Joaquin Castro calls Martinez a victim of an ICE murder

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Was HSI Special Agent Jack Stevens justified in fatally shooting Ruben Ray Martinez?

On March 15, 2025, Jack Stevens, a Homeland Security Investigations supervisory special agent, fired three shots through the driver-side window of Ruben Ray Martinez's car during a traffic stop on South Padre Island, Texas. Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, later died. Stevens told investigators he fired after Martinez's car struck fellow agent Hector Sosa, knocking him onto the hood, and that he feared for the safety of Sosa, himself, other officers and pedestrians. Released Texas Rangers records describe the car as "slowly driving forward" when Stevens fired, and body-camera footage shows the car moving very slowly or not at all, with its brake lights on, though the footage does not show the front of the car or whether it struck Sosa. Joshua Orta, the passenger and sole surviving witness, said before his own death in a February 2026 car crash that the car was "just crawling" and that Martinez did not hit anyone. A Cameron County grand jury declined to indict Stevens on February 25, 2026, and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the agency stands by that finding. Reps. Greg Casar and Robert Garcia have since asked DHS's inspector general to investigate, alleging DHS concealed and misrepresented the circumstances of the shooting for nearly a year. The dispute is whether Stevens's use of deadly force was justified.