HOUSTON – Four shootings involving federal immigration agents in Texas since March 2025 left three men dead and another injured, according to incidents documented by The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub.
The ENOUGH team took a closer look at each case and mapped shootings documented by The Trace, then examined four Texas incidents in Austin, Houston, Rio Grande City and South Padre Island.
The map offers a starting point for understanding what happened in each case and what the public learned afterward. The Trace discloses that its catalog is incomplete and likely an undercount.
Explore the map
Select a point to read about a documented shooting. The colors distinguish fatal shootings, shootings with reporter injuries and shootings without injuries reported in the dataset.
Austin, Sept. 20, 2026
An ICE agent shot and injured 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez during an attempted arrest in Austin after Garcés Pérez was attempting to make a food delivery.
After hospital treatment, Garcés Pérez was taken into federal custody and charged with assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer.
His legal team said Garcés Pérez was taken into federal custody.
Houston, July 7, 2026
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood.
Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who had lived in the United States for decades was driving a van carrying construction workers. DHS said he rammed a federal vehicle and used his van as a weapon. His family disputed the agency’s account.
DHS later acknowledged that Salgado Araujo was not the person officers were seeking when they stopped his vehicle.They observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target
Rio Grande City, Dec. 11, 2025
A border patrol agent fatally shot 31-year-old Isaias Sanchez Barboza near the U.S. Mexico border in Rio Grande City.
According to a statement released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, agents tried to apprehend a group Sanchez Barboza was with. The agent reported a struggle before firing, Sanzhez Barboza sustained three gunshot wounds and later died at a nearby hospital.
CBP’s statement said Texas Rangers were investigating and its Office of Professional Responsibility was reviewing the shooting.
South Padre Island, March 15, 2025
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations agent fatally shot Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen from San Antonio, while federal agents were helping local police direct traffic after a crash.
DHS said Martinez struck an agent with his vehicle, prompting another agent to shoot. His family’s attorneys challenged that account.
The federal agent’s involvement became public nearly a year later through records obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight. Body-camera and security footage were subsequently released. In February 2026, a Cameron County grand jury declined to indict the agent.
What the map can tell us
The map uses The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub, which compiles incidents from news reports. The Trace says the catalog is incompleted and likely an undercount, so it should not be treated as a definitive statewide or national tally.
The coordinates are estimates based on available reporting. Some identify an approximate area rather than an exact shooting location.
The ENOUGH team will continue following these cases.
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