A 23-year-old Texas man was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent during a traffic control operation on South Padre Island in March 2025, according to documents released Friday by the Department of Homeland Security. The shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez had been reported by local media at the time, but the involvement of a federal Homeland Security Investigations agent was not disclosed until The Associated Press reported on the newly released records.
The incident is one of at least six fatal shootings by federal agents since immigration enforcement operations intensified in the Trump administration’s second term. The disclosure raises questions about transparency in federal use-of-force incidents and the circumstances that led to the shooting.
What Happened
Ruben Ray Martinez was driving with a friend from San Antonio to South Padre Island on the night of March 15, 2025, to celebrate his 23rd birthday. The beachside destination, a popular spring break spot, promised a weekend getaway.
Instead, he was shot and killed by a Homeland Security Investigations agent during a traffic control operation, according to internal records released Friday by the Department of Homeland Security. The documents were disclosed following a lawsuit by American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog organization, under the Freedom of Information Act.
According to an ICE report, HSI agents were assisting South Padre Island police in directing traffic at a busy intersection following a vehicular accident shortly after midnight. When a blue four-door Ford approached the agents, they ordered the driver to stop. The driver initially did not comply but eventually halted the vehicle.
After agents surrounded the car and ordered the occupants to exit, the government account states the driver accelerated forward and struck an HSI special agent, causing the agent to end up on the vehicle’s hood. A supervising HSI agent standing beside the car then fired multiple times through the open driver’s side window. The vehicle stopped. Martinez was pronounced dead at a regional hospital in Brownsville after receiving three gunshot wounds, according to his mother, Rachel Reyes. The passenger, also a U.S. citizen, was detained.
The Investigation
DHS said Friday that the driver “intentionally struck” an HSI special agent and that another agent subsequently fired “defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents and the general public.” The department did not respond to questions about why no public statement had been issued in the 11 months following the shooting.
The HSI agents involved were part of a specialized maritime border security enforcement team that normally focuses on combating transnational criminal organizations at ports. In recent months, agents from several federal agencies have been reassigned to prioritize immigration law enforcement.
Texas Rangers took over the investigation as the primary investigating agency. Reyes said a Ranger investigator contacted her about a week after her son’s death and told her that video footage of the shooting contradicted the federal version of events. The investigator told her that a state investigation report had been completed in October and the case would be presented to a grand jury for possible criminal charges, she said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday that the investigation remains “active” and declined to provide additional information. The Cameron County District Attorney’s office and the South Padre Island Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
His mother, Rachel Reyes, described him as a typical young man who had just turned 23 days before the incident. Martinez worked in an Amazon warehouse and enjoyed playing video games and spending time with friends. He had never had problems with law enforcement, she said.
“It was a typical young guy,” Reyes told The Associated Press. “He really never had the opportunity to go out and live experiences. It was the first time he had left the city. He was a good kid, a humble kid. And he wasn’t a violent person at all.”
Reyes said she did not believe her son would intentionally strike a police officer. “They didn’t give him an opportunity,” she said. “It’s so excessive. They could have done something else besides that. It’s like they shot first and asked questions later.”
Geoffrey Alpert, a police use-of-force expert at the University of South Carolina, questioned the tactic of an agent positioning himself in front of the vehicle. “You don’t stand in front of the car, you don’t put yourself in danger,” Alpert said. “There’s no scenario in which that is justified, because you don’t know if this person is going to flee, and if they do, you could die.”
Alpert said investigators would likely examine how quickly Martinez moved the vehicle forward, whether he simply lifted his foot off the brake or pressed the accelerator firmly.
A Pattern of Incidents
The Martinez shooting was the first of at least six fatal shootings by federal agents since immigration enforcement operations intensified under the Trump administration. In January 2026, Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, died from gunshot wounds inflicted by an ICE agent as she sat in her truck. Trump administration officials initially characterized Good as a “domestic terrorist” who attempted to strike agents with her vehicle, but multiple videos of the incident later emerged that contradicted the government’s account.
Martinez’s lawyers, Charles M. Stam and Alex Stamm, said in a statement that they had spent the past year seeking accountability and transparency. “It is critical that there be a full and impartial investigation into why HSI was present at a traffic collision scene, and why a federal agent shot and killed a U.S. citizen when he was attempting to comply with instructions from local police officers directing traffic,” the lawyers said.