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

Texas shooting appears to be the first known instance of a US citizen being killed during Trump’s immigration crackdown.Published On 22 Feb 2026A 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.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3US border chief says Trump agrees to end deportation surge in Minnesotalist 2 of 3US Department of Homeland Security to go into shutdown due to funding lapselist 3 of 3Palestinian protester Leqaa Kordia calls ICE custody ‘dehumanising’end of listA 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.The agents were conducting immigration enforcement, records show.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. The agent who was hit by a car went to the hospital for ⁠a knee injury and was later released, according to the report.