Judge orders ICE to release second witness to fatal Texas shooting

Second Passenger Freed After Houston Judge Rules ICE Detention Unlawful

Provpnadvice.com – A federal court in Houston has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to free a Mexican national who was riding in the van of a man killed by agency officers last month, marking the second time a judge has compelled ICE to release someone connected to that fatal shooting. The ruling underscores growing judicial scrutiny of how the agency holds witnesses and bystanders following its own use of force.

Daniel Tirado Pantoja, a Mexican citizen with no criminal record, had been confined at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, since the incident. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett — appointed during the Obama administration — granted his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, finding that continued confinement would infringe his constitutional right to procedural due process.

“After reviewing the authorities and the record, the Court determines release is the appropriate habeas relief for the unlawful detention in this case,” Bennett wrote in a three-page order.

The judge emphasized that Tirado Pantoja “has no criminal history, is not a flight risk, and does not otherwise pose a danger to the community.” The order mandates that ICE free him within 48 hours and file a written status report within 72 hours. Additional conditions require the agency to conduct the release at a public location, notify his attorney or a designated friend of the exact time and place at least three hours in advance, and return any identification documents seized during his detention.

The Shooting and Its Aftermath

The case traces back to last month, when ICE officers pursued a van driven by Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old construction-business owner who had resided in the Houston area for roughly 35 years. According to his family, Salgado Araujo was close to securing legal status in the United States and was the father of three American citizens. An officer fired and killed him during the encounter.

Three people were riding in the vehicle at the time. Tirado Pantoja was one of two passengers; the other, José Trinidad Rojas Pliego, was ordered released by a separate federal judge in Houston earlier last month. A third occupant, Victor Salgado — the deceased driver’s brother — remains in ICE custody.

Agency officials have maintained that Salgado Araujo turned his vehicle into a weapon against officers before one of them shot him in self-defense. Passengers in the van and members of his family have contested that version of events, describing unmarked ICE vehicles that trailed the van and then boxed it in on both the driver’s and passenger’s sides before shots were fired.

Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), whose district encompasses portions of Houston, told reporters last month that Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the operation. She cited a direct conversation with acting ICE Director David Venturella in which he confirmed the point.

Legal and Policy Implications

The habeas mechanism at work here is one of the oldest tools in American law: a writ compelling a custodian to justify why a person is being held. In the immigration context, courts have increasingly applied it to challenge prolonged detention of individuals who are neither charged with crimes nor formally ordered removed. Bennett’s order signals that, at least in this district, holding a non-citizen witness indefinitely without a judicial finding of flight risk or community danger crosses a constitutional line.

The order also sets a procedural bar for any future attempt to re-detain Tirado Pantoja. Should ICE wish to hold him again, the agency must appear before an immigration judge and present what the court calls “clear and convincing evidence” that he poses either a flight risk or a danger to the public — a substantially higher evidentiary threshold than the mere suspicion that often accompanies initial apprehensions.

For families and advocates tracking the case, the ruling arrives amid a broader pattern of litigation in Houston federal courts over ICE detention practices. Two separate judges have now ordered the release of passengers from the same vehicle within weeks of one another, suggesting that the agency’s practice of holding bystanders pending internal review may be colliding with due-process requirements that apply regardless of citizenship status.

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security had not responded to requests for comment as of Monday’s filing. The agency’s next steps — whether it will comply promptly, seek a stay, or attempt re-detention under the heightened standard — will determine whether this order functions as a one-time correction or as a template for similar cases across the district.

For the Salgado Araujo family, the release of another passenger offers a narrow measure of relief but does not resolve the central question: why their relative was shot, and whether the agency’s account of the encounter withstands independent scrutiny. That inquiry, separate from the detention issue, remains open.