Internal ICE records show HSI agent fatally shot U.S. citizen on South Padre Island

A Homeland Security Investigations agent fatally shot 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez of San Antonio during a traffic confrontation on South Padre Island, Texas, according to heavily redacted internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents released this month and cited by the victim’s family attorneys.

The records, obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and reported by multiple outlets Feb. 20–22, 2026, lay out a sequence that federal officials and the internal incident report say began when agents were assisting local police at the scene of a car crash. The incident report, as described by the Texas Tribune, states Martinez “failed to follow traffic instructions,” prompting agents to “surround his car.” The report says Martinez’s vehicle accelerated, “struck an agent who ended up on the hood,” and that another agent then fired through the driver-side window.

DHS in a public statement framed the shooting differently, saying the driver “intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent” and that an agent fired “defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public,” language carried by AP and CNN. The records and contemporaneous reporting do not provide a precise count of rounds fired; Texas reporting noted an agent “unloaded an unspecified number of rounds through the driver’s side window” and described Martinez as being shot multiple times.

Federal agents transported Martinez to a Brownsville hospital the night of March 15, 2025, where he later died, the records show. An agent who officials say had been on the hood received treatment for a knee injury and was later released. The incident report concludes the vehicle “came to a stop and both driver and passenger were immediately secured,” but does not name the passenger or disclose any subsequent charges.

The trove released by American Oversight includes multiple heavily redacted ICE documents about use of force, training and oversight. Texas Tribune reporting says the production also contains at least one previously unreported nonfatal federal use-of-force incident in Beaumont from a month earlier. The documents’ release marked the first public disclosure tying the March shooting to an HSI team; local media had reported Martinez’s death in March 2025 but federal and state authorities did not publicly disclose HSI involvement until the February 2026 records surfaced, according to CNN and AP.

Texas Department of Public Safety Rangers are investigating the South Padre Island shooting, Texas outlets report. DPS spokespersons did not return requests for comment, and DHS did not provide an explanation for why HSI involvement was not disclosed in March 2025, according to AP.

The Martinez case figures in a broader pattern cited by national outlets: CNN reported that the death would be the earliest of at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since the start of a nationwide immigration enforcement push in President Donald Trump’s second term. Civil liberties groups and oversight advocates have seized on the delayed disclosure and heavy redactions as evidence of limited transparency in federal use-of-force incidents.

Key questions remain unanswered: the exact number of rounds fired, ballistics and autopsy findings, the identity and status of the passenger, whether body camera or other surveillance footage exists, and why federal agencies did not publicly identify HSI’s role at the time. The Texas Rangers’ inquiry and any responses from DHS or ICE will be central to resolving those outstanding details.