Records show ICE agent fatally shot U.S. citizen nearly a year ago in Texas, as lawmaker seeks public hearing
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A Texas Democratic lawmaker is invoking a newly created state legislative rule to force a public hearing into the March 2025 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old U.S. citizen by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, CBS News has learned, a case raising further transparency and oversight questions about the officials enforcing President Trump's deportation crackdown. In:
A Texas Democratic lawmaker is invoking a newly created state legislative rule to force a public hearing into the March 2025 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old U.S. citizen by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, CBS News has learned, a case raising further transparency and oversight questions about the officials enforcing President Trump's deportation crackdown.
The proposed hearing would examine the shooting death of Ruben Ray Martinez in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025. While his death was reported at the time, ICE's involvement in the shooting was not disclosed until this week, over 11 months after the shooting.
Democratic Texas state Rep. Ray Lopez, who serves as vice chair of the Texas House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety and Veterans' Affairs, said he formally exercised authority under Rule 4, Section 6A of the Texas House Rules to compel Committee Chairman Cole Hefner, a Republican, to schedule a hearing on Martinez's death.
Lopez said it is the first public use of the provision, which was adopted during the 89th Legislative Session that concluded last June. The rule requires a committee chair to "promptly schedule" a hearing designated by the vice chair. Lopez requested a written response from Hefner by the end of business on Feb. 23. It was not immediately clear when a hearing might be scheduled.
Local news outlets in Texas reported on Martinez' killing last year, but the involvement of federal immigration agents in the fatal shooting was first revealed earlier this week by Newsweek, which used government documents recently released by the American Oversight Project, a nonprofit ethics watchdog, to connect the death with an internal ICE report.
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