICE. They’re certain, they said, that their father thought he was being carjacked during the incident—it had happened before, and the van contained expensive tools. How was he to know that his assailants, likely masked in an unmarked vehicle, were law enforcement officers?
States have reacted by passing laws to require federal agents to reveal their identity. The Trump administration has sued to have these laws overturned. Its latest target is New York.
In another incident from the same week, in the Chicago suburbs, masked agents slammed a man’s head into the ground, then menacingly jabbed a Taser towards another man who was filming them. When faces are covered, and in the absence of other identifying features, it’s unclear how victims of abuse might seek recourse.
Around the country, states have reacted by passing laws to require federal agents to clearly reveal their identity, rather than hide behind masks and unmarked vehicles. The Trump administration has sued to have these laws overturned. Its latest target in the courts is New York State, which recently passed a statute forbidding state and federal law enforcement agents from concealing their faces.
The Trump administration sued New York on June 23. The state countersued, to defend its new law, later that day.
“By hiding their faces and refusing to wear identification, federal immigration officers endanger New Yorkers and intentionally evade accountability,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “Our communities should not have to live in fear of being disappeared by unidentified masked agents. If the federal government wants to brazenly defy our laws, then we will fight tooth and nail in court to ensure transparency and keep all New Yorkers safe.”
Earlier that month, White House “Border Czar” Tom Homan had threatened Governor Kathy Hochul (D) with a surge in ICE activity. “I made her a promise: you’re going to see more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen in New York City, and it’s coming,” he said.
The federal government’s lawsuit claims New York is threatening the officers’ safety. “Law enforcement officers risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe, and they do not deserve to be doxed or harassed simply for carrying out their duties,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in an accompanying press release. “New York’s anti-law enforcement policies regulate the federal government and are designed to create risk for our agents. These laws cannot stand.”
“When you look at the history, public servants had to be accountable … But hiding behind masks? This is the kind of policing that occurs in coercive, authoritarian regimes.”
The Trump administration’s apparent outrage runs counter to the fact that law enforcement officers have, until recently, been expected to reveal their identities in all but very narrow scenarios, such as undercover work. That’s been the case since the start of modern policing.
“When you look at the history, public servants had to be accountable and revealing their identity is critical to accountability,” Josh Parker, deputy director of policy for the Policing Project at the NYU School of Law, told Filter.
Not long ago, Parker pointed out, an officer hiding their badge number during an encounter was considered scandalous. “But hiding behind masks? This is the kind of policing that occurs in coercive, authoritarian regimes: the KGB, Nazi Germany, the Stasi,” he said.
“It’s clearly just an intimidation tactic,” Parker continued. “It’s sowing fear, having someone in plain clothes, masked, aggressively approaching people.”
Law enforcement masking additionally seems to have facilitated a spike in people impersonating federal officers, for example to commit robberies. “In 2025 alone there were 31 cases of people posing as federal agents,” Parker said. “There had been five [on average] the years before.”
He also noted that no other branch of work in the criminal-legal system allows for anonymity. “Imagine if a judge or legislator remained anonymous. Public servants with so much power over people’s lives cannot hide their identity.”
“The Houston shooting, it’s predictable. This is the lack of accountability and transparency, with the masking and the intimidation.”
Lieutenant Diane Goldstein (Ret.) served with the Redondo Beach Police Department in California for 21 years, and is now the executive director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), which advocates for drug-policy and justice-system reform. She said that officers who hide their identity violate basic tenets of accountable policing.
“First and foremost, accountability and transparency, they undergird the entire legitimacy of the criminal justice system, not just policing,” Goldstein told Filter. “Policing requires accountability and transparency. Period.”
One of the reasons officers shouldn’t hide behind masks or “investigations” that conceal the truth, she continued, is that work such as preventing and investigating acts of violence is radically undermined when the public doesn’t trust authorities.
“In standard policing, even if the officer’s name isn’t obvious, there’s a badge number. That’s how you can file a complaint,” Goldstein said. “The Houston shooting, it’s predictable. This is the lack of accountability and transparency, with the masking and the intimidation. And it’s absolutely crazy they continue to say, Our officers need to be masked so they don’t get doxxed.”
Photograph (cropped) of ICE agents in Minneapolis in January 2026 by Chad Davis via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons 4.0
Lt. Diane Goldstein serves on the board of directors of The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter. LEAP was formerly the fiscal sponsor of The Influence Foundation. Filter’s Editorial Independence Policy applies.
