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On Sunday, July 13, 2025, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer opened fire and wounded a man in Austin, Texas, according to local authorities. The shooting occurred in a residential neighborhood just blocks from the home of Austin Councilmember Mike Siegel, who arrived at the scene shortly after the incident. The victim, whose identity has not been released, was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition, confirmed Mayor Kirk Watson.
Siegel told NPR that he observed at least two bullet holes on the passenger side of the victim’s car, a detail corroborated by photographs from the scene. Video footage provided by Siegel also shows a person in civilian clothes, uninjured, being handcuffed by officers at the location. It remains unclear whether that individual was detained in connection with the shooting or for a separate reason.
“This is a terrible incident that we were hoping to avoid in our community,” Siegel said. “My hope today is that we can investigate what happened, and if an ICE officer committed a crime, they will be fully prosecuted. Then we can hope to restore some semblance of law and order in this country.”
At a press conference later Sunday, Mayor Watson expressed anger and frustration but said he was “not surprised at all.” He noted that similar violent encounters involving ICE agents have occurred in Chicago, Minneapolis, and other cities where the Department of Homeland Security has conducted large-scale immigration enforcement operations.
U.S. Congressman Greg Casar, a Democrat representing Austin, immediately called for an independent investigation into the shooting, accusing ICE of a pattern of dishonesty. “Over and over, ICE has shot people and then lied about what happened,” Casar said in a statement, referencing the deadly shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year. Video footage later contradicted DHS claims that Good had tried to run over agents with her vehicle. “We can see the lies with our own eyes. We will demand truth, transparency and accountability,” Casar added.
Sunday’s incident is at least the second ICE-related shooting in Texas in 2025. In July, federal agents in Houston fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican father of three. Araujo was killed during an attempted traffic stop, and officials later confirmed he was not the subject of the warrant agents were executing. The first lethal shooting by immigration agents since President Trump’s second term began occurred on March 15, 2025, when Ruben Ray Martinez was killed in South Padre Island, Texas.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has been working closely with ICE since President Trump took office last year, and state authorities have collaborated with the federal government on immigration enforcement. However, the repeated use of deadly force
