Mother of U.S. Citizen Killed by ICE Agent During Traffic Stop Says She’s Still Waiting for Justice

Rachel Reyes still carries a photograph of her son, Ruben Ray Martinez. It is a reminder of the 23-year-old he was, the future he expected to have, and the questions his family says remain unanswered more than a year after his death.

Martinez, a U.S. citizen from San Antonio, was fatally shot by a Homeland Security Investigations agent during a traffic encounter on South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025. HSI operates under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE.

A Birthday Celebration Ended at a Chaotic Intersection

Martinez had traveled to South Padre Island with his friend Joshua Orta to celebrate his birthday. In the early morning hours, they approached an intersection where federal, state, and local officers were directing traffic following an earlier crash.

What happened during the next few moments remains heavily disputed. Officers gave Martinez conflicting instructions as his blue Ford moved through the crowded scene, according to video and investigative material later released by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The Department of Homeland Security said Martinez intentionally drove into an HSI officer, sending the agent onto the car’s hood and causing a knee injury. DHS said another agent then fired defensive shots to protect officers and members of the public.

However, body-camera recordings reviewed by several news organizations show Martinez’s vehicle moving slowly before the shots were fired. The recordings do not clearly establish whether the car struck an agent, and the nighttime footage does not definitively show someone on the hood.

Video Raised New Questions About the Official Account

The footage shows officers approaching Martinez’s vehicle while shouting commands. Three gunshots can then be heard as the car appears to move at a low speed, although the view from the cameras does not capture everything happening near the driver’s side.

After the shooting, Martinez was pulled from the vehicle, placed face down, and handcuffed. Emergency personnel were later shown providing medical attention, but Martinez was pronounced dead after being transported to a hospital.

Orta, the passenger and Martinez’s close friend, also challenged the government’s description. In a draft statement cited by the family’s attorneys, he said the car was barely moving, Martinez was attempting to follow the officers’ directions, and the vehicle did not strike anyone.

Orta died in an unrelated car crash before he could formally sign the statement. His death removed the only surviving civilian witness who had been inside Martinez’s vehicle during the encounter.

ICE’s Involvement Was Not Revealed for Nearly a Year

Martinez’s death received some local coverage in 2025, but authorities did not initially disclose that an ICE unit had been involved. DHS publicly acknowledged the role of an HSI agent only after records obtained through a freedom-of-information request were released almost 11 months later.

The watchdog organization American Oversight said the documents included an internal ICE incident report describing the shooting. The delayed disclosure quickly became one of the family’s biggest concerns, raising questions about why such important information had remained outside public view for so long.

For Reyes, the delay made an already painful loss even harder to process. She has said she previously trusted law enforcement and struggled to understand why her family had received so little information about which agency was responsible.

Her attorneys have continued demanding the release of complete investigative findings. They argue that the family and the public should be able to examine the evidence and decide whether the government’s explanation matches what the recordings show.

A Grand Jury Declined to Bring Charges

The Texas Department of Public Safety investigated the shooting, and prosecutors presented the case to a Cameron County grand jury in February 2026. The grand jury declined to return an indictment against the agent who fired the shots.

Because grand jury proceedings are secret, the family does not know precisely what evidence, witness accounts, or recordings were presented. Prosecutors also did not release a detailed explanation of the decision.

ICE has defended the outcome. Then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the investigation examined the incident thoroughly and maintained that the grand jury’s decision cleared the officer of criminal wrongdoing.

A decision not to indict, however, has not ended the family’s search for answers. Reyes’ attorney, Charles Stam, has said the legal team is considering its remaining options as the family continues pressing for transparency and accountability.

Other Fatal Encounters Have Reopened the Wound

Reyes says recent deaths involving federal immigration officers have forced her to relive what happened to her son. Several of the latest incidents also involved officers firing at people inside moving vehicles, renewing debate over traffic-stop tactics and the use of deadly force.

The Trace had documented 30 incidents in which federal immigration agents fired at people since the current enforcement campaign began, with eight people killed as of July 21, 2026. The Associated Press separately reported at least 10 deaths during encounters with immigration agents, using a broader method that includes deaths not necessarily caused by gunfire.

The shootings have also intensified scrutiny of ICE’s internal accountability system. Members of the House Homeland Security Committee said agency officials reported 56 excessive-force complaints, but only one officer had been referred for possible discipline and no disciplinary action had yet been completed.

ICE and DHS officials have repeatedly said officers work in dangerous conditions and should be protected when facing genuine threats. Department leaders have also said agents who violate the law or agency policy will be held responsible.

A Mother Still Waiting for Answers

Reyes is not only asking why her son was shot. She is also asking why the agency’s involvement took nearly a year to become public, why the available recordings appear open to competing interpretations and why her family still feels it lacks a complete explanation.

Her case now sits at the center of a much larger national argument over immigration enforcement, police transparency and the legal protections available when federal officers use deadly force. For Reyes, however, the debate remains deeply personal.

“It shouldn’t be our new normal,” she said while discussing the growing number of families affected by deadly immigration-enforcement encounters. “They’re destroying more families with all this chaos, and it’s not right.”

Sixteen months after Martinez’s death, a grand jury has closed the door on state criminal charges. But for the mother who still carries his photograph, the central questions surrounding his final moments and the long silence that followed remain painfully unresolved.