Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is moving forward with legal and diplomatic action in the United States following the fatal shooting of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston, intensifying pressure on federal authorities to provide a transparent account of the encounter.

Salgado Araujo, 52, was shot on July 7 in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood as he drove members of his construction crew to a job site. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said officers were searching for another person when they noticed a white van and someone who resembled their intended target.

DHS said Salgado Araujo failed to follow commands, struck an ICE vehicle and attempted to use his van to run over an officer. The department said the officer fired in self-defense. Salgado Araujo was wounded in the abdomen and later died at a Houston hospital.

Federal officials have not publicly released video of the shooting or identified the officer who fired. DHS has acknowledged that the officers involved were not wearing body cameras. The absence of footage has become a central concern for Salgado Araujo’s family, local elected officials and civil-rights organizations, which say an investigation controlled primarily by federal agencies may not provide sufficient public accountability.

Salgado Araujo’s relatives reject the government’s description of the encounter. They have said he may not have understood that the occupants of the unmarked vehicles surrounding him were federal officers and could have believed that people were attempting to steal the tools and equipment he used for his construction business. His family said he had lived in the United States for about 35 years, had no criminal convictions and was working toward obtaining lawful immigration status.

Sheinbaum initially announced that Mexico would pursue measures exceeding the diplomatic protests it had previously submitted over the treatment of Mexican citizens in U.S. immigration custody. Her government has since described a broader legal strategy involving complaints or requests for investigation directed to state prosecutors and the Justice Department.

Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco said the government wants U.S. authorities to investigate whether criminal responsibility exists in cases involving Mexican nationals who died in detention facilities or during ICE operations. Mexico cannot itself bring U.S. criminal charges, and American authorities are not legally required to act on its requests. Prosecutors at the federal or state level would decide whether the evidence supports a criminal case.

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry says 17 Mexican citizens have died in circumstances connected to ICE during Trump’s second term. Fourteen died while held in detention centers, while three died during enforcement operations. The Mexican government says it previously sent 11 formal diplomatic notes seeking explanations and accountability.

The legal initiative also includes possible civil action against private companies operating immigration detention centers. Mexican officials have begun sending cease-and-desist letters to facilities where Mexican citizens died, alleging failures such as delayed medical treatment and conditions incompatible with accepted medical or detention standards. The first letter was directed to the Adelanto immigration detention facility in California, where Mexico says four of its citizens died.

Mexico has also asked U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to gather information from U.S. authorities and assess whether the deaths and detention conditions are consistent with international human-rights obligations. Officials have sought protective measures through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, although those international mechanisms cannot substitute for a criminal investigation conducted by U.S. authorities.

In Houston, pressure for an investigation independent of ICE and DHS has increased. Mayor John Whitmire and Police Chief Noe Diaz asked the Texas Rangers to examine the shooting after residents and local officials criticized the city’s initial response. Diaz said the involvement of the state investigative agency could promote greater transparency and coordination among local, state and federal authorities.

The DHS Office of Inspector General is handling a federal investigation, with the FBI and other agencies participating. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare has said his office is pursuing investigative avenues available to local prosecutors. Houston authorities have also transferred evidence, including emergency-call records and available surveillance material, for review.

Three men riding in Salgado Araujo’s van — his brother, Víctor Salgado, and co-workers José Trinidad Rojas and Daniel Tirado Pantoja — were detained after the shooting and remained in ICE custody as the investigation continued. Teare has certified them as material witnesses, a step that could support immigration protections allowing them to remain available to investigators instead of being removed from the country.

The treatment of those witnesses has become another point of contention. Attorneys and relatives have argued that deporting or pressuring them to accept voluntary departure could deprive investigators of firsthand testimony about the moments before the shooting. ICE has not publicly provided a complete account of the men’s detention or indicated when they could be released.

A separate investigative dispute emerged after federal authorities disclosed a search warrant concerning plastic bags containing a crystal-like substance found inside the van. An attorney representing Víctor Salgado said the material was granulated salt that construction workers mixed with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte drink during extreme Texas heat. Harris County officials said they did not believe the substance was an illegal drug, while federal authorities had not publicly announced definitive laboratory findings.

Salgado Araujo’s family held a public visitation in Houston on Thursday before gathering privately to mourn him. Photographs from his life, construction tools and live mariachi music were included in the service. Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who represents part of Houston and has demanded greater transparency from DHS, attended and offered condolences to the family.

The shooting has triggered protests in Magnolia Park and at Houston City Hall, with demonstrators calling for the officer’s identity to be released, evidence to be made public and an outside agency to determine whether the use of deadly force was justified. Members of Congress from the Houston area have also asked DHS for records concerning the operation, the officers’ training, the absence of body cameras and the department’s use-of-force procedures.

The case now carries consequences beyond the investigation of a single officer. For Sheinbaum’s government, it has become part of a wider challenge to U.S. immigration detention and enforcement practices. For American authorities, it is a test of whether overlapping federal, state and local inquiries can produce findings considered credible by the victim’s family, Houston’s Mexican American community and the government of a neighboring country.