DHS agent killed US citizen in March last year, records reveal

"A federal immigration agent shot dead a citizen of the United States in March 2025, months before the Trump administration began its deportation surge in Minnesota that led to the shooting deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. According to records released this week, Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was killed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents, lawyers for his family said in a statement."

"A DHS agent fired multiple rounds at Martinez, who allegedly hit another DHS agent with his car as the agents assisted local police in South Padre Island, Texas, with traffic control following an accident on March 15, 2025, according to the records obtained by American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group. The records are part of a tranche of heavily redacted internal documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that the nonprofit obtained as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit."

"Martinez, who worked at an Amazon warehouse, had never had any prior run-ins with law enforcement, his mother, Rachel Reyes, said. He was a typical young guy, she told The Associated Press news agency. And he wasn't a violent person at all. Martinez, who was identified as a US citizen in the redacted records, was taken to hospital in nearby Brownsville, Texas, where he was later pronounced dead."

A Department of Homeland Security agent shot and killed 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025, during immigration enforcement. Agents were assisting local police with traffic control after an accident when Martinez allegedly struck an agent with his car and another agent fired multiple rounds. Martinez, an Amazon warehouse worker, had no prior law-enforcement encounters according to his mother. He was taken to a Brownsville hospital and pronounced dead. The incident appears in heavily redacted ICE records obtained via a FOIA lawsuit by American Oversight, coinciding with a sharp early-administration spike in ICE use-of-force incidents.

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