Legacy media outlets have been spinning tall tales about Texas ICE agents in recent months, trying to stoke backlash against immigration enforcement. But they’re not telling the full story.
Two shootings of illegal aliens in particular have garnered extensive coverage: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, during July, and Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez in Austin, during September. In both cases, mainstream media cast the men as innocent victims and questioned the agents’ use of force.
But the coverage failed to consider what actually led to the shootings in the first place.
To understand the full picture, we must ask what happened in the moments before officers fired their guns. ICE agents are facing a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks and a 1,300% increase in assaults. But based on the media’s coverage, you’d never know it.
In the Houston incident, Salgado Araujo allegedly tried to evade arrest, rammed an ICE vehicle, refused multiple commands, and tried to run over an ICE officer in his van, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The agent reportedly fired in self defense, and the suspect died. The investigation is still ongoing.
In the Austin case, ICE agents found Garcés Pérez had a final order of removal, tried to stop him, and told him to exit his vehicle, according to prosecutors. He allegedly struck an officer with his vehicle’s side mirror and tried to flee, then tried to drive toward an ICE officer who shot him. Federal prosecutors charged Garcés Pérez with assaulting and resisting a federal officer.
These details are crucial to understanding why federal officers say they used force. But this was apparently inconvenient to legacy media outlets, who were committed to turning these incidents into stories about ICE targeting illegal aliens.
For instance, Time magazine published a fluff piece about the Houston suspect’s sons “fighting to protect immigrant families after a tragedy.” Local outlet KUT News profiled the Austin suspect’s “quiet life of ‘family, soccer, and work,’” while Texas Monthly emphasized that he was “delivering food for DoorDash when he was stopped, shot in the upper back, then taken to Dell Seton Medical Center.”
This is far from the whole story. But that didn’t matter to the legacy outlets that produced these stories and delivered this tightly wrapped narrative to their Democrat friends.
For example, Democrat state Rep. James Talarico, who is running against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton for Senate in November, claimed that ICE simply shot Garcés Pérez in the back.
“ICE said they would go after criminals, but Wilber Perez came to this country legally,” Talarico said. “He has no criminal record, yet ICE agents shot him in the back while he was doing his job making food deliveries.”
Democrat U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro also jumped at the opportunity to smear ICE. “ICE has shot, they’ve killed people,” he said in a video. “He was apparently talking to his wife, I believe, when he was shot. And she heard him screaming and crying out.”
These stories stoked levels of hysteria unlike anything seen when illegal aliens attack law enforcement.
For instance, The Texas Tribune has published at least 45 articles mentioning Salgado Araujo, and eight covering Garcés Pérez. But the outlet does not have one story about illegal alien Jose Santiago Pantoja-Morales, who shot a Dallas ISD police officer in August.
When Pantoja-Morales flagged down Dallas ISD officer Justin Jones on the freeway, the officer offered him a ride. While in the patrol car, he began rummaging through the officer’s bags. A struggle ensued, then Pantoja-Morales allegedly grabbed Jones’ gun and shot him.
The Daily Signal reached out to The Texas Tribune for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
In January, ICE also arrested Robyn Argote Brooks in San Antonio after authorities said he refused commands during a targeted vehicle stop. He backed his vehicle toward an ICE officer, rammed one ICE vehicle, and then struck a second ICE vehicle, injuring an officer, according to DHS. The agency described the incident as part of a broader increase in vehicular attacks against federal officers.
Journalists should investigate allegations against federal agents, question the use of force, and demand evidence. But the same standard should apply when the person being arrested is accused of violently resisting officers or attacking them.
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
