July 17 (Reuters) – As U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up deportation efforts during his second term, on-duty federal immigration agents have shot and killed at least seven people — leaving behind grieving families, angry communities and calls for reform.
Here is a look at each case.
• RUBEN RAY MARTINEZ, March 15, 2025 — A U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent fatally shot Martinez, a U.S. citizen out celebrating his 23rd birthday with a friend, as he was driving his car in South Padre Island, Texas. In a police report, DHS said Martinez accelerated as he neared the scene of a road accident and struck two agents with his car, prompting one to shoot him through the driver’s side window. Body-camera videos released nearly a year later through public-records requests show him driving slowly and do not clearly show him hitting either agent. Martinez’s family said he was trying to comply with officers’ orders.
• SILVERIO VILLEGAS-GONZALEZ, September 12, 2025 — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Villegas, a 38-year-old Mexican cook, in Chicago while trying to stop his vehicle, shortly after he had dropped his two sons off at school. DHS said Villegas had lived in the U.S. since 2007 without legal authorization and that the agent who shot him feared for his life, citing Villegas’ “history of reckless driving.” In bodycam footage, the agent described his injuries as “nothing major.” Between 2011 and 2019, Villegas was cited for several traffic offenses, including speeding and a broken tail-light.
• NAME UNKNOWN, December 11, 2025 — A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent fatally shot a 31-year-old Mexican man outside Rio Grande City, Texas, near the border with Mexico. According to a Border Patrol statement, the agent was trying to detain the man and struggled with him for two minutes before shooting him. No video footage of the incident has emerged. The man was not identified in the CBP statement; Reuters has asked the agency for his name.
• RENEE GOOD, January 7, 2026 — An ICE agent walked up to Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, as she sat in her parked car blocking one lane of a road in Minneapolis. Witness videos showed Good calmly speaking to the agent, who was circling her car taking a video on his cellphone. As Good began driving forward, with the front wheels turned away from the agent, the agent fired at her. Good, a community activist and mother of three, had joined in the near-daily protests against Operation Metro Surge, during which hundreds of armed immigration agents were sent to Minnesota.
• ALEX PRETTI, January 24, 2026 — Two agents fatally shot Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, after pinning him down on a Minneapolis sidewalk a few blocks from his apartment. A U.S. citizen, Pretti had also joined the protests against Operation Metro Surge and was helping a woman that agents had pepper-sprayed. Videos then showed several officers wrestling him to the ground and removing a gun from his waist before firing several shots at close range.
• LORENZO SALGADO ARAUJO, July 7, 2026 — An ICE agent fatally shot Salgado, a 53-year-old Colombian man, as he was driving to work with his colleagues in Houston. Salgado, whose three children are U.S. citizens, had lived in the country illegally for more than three decades, ICE said. His family said he was pursuing legal work authorization. ICE said Salgado refused verbal orders and attempted to run over an agent with his van, an account disputed by the three men in the vehicle with him, according to their lawyer. Salgado was not the person agents were looking for, DHS said later.
• JOHAN SEBASTIAN DURAN GUERRERO, July 13, 2026 — Days after Salgado was killed, witnesses in the coastal town of Biddeford, Maine said ICE agents rammed Duran’s vehicle, then fatally shot him through the car windshield. Duran, a 23-year-old Colombian man with a 3-year-old daughter, was not the man agents were looking for, DHS said. “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” the agency said. Duran had legal authorization to live and work in the U.S., according to his family and a local immigrants’ rights group.
(Compiled by Jonathan Allen and Kristina Cooke; Editing by David Gregorio)
