The shooting marks another in a series of deadly encounters during Trump’s second-term immigration enforcement crackdown, raising questions about federal tactics and oversight. The case also highlights disagreements between federal and state authorities about the circumstances of the encounter.
A federal immigration agent fatally shot a U.S. citizen on South Padre Island, Texas on March 15, 2025, newly released documents show. The Department of Homeland Security did not publicly disclose the death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, until this week. DHS said the driver intentionally struck the agent, but a state investigator indicated video evidence contradicted that account.
The shooting is the latest in a series of deadly encounters during Trump’s second-term immigration enforcement crackdown, raising questions about federal tactics and oversight. The case also highlights disagreements between federal and state authorities about what actually occurred.
The Incident
DHS said the driver “intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent,” resulting in another agent firing “defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.” An internal ICE incident report offered more detail about what the agency’s account portrayed.
The shooting took place after midnight, when HSI officers were assisting South Padre Island police redirecting traffic following a vehicle accident. Agents ordered a blue four-door Ford to stop. The driver initially didn’t respond but eventually did, according to the ICE report included in documents released this week through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
Once stopped, agents surrounded the vehicle and ordered those inside to get out. The driver “accelerated forward” and struck an HSI special agent, who wound up on the hood, the report said. An HSI supervisory special agent then fired his weapon multiple times through the driver’s side window. The vehicle stopped. Paramedics on the scene provided medical aid and Martinez was taken to a regional hospital in Brownsville, where he was pronounced dead.
The HSI officer struck by the vehicle was treated for a knee injury and released. The passenger, also a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody.
A Year Without Disclosure
Rachel Reyes, Martinez’s mother, said her son was celebrating his 23rd birthday that weekend, his first trip away from home. “He was a typical young guy,” Reyes told The Associated Press. “He never really got a chance to go out and experience things. It was his first time getting to go out of town. He was a nice guy, humble guy. And he wasn’t a violent person at all.”
Reyes said she first learned her son had been shot by a federal agent about a week after his death, when a Texas Rangers investigator contacted her. The investigator indicated there were videos of the shooting that contradicted the federal account, according to attorneys for the family. DHS did not immediately respond to questions about the existence of video evidence.
The Texas Department of Public Safety, which includes the Rangers, said the investigation into the shooting is still “active” and declined to offer more information. The state report was completed in October, and the case was to be presented to a grand jury for potential criminal charges, the investigator told Reyes.
Tactical Concerns and Context
Geoffrey Alpert, a police use-of-force expert at the University of South Carolina, questioned the positioning of the federal agent. “You don’t stand in front of the car, you don’t put yourself in harm’s way,” Alpert said. There is never a scenario where such positioning is justified, he added, “because you don’t know whether this person is going to flee, and if he flees, you could be dead.”
Experts in police training have raised similar concerns about federal officers being positioned in front of vehicles during enforcement operations. The placement contradicts standard law enforcement tactics for traffic stops.
According to the ICE report, the HSI agents involved were part of a maritime border enforcement security task force typically focused on combating transnational criminal organizations at seaports. In recent months, officers from across federal agencies have been reassigned to prioritize immigration enforcement under the Trump administration’s crackdown.
The Martinez shooting is part of a documented pattern of deadly encounters. In January 2026, ICE officer Jonathan Ross killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis, in the driver’s seat of her SUV. Trump administration officials initially characterized Good as a domestic threat who attempted to ram officers before multiple videos of the incident emerged that cast doubt on the government’s account.
Family’s Accountability Efforts
The family’s attorneys, Charles M. Stam and Alex Stamm, said they have spent the past year pursuing accountability and transparency.
“It is critical that there is a full and fair investigation into why HSI was present at the scene of a traffic collision and why a federal officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen as he was trying to comply with instructions from the local law enforcement officers directing traffic,” the attorneys said.
Reyes said she did not believe her son would have intentionally assaulted a law enforcement officer. “They didn’t give him a chance,” Reyes said. “It’s so excessive. They could have done anything else besides that. It’s like they shoot first and ask questions later.”
The cases of Martinez and Good are among at least six deadly shootings involving federal immigration officers since Trump’s second-term immigration crackdown began. The pattern has prompted investigations at the state and federal levels, with some officials questioning both the circumstances of individual shootings and the training and deployment of federal immigration enforcement teams.