By Alejandro Serrano, Ayden Runnels and Colleen DeGuzman
Three months into President Donald Trump’s mass deportation undertaking, an ICE officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen in South Padre Island, long before immigration agents killed another American in Minnesota that prompted outrage across the nation, according to records released this week that were not previously disclosed by the government.
Agents assigned to a Department of Homeland Security subagency fatally shot 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez of San Antonio multiple times in the early hours of March 15 while they helped local police direct traffic at the scene of a car crash, records released by American Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog, show.
In a statement Friday, DHS confirmed the shooting and accused Martinez of “intentionally” running over an agent, who was taken to a hospital for a knee injury and later released, according to records of the incident.
Local media had reported on the shooting but it was not clear until this week that federal immigration officers were involved. At least half a dozen other people have died during the nations’ immigration crackdown under the Trump administration.
American Oversight released a trove of records on Tuesday related to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of force, training and oversight after suing for the documents. The records also detail another non-fatal and previously unreported incident that occurred in Beaumont a month before Martinez’s shooting.
“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,” his mother, Rachel Reyes, said in a statement. “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.”
The DHS incident report chronicles a chaotic scene that resulted in death. DHS agents wrote in the report that Martinez failed to follow traffic instructions, so they surrounded his car. When he accelerated, according to the report, Martinez allegedly struck an agent who ended up on the hood — which prompted another agent to unload an unspecified number of rounds through the driver’s side window.
“The vehicle came to a stop and both driver and passenger were immediately secured,” the report states. Federal agents took Martinez to a hospital in Brownsville, where he later died.
The Texas Department of Public Safety’s Rangers are investigating the shooting. A DPS spokesperson said the agency is not going to comment on the incident since it’s an active investigation.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office also declined to comment and referred questions to DHS. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker of the House Rep. Dustin Burrows did not respond to questions for comment on Saturday.
In a brief interview Friday, American Oversight’s Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said it was concerning how blatantly the one shooting contradicted DHS’ official messaging about the president’s mass deportation effort, characterized by the administration as being mired by attacks on officers, and how unforthcoming federal authorities were about the killing of an American.
“What they’re telling the public is very different than what they’re doing behind closed doors. The only reason why we’re able to make these connections and really call into question the public statements that they’re making to mislead the public is because we’re able to get our hands on these documents,” Chukwu told The Texas Tribune. “That should deeply concern everyone.”
News of the shooting arrives as the nation reels from federal agents, assigned to carry out the president’s immigration crackdown, shooting to death two other Americans in Minnesota.
In Texas, Democratic leaders have been raising alarms about the clampdown across the country and the state’s involvement, thanks in part to Republican state leadership that is politically aligned with the Trump administration.
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin said Friday night that she had requested a legislative oversight inquiry to release the body cam footage of Martinez’s shooting. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro called for a thorough probe into the shooting, “including why there was an 8-month cover up.”
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones also weighed in, calling for a congressional investigation into the shooting.
“In normal times, I would call upon the appropriate departments to investigate this matter,” she said in a news release on Saturday. “However, we’re not in normal times, and it’s unclear any department-led investigations would be fairly executed, as evident by the delay in getting answers at this point.”
In recent years, Texas DPS, which is investigating the shooting, has pushed the boundaries of a state law enforcement agency’s involvement enforcing immigration law.
After Abbott deployed troopers to the Texas-Mexico border during the Biden administration, the agency has under the Trump administration shifted its resources to helping federal immigration authorities apprehend thousands of undocumented people far from the border and in the state’s largest cities — marking an unprecedented use of state resources for immigration enforcement.
Colleen DeGuzman contributed reporting.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
