We know the cost, but the Trump administration has at last conceded the principle: transparency is necessary.
A Life Cut Short
Salgado Araujo, 52, was a husband and the father of three American sons. He spent 35 years in the United States.
He built homes, ran a construction business, and put his children through college.
A year and a half before his death, he submitted fingerprints while seeking permission to work legally, his son said.
He was still waiting for one arm of the government to answer when another killed him.
He was driving his crew to a job when ICE agents in unmarked vehicles mistook him for someone else.
They wore no body cameras.
DHS says he rammed an ICE vehicle and tried to run over an agent, who fired in self-defense.
At least two of the surviving passengers dispute that account, saying no agent stood in front of the van and that the shots came through its passenger side.
No released footage supports the government’s version.
Whatever investigators establish about every disputed second, the encounter has exposed something larger.
For years, the laziest response to police violence has been that the dead would still be alive had they simply obeyed.
That argument was always inadequate. Here, it nearly collapses altogether, because obedience requires recognition.
Salgado Araujo’s family had discussed what to do if ICE detained him: sign nothing, remain calm and work through lawyers.
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