ICE agents shot and killed a US citizen in Texas — DHS did not initially report it
Incident is the sixth known fatal shooting involving federal officers since Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement
HOUSTON, United States (MNTV) – U.S. immigration agents shot and killed an American citizen in Texas during a traffic incident last year, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not initially disclose the incident, according to a new report.
Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was shot and killed last March, the Associated Press reported.
The AP noted that the incident is the sixth, and earliest known, fatal shooting involving federal officers since the Trump administration intensified immigration enforcement.
The shooting involved a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) team working alongside local police, and came to light following the release of documents obtained by American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog organization, through a Freedom of Information Act request.
According to a DHS spokesman’s account to Border Report, federal agents were assisting the South Padre Island Police Department with traffic control following a major accident when a driver in a blue Ford allegedly struck an HSI agent.
“Upon witnessing this, another agent fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public. The driver was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased,” the spokesman said.
However, internal documents paint a more nuanced picture. They indicate that officers were directing traffic when Martinez’s vehicle approached, that he was told to stop — though no reason for the stop was given — and that he did initially comply.
The vehicle was then surrounded and its occupants ordered to exit, at which point it accelerated forward, striking an agent and prompting the shooting. The injured federal officer was hospitalized with a knee injury and later released.
“Since Ruben’s death a year ago, all we have wanted is justice for him, and we have struggled with the silence surrounding his killing,” Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, said in a statement to CBS News.
“Now, the country is in crisis, and, terribly, heartbreakingly, other families are enduring what we have… It’s my hope that attention being raised now into Ruben’s death will help bring the justice we want for him and the answers we haven’t had.”
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