Win of the Week: Harris County takes the Lorenzo Salgado Araujo killing to a grand jury.
We opened today’s Mission Wednesday with a bittersweet win. Nothing can bring back Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father who was shot and killed in his work van by ICE in Houston’s East End on July 7. But maybe we can still get justice.
DHS claims self-defense; witnesses inside the van say otherwise. ICE fired into a moving vehicle from an unmarked car — a tactic most big-city departments banned years ago because it doesn’t stop the car and it kills bystanders.
The federal government withheld the ICE agent’s name for nearly three months, from the public and from Congress. This week, the Texas Tribune identified him as Gregory Feathers.
Harris County DA Sean Teare refused to let the feds investigate themselves — he opened his own investigation with Texas DPS, got the county to fund it, and now has a grand jury sitting, meeting Wednesdays and Fridays. At least three witnesses have testified, including a man who was in the van when the shot was fired.
No federal prosecution. No cooperation. No name for 84 days. It took a county DA to build a case and get witnesses in front of a grand jury, in the same week Hennepin County, Minnesota, officials got an ICE agent into a courtroom on assault charges.
In both cases, accountability came from local officials, despite the Trump administration’s best efforts.
That’s the story of today’s Weekly Mission Briefing, too: the people closest to the ground are the ones who can still act.
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT: THE FIGHT TO PROTECT THE VOTE RUNS THROUGH YOUR COUNTY SHERIFF
The beating heart of DEFIANCE.org is our Weekly Mission Briefing. Every Wednesday at 5p ET, we take real action to counter Donald Trump’s abuses of power.
Most people have no idea what role a sheriff plays in protecting — or threatening — an election. This week, we found out.
So here’s what we did about it this week…
FIRST, we sat down with Bucks County (PA) Sheriff Danny Ceisler, a former Army intelligence officer who holds one of the top law enforcement offices in one of the most contested counties in the country — Trump carried Bucks by a few hundred votes in 2024 and publicly accused it of “cheating” over early-voting lines. We asked Sheriff Ceisler what his actual legal authority is on Election Day, what he thinks of DHS’s unsubstantiated claim of 300,000 suspected noncitizen-voting cases, and how he’s preparing if federal agents show up at one of his polling places on November 3.
SECOND, we brought in JJ Briscoe, National Organizer for the Talk to Your Sheriff campaign at The Workers Circle. What started as a campaign to get sheriffs to stop cooperating with ICE has grown into a public pledge asking sheriffs nationwide to commit to not undermining elections, not interfering with ballot counting, not obstructing the peaceful transfer of power, and keeping ICE away from polling places.
THIRD, we welcomed Juan Cuba, Executive Director of Sheriff Accountability Action, which monitors the “constitutional sheriff” movement and holds sheriffs accountable when they overstep. We asked him about Riverside County (CA) Sheriff Chad Bianco, former California gubernatorial candidate, who sent deputies to seize 650,000 ballots this spring over what turned out to be a 103-ballot discrepancy — before the state Supreme Court ordered every ballot returned. Juan’s team builds the early-warning systems meant to catch the next Bianco before it gets that far.
YOU MADE THIS POSSIBLE.
YOUR MISSION, IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT
As a DEFIANCE.org Member, you’re already refusing to let democracy die on our watch. But if you want to do even more this week, here’s what you can do…
1️⃣ Ask Your Sheriff to Sign the Pledge. Ask them to publicly reaffirm their commitment to the Constitution, the rule of law, and elections authorized by election officials and courts.
👉 Go here
2️⃣ Get Educated on Your Local Sheriff Race. There are over 1,200 Sheriff races across the country. The results can have a profound impact on your community and our democracy in 2028.
👉 Google: “[Your County] Sheriff Election”
3️⃣ Get More Involved (optional). If you’ve been moved by this issues and want to get more involved, visit and support Sheriff Accountability Action
👉 Go to SheriffAccountability.org
👇 Badge below
🖥️ IF YOU MISSED IT
You can watch the full Weekly Mission Briefing at the top!
As always — stay loud, stay brave, and stay together.
Best,
The DEFIANCE.org Team
THIS WEEK ON THE ANT HILL
THURS, OCT 1 — SHOW US YOUR ANT-ITUDE! — We wanna see your DEFIANCE swag, your original artwork, your unique ways of shouting out your defiance to the world in creative ways. Send your pics to our editor here.
THURS, OCT 1 — DEFIANCE BOOK CLUB — Our current selection is: 1984 by George Orwell. We’ll be discussing chapters 3 & 4 in our Members-only chatroom @ 2:30 pm ET. It’s never too late to join the party! Visit your library or favorite bookstore to pick up a copy.
FRI, OCT 2 — DOGS OF THE DEFIANCE — That’s right…even our furry friends are sticking it to the man. Do you have a dog (or a cat or a horse or a rabbit or a ferret…) that would sooner lift their leg on Trump than play fetch? Send us a pic, and they might be featured in a future issue! Because fighting authoritarianism is hard work, a little fun is important too. :)
GROW THE DEFIANCE
DEFIANCE Members are absolutely crushing it, spreading the word about our club for the courageous to their friends. There is strength in numbers, and that’s exactly what defiance requires. Here’s how you can help build our numbers—and get a shoutout on the Daily with Miles and Xander:
Use the buttons provided to share your personal referral link on X, Facebook, or email. Or, copy the link (circled in the example below) to share it via text or other social platforms.
