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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A former senior official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reviewed investigative materials related to the fatal shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez and said he has "concerns" that President Donald Trump's administration withheld information for nearly a year.
Federal immigration agents shot and killed Martinez, 23, on March 15, 2025, in South Padre Island, Texas, but the involvement of an ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit was not publicly disclosed at the time.
Newsweek uncovered new information through internal ICE records obtained by the watchdog American Oversight through a Freedom of Information Act request and a review of public records.
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DHS confirmed the fatal killing on Friday and told Newsweek that an HSI agent fired "defensive shots" after a driver allegedly "ran over" another federal agent. The agency said HSI officers were assisting the South Padre Island Police Department following a major accident.
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Darius Reeves, who previously served as a field office director for ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Baltimore before retiring in 2025, reviewed reporting from Newsweek and the ICE incident report.
"From what was articulated in that report... they had given clear, distinct commands, and for whatever reason, this individual proceeded to ignore those commands and accelerated into the officer," Reeves told Newsweek in a phone interview. "As I read without any further information, it appears to me to be a clean shoot."
ICE's involvement in the shooting was not publicly acknowledged for months, prompting scrutiny over transparency. Reeves said the delay raises legitimate questions, but cautioned against assuming misconduct without more information.
"That is a concern," he said, but added that federal agent-involved shootings typically trigger multiple parallel investigations, potentially contributing to extended timelines.
"But once again, we have to figure out what that delay was. Was it a delay based upon ICE, or was it a delay based upon all the other investigative pieces that would have been in place in this particular matter?," he said.
You can read the document in full here:
Pages-72-77-from-DHS-ICE-25-0213-25-0481-25-0956-A-Proces_260221_103823.pdf.PDF
Reeves said investigations could involve the Texas Department of Public Safety, local police, ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, and often the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Special Agent Carmen Portillo told Newsweek that the FBI's San Antonio field office was not involved in the probe.
DHS said that the incident was still being investigated by the Texas Department of Public Safety's Ranger Division, and that any further inquiries should be made to that agency.
Meanwhile, Christopher Olivarez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, told Newsweek that the investigation was ongoing and that no additional information was currently available.
Lengthy Investigations
"That may not necessarily lead to a cover-up...Investigations have to run their course," Reeves said. Reeves acknowledged that lengthy internal investigations were a longstanding frustration during his tenure at ICE.
“As a field office director, I would have major frustrations … it would just seem to drag on, drag on, drag on,” he said. “We’ve always had an issue with these protracted investigations.”
“There’s a major dysfunction at Homeland Security,” Reeves said, referring to what he described as internal structural and operational differences across agencies.
Read more:
- DHS Confirms Third US Citizen Killing After Newsweek Investigation
- Ruben Ray Martinez Death: Officials Demand Answers Over ICE Shooting
- Who Was Ruben Ray Martinez? US Citizen Fatally Shot by ICE Agent
- Mother of US Citizen Killed by DHS Speaks Out
- Newsom Alarmed by Year-Long Delay Disclosing Fatal ICE Shooting
Rachel Reyes, mother of Ruben Ray Martinez, told Newsweek on Friday: "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. 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."
A spokesperson for DHS said: "A driver of a blue Ford 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.
"The driver was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased. The agent who was ran over sustained a knee injury and was taken to the hospital."
Newsweek has been unable to independently corroborate the agency's account.
Reeves said: "There's clearly just some missing pieces to this."
If you witnessed or have dashcam footage of the incident on March 15, 2025, and would like to share this information with Newsweek, you can contact the author of this article.
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