Records show ICE agent fatally shot U.S. citizen nearly a year ago in Texas, as lawmaker seeks public hearing

A Texas Democratic lawmaker is invoking a newly created state legislative rule to force a public hearing into the March 2025 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old U.S. citizen by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, CBS News has learned, a case raising further transparency and oversight questions about the officials enforcing President Trump’s deportation crackdown.

The proposed hearing would examine the shooting death of Ruben Ray Martinez in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025. While his death was reported at the time, ICE’s involvement in the shooting was not disclosed until this week, over 11 months after the shooting.

Democratic Texas state Rep. Ray Lopez, who serves as vice chair of the Texas House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety and Veterans’ Affairs, said he formally exercised authority under Rule 4, Section 6A of the Texas House Rules to compel Committee Chairman Cole Hefner, a Republican, to schedule a hearing on Martinez’s death.

Lopez said it is the first public use of the provision, which was adopted during the 89th Legislative Session that concluded last June. The rule requires a committee chair to “promptly schedule” a hearing designated by the vice chair. Lopez requested a written response from Hefner by the end of business on Feb. 23. It was not immediately clear when a hearing might be scheduled.

Local news outlets in Texas reported on Martinez’ killing last year, but the involvement of federal immigration agents in the fatal shooting was first revealed earlier this week by Newsweek, which used government documents recently released by the American Oversight Project, a nonprofit ethics watchdog, to connect the death with an internal ICE report.

The internal ICE report, which redacts Martinez’s name, stated that the March 15 incident involved agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, who were helping South Padre Island police officers control traffic in the late night hours following a major car accident.

The report describes a blue Ford approaching the area where the ICE agents were directing traffic. The driver of the vehicle “failed to follow instructions,” the internal report reads, and tried to continue driving. After commands from the agents, the report said the vehicle “slowed to a stop.” The agents surrounded the car and directed the driver to exit the vehicle, the report said.

The driver then “accelerated forward” and struck one of the ICE agents, according to the report, which said the federal officer “wound up on the hood of the vehicle.” At that point, according to the report, another ICE agent fired “multiple rounds” at the driver through an open side window. The driver was given first aid and then transferred to a hospital in Brownsville, where the report said he was pronounced dead. 

A passenger who was in the vehicle, also a U.S. citizen whose name was redacted, was taken into custody at the scene by South Padre Island police, the report states.

The agent who was struck by the vehicle was taken to an area hospital with a knee injury, where they were treated and released, ICE said in its report.  

In a statement provided to CBS News, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, confirmed the fatal shooting, alleging that the driver “intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent resulting in him being on the hood of the vehicle. Upon witnessing this, another agent fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.” 

DHS said the incident is under investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Ranger Division, and deferred questions to Texas DPS. 

Christopher Olivarez, a Texas DPS spokesperson, confirmed to CBS News Saturday that an investigation was underway, adding, “We have no further information to provide.” 

Lopez argued that federal and state authorities failed to publicly disclose ICE’s involvement in the shooting for nearly a year. He said Martinez’s family learned of the federal agent’s role through news reports.

“When anyone in authority in any level of policing, federal, state, or local, decides to take the most drastic measure and that’s ending someone’s life, you need to be sure that you’re doing it as a last resort,” Lopez told CBS News in an interview Saturday. “I don’t feel that the information that I’ve read implies to me that it was a last resort and I want to get to the bottom of it.”

In a statement to CBS News, Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, said her family has been looking for accountability.

“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,” Reyes said. “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.” 

Charles M. Stam and Alex Stamm, attorneys for Ruben’s family, said in a statement that “Ruben’s family has been pursuing transparency and accountability for nearly a year now and will continue to do so for as long as it takes. 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 US citizen as he was trying to comply with instructions from the local law enforcement officers directing traffic.”

Reyes told The Associated Press that her son had just turned 23 days before he and his best friend drove from San Antonio to South Padre Island for a weekend trip to celebrate. South Padre Island, located along the Gulf Coast near the U.S.-Mexican border, is a popular spring break destination that draws thousands of college-aged visitors.

Reyes told the AP that her son worked at an Amazon warehouse, enjoyed playing video games and spending time with friends, and had never previously had any run-ins with law enforcement.

“He was a typical young guy,” Reyes said. “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.”

Martinez’s death is one of several fatal shootings of U.S. citizens involving federal immigration agents over the past year. In January, ICE and Border Patrol agents participating in a massive immigration operation in Minnesota shot and killed Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti in separate incidents, triggering bipartisan outcry and protests. Last week, the Trump administration announced it would end its large-scale immigration enforcement operation there. 

Immigration enforcement has become a salient political issue in recent months, particularly in border states like Texas, where federal and state authorities frequently coordinate operations. Texas will hold its primary elections on March 3, and immigration operations have become prominent issues on the campaign trail in key races.