An incident in Houston, Texas, has sparked the wrath of leftist Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Mexican national and illegal alien Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed during an ICE enforcement action after agents say he attempted to ram them with his vehicle during an escape attempt.
Araujo was an illegal immigrant who had been living in the US for over 30 years. The altercation began when ICE vehicles attempted a traffic stop on Araujo while he was taking a crew of illegal aliens to their jobsite. It was later revealed that the ICE officers were not searching for him, but rather another suspect in the area with a similar van.
Araujo refused to comply with the officers’ verbal commands and instead tried to escape. He rammed his van into one of the ICE agents’ vehicles and then hit one of the agents with the van. The ICE agent subsequently fired a single shot at Araujo, hitting him in the torso. He was taken to a hospital and later succumbed to his injuries.
Following the shooting, three other passengers in the van were arrested and held in immigration detention. Left-wing activists mobilized to protest the shooting, arguing that the assault was justified because he did not know the officers were ICE. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum issued a fiery response, threatening “significant legal measures” against the United States.
She stated in Spanish that “We cannot tolerate the mistreatment of our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters, in the United States … this occurred in the context of detention, even though their only offense was lacking documentation — and this despite having been hired by a U.S. company.” She went on to argue that America has no right to hold people like Araujo in detention or “subject them to violence”.
While Sheinbaum’s screed is full of falsehoods relating to the incident, the most egregious is the notion that America lacks the authority to apprehend foreigners who illegally enter our nation.
America, according to her, must allow Mexican nationals to come and go from our country at will, but cannot require any sort of documentation or citizenship. And if one of them attacks our law enforcement officers, responding with force is “subjecting them to violence”. The crux of Sheinbaum’s argument is that Mexico deserves the rights and protections of a nation-state, but America does not.
Claudia Sheinbaum portrays Araujo as both a Mexican who was victimized by American law enforcement, while simultaneously being a red-blooded American who belongs in our country. So, which person was he? We will never receive a clear answer from her because, like other members of the Open Borders left, she is arguing in bad faith. They do not apply standards equally and always twist reality to their advantage when possible.
If Mexico wants to begin taking responsibility for its citizens, perhaps it should begin by preventing them from illegally invading the United States. If Araujo had followed America’s laws—respecting our territorial sovereignty and not assaulting our nation’s law enforcement—he would still be alive today. Texans for Strong Borders supports ICE no matter what violence they face, whether it be from Antifa activists shooting at them or illegal aliens trying to ram them with vehicles.