{"id":482388,"date":"2026-02-21T18:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T18:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/482388\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T18:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T18:19:13","slug":"texan-killed-by-ice-months-before-minneapolis-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/482388\/","title":{"rendered":"Texan killed by ICE months before Minneapolis woman"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Three months into President Donald Trump\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

In a statement Friday, DHS confirmed the shooting and accused Martinez of \u201cintentionally\u201d running over an agent, who was taken to a hospital for a knee injury and later released, according to records of the incident. <\/p>\n

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<\/a> during the nations\u2019 immigration crackdown under the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

American Oversight released a trove of records<\/a> on Tuesday related to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s 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\u2019s shooting. <\/p>\n

\u201cSince Ruben\u2019s death a year ago, all we have wanted is justice for him and we have struggled with the silence surrounding his killing,\u201d his mother, Rachel Reyes, said in a statement. \u201cNow, the country is in crisis \u2014 and, terribly, heartbreakingly, other families are enduring what we have. It\u2019s my hope that attention being raised now into Ruben\u2019s death will help bring the justice we want for him and the answers we haven\u2019t had.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 which prompted another agent to unload an unspecified number of rounds through the driver\u2019s side window. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe vehicle came to a stop and both driver and passenger were immediately secured,\u201d the report states. Federal agents took Martinez to a hospital in Brownsville, where he later died. <\/p>\n

The Texas Department of Public Safety\u2019s Rangers are investigating the shooting. DPS spokespersons did not return a request for comment Friday night. <\/p>\n

In a brief interview Friday, American Oversight\u2019s Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said it was concerning how blatantly the one shooting contradicted DHS\u2019 official messaging about the president\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re telling the public is very different than what they\u2019re doing behind closed doors. The only reason why we\u2019re able to make these connections and really call into question the public statements that they\u2019re making to mislead the public is because we\u2019re able to get our hands on these documents,\u201d Chukwu told The Texas Tribune. \u201cThat should deeply concern everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

News of the shooting arrives as the nation reels from federal agents, assigned to carry out the president\u2019s immigration crackdown, shooting to death two other Americans in Minnesota. <\/p>\n

In Texas, Democratic leaders have been raising alarms about the clampdown across the country and the state\u2019s involvement, thanks in part to Republican state leadership that is politically aligned with the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa<\/a> of Austin said Friday night<\/a> that she had requested a legislative oversight inquiry to release the body cam footage of Martinez\u2019s shooting. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro<\/a> called for a thorough probe<\/a> into the shooting, \u201cincluding why there was an 8-month cover up.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, Texas DPS, which is investigating the shooting, has pushed the boundaries of a state law enforcement agency\u2019s involvement enforcing immigration law. <\/p>\n

After Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> 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\u2019s largest cities \u2014 marking an unprecedented use of state resources<\/a> for immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,36525,148476,222324,10062,208120,3,155210,21,19,22,20,25,24,127235],"class_list":{"0":"post-482388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-department-of-homeland-security","10":"tag-department-of-public-safety","11":"tag-gina-hinojosa","12":"tag-greg-abbott","13":"tag-joaquin-castro","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-south-padre-island","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa","22":"tag-well-a-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}