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Public disputes concerning what governments and public bodies disclose about their own conduct, data and records, including the completeness, timing and accuracy of what they publish.
Counts show individual statements. They do not assign an overall position.
5 statements on this page. Dates: July 24, 2026 to October 2, 2026
5 matching statements. Dates: July 24, 2026 to October 2, 2026
5 published statements. Dates: July 24, 2026 to October 2, 2026
5 published statements. Dates: July 24, 2026 to October 2, 2026
5 statements on this page. Dates: July 24, 2026 to October 2, 2026
Role at the time: U.S. representative for Texas's 20th District, speaking at a San Antonio field hearing
Statement summary
Joaquin Castro named Ruben Ray Martinez during an October 2 San Antonio field hearing and criticized the effects of ICE operations on the community. His office published the remarks that day.
“Our community has become collateral damage in Trump’s mass deportation machine.”
The release attributes remarks to Castro at a San Antonio field hearing. He names Ruben Ray Martinez while criticizing ICE operations and calls for accountability. The release gives the hearing date as October 2; it supplies no time for these remarks.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Castro names Martinez in his criticism of ICE operations and calls the community collateral damage. This is criticism of the conduct and its effects.
Role at the time: U.S. representative for Texas's 20th District
Statement summary
Joaquin Castro said DHS and ICE should not control the inquiry and called for an independent investigation.
“There must be an independent investigation, and the ICE officers who shot Wilber in the back should be held accountable.”
Official statement from Joaquin Castro calling for an independent investigation into the ICE shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez.
The statement condemns DHS leadership of the investigation from the case's point of view because Castro explicitly demands an independent inquiry.
Role at the time: U.S. representative and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
Statement summary
Rep. Joaquin Castro said the administration's boat strike campaign "has violated U.S. laws, failed to meaningfully stop drug trafficking, and legally imperiled U.S. servicemembers ordered to conduct these strikes".
“His administration’s illegal and ineffective campaign of boat strikes in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific has violated U.S. laws, failed to meaningfully stop drug trafficking, and legally imperiled U.S. servicemembers ordered to conduct these strikes.”
Rep. Castro's statement on the first anniversary of the campaign's first strike. He is Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
Measured against the campaign the September 19 strike belongs to, Castro calls the campaign illegal and ineffective and says he will work for accountability, which is an express condemnation.
Role at the time: U.S. representative speaking on the House floor
Statement summary
Castro named Martinez among people he said ICE had murdered.
“Let us remember the names of those whom ICE has murdered. The first one was a San Antonian, Ruben Ray Martinez. There was another Texan, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of Houston. Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero—these folks were victims of the ICE murders.”
Verbatim record of Rep. Joaquin Castro's two-minute remarks on September 1, 2026, during a Special Order hour on deaths in immigration enforcement and detention, led by Rep. Norma Torres.
Calling the death a murder is an explicit condemnation of the use of deadly force.
Role at the time: U.S. representative for Texas’s 20th congressional district
Response to this claim
The ICE officer fired in self-defense after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo attempted to run over an officer with his van.
“The more evidence that comes out, the clearer it becomes that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was murdered in cold blood by agents of the United States government.”
Official transcript of Castro's remarks directly condemning the shooting and challenging ICE's self-defense account.
Castro’s description of it as murder in cold blood is an explicit rejection of the claim that the force was justified.
