Court Stops Deportation of Witness Linked to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo Sh00ting as Legal Battle Intensifies
A federal judge has blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE from deporting one of the witnesses in the deadly ICE officer shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison has ordered the federal agencies not to deport or remove Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, a passenger in Salgado Araujo’s van, while also ordering the feds not to move him to an immigration facility outside the Southern District of Texas, according to court records.
The order comes after Rojas Pliego’s attorney filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court on Monday, seeking his release from ICE detention. Attorneys for the other two passengers in the van have filed similar requests.
According to The Texas Tribune, Rojas Pliego has lived in the United States since 1998 and has no criminal record. The Tribune also reports he is in a common law marriage with a U.S. citizen, with whom he has three children and four stepchildren.
