Hong Kong: Rejected appeals in ‘HK 47’ case a missed opportunity to start restoring justice
Responding to the Hong Kong Court of Appeal rejecting the appeals of 12 defendants in the ‘Hong Kong 47’ case, Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokesperson Fernando Cheung said:
“The court’s dismissal of these appeals underlines the grave state of human rights in Hong Kong and once again demonstrates the politically motivated nature of the Hong Kong 47 case.
“None of these 12 defendants committed an internationally recognized crime; they have been serving lengthy sentences simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and participation in public affairs.
“It is deeply concerning that, since the introduction of ‘Article 23’ in 2024, at least eight defendants in the Hong Kong 47 case have reportedly been denied early release on the basis of vague and new national security justifications, in contrast to previous long-standing practice in Hong Kong.
“This shows how ‘Article 23’, like the Beijing-imposed National Security Law used to prosecute the Hong Kong 47, has been weaponized to impose additional punitive and retroactive measures against dissidents, including silencing those already behind bars.
“By failing to overturn these wrongful convictions and sentences today, the court has missed a critical opportunity to correct this mass injustice.
“Peaceful opposition to a government is not a crime, and all remaining jailed members of the Hong Kong 47 should be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Background
The Hong Kong Court of Appeal today dismissed the appeals of 12 defendants in the ‘Hong Kong 47’ case.
In Hong Kong’s largest prosecution under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law, which was enacted in June 2020, 47 opposition figures were jointly charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion”. Thirty-one of the 47 pleaded guilty to the charge while 16 pleaded not guilty, two of whom were acquitted.
The charges against the “Hong Kong 47” relate to their organization and participation in self-organized “primaries” for the 2020 Legislative Council elections that were ultimately postponed by authorities on Covid-19 grounds before a new electoral system that strictly vetted who could stand for office was brought in.
To treat self-organized “primaries” conducted by political parties to select candidates to put forward for elections as a genuine threat to Hong Kong’s existence, territorial integrity or political independence does not meet the high threshold of application for “national security” that international human rights standards require.
In March 2024, Hong Kong introduced its Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, often referred to as the ‘Article 23’ law. The law has further squeezed people’s freedoms and enabled authorities to intensify their crackdown on peaceful activism in the city and beyond.
‘Article 23’ has also been used to impose additional punitive measures against dissidents already serving sentences. Before the enactment of ‘Article 23’, the Prison Rules provided that prisoners with good conduct were eligible for early release after serving two-thirds of their sentences. However, under new rules introduced pursuant to ‘Article 23’, the prison authorities can deny the early release on “national security” grounds.
He was close to then Lord Peter Mandelson and encouraged Keir Starmer to appoint Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States.
Peter Mandelson arrested amid Epstein fallout
The Metropolitan Police said a 72-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Emails released as part of the Epstein files in the United States appeared to show the then-business secretary forwarding on correspondence to Epstein, triggering fresh scrutiny of his relationship with the late, disgraced financier. | Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images
Gordon Brown has said he deeply regrets bringing Peter Mandelson into his government, and that revelations about Jeffrey Epstein’s influence on UK politics had caused him revulsion.
Writing in the Guardian, Brown said the news that Mandelson was passing information to Epstein while he was business secretary was “a betrayal of everything we stand for as a country”.
Brown said he was at fault for making Mandelson a peer and bringing him back into government in 2008, after Mandelson had quit as an MP to become EU trade commissioner.
“I have to take personal responsibility for appointing Mandelson to his ministerial role in 2008. I greatly regret this appointment,” he wrote, saying that at the time he was told that Mandelson’s record in Brussels had been “unblemished” and he did not know about any Epstein links.
“I did so in spite of him being anything but a friend to me, because I thought that his unquestioned knowledge of Europe and beyond could help us as we dealt with the global financial crisis,” Brown wrote.
“I now know that I was wrong. He seems to have used market-sensitive inside information to betray the principles in which he said he believed, and he betrayed the people who believed in them – and him.”
Mandelson was sacked as Keir Starmer’s ambassador to the US in September after new details emerged of his friendship with Epstein, ties that lasted beyond the late child sex offender’s jailing in 2008.
But the release this week of masses of new documents about Epstein and his contacts showed the closeness of their ties. They also suggested Mandelson had received money from Epstein, and had leaked market-sensitive information to the financier, which is now the subject of a criminal investigation.
In a statement on Friday afternoon, the Met said officers were searching two homes connected to Mandelson, in north London and Wiltshire. Mandelson has been living in a rented property in Wiltshire since returning to the UK.
The Israeli government installed security equipment and controlled access to a Manhattan apartment building managed by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to an investigation published by Drop Site News.
Based on a tranche of emails recently released by the United States Department of Justice, the report detailed how Israeli officials coordinated directly with Epstein’s staff starting in early 2016 to secure a residence at 301 East 66th Street. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak frequently used the apartment for extended stays.
While the property was technically owned by a company linked to Epstein’s brother, Mark Epstein, the disgraced financier essentially controlled it. The units in the building were frequently loaned to Epstein’s associates and used to house underage models, the report said.
Barak served as prime minister from 1999 to 2001. Under Israeli law, former prime ministers receive state-funded security after leaving office. The documents expose a direct operational relationship between Israel’s permanent mission to the United Nations and Epstein’s enterprise.
Rafi Shlomo, the former director of protective services at the Israeli mission and head of Barak’s security detail, personally controlled access to the apartment. Shlomo conducted background checks on Epstein’s employees and cleaning staff and held meetings with them to coordinate the installation of surveillance equipment.
Coordinated surveillance
The structural modifications carried out by the Israeli government required permission from Epstein.
Epstein Island Cameras Installed by Israeli Government – Files Expose Shocking Ties
Unsealed documents hint at intelligence operations and blackmail schemes involving global elites
By Rohit David Published 19 February 2026, 10:46 AM GMT
Fresh documents released by the US Department of Justice have reignited claims of Jeffrey Epstein’s Mossad ties, with references to Israeli intelligence and secret surveillance equipment in his properties. The tranche, made public in early February 2026, includes emails and an FBI memo suggesting the disgraced financier may have operated as an intelligence asset.
Allegations centre on blackmail operations targeting global elites, though no concrete evidence ties the Israeli government directly to installations on Epstein’s private island. This follows years of speculation about his network.
Unsealed Files and Intelligence Claims
The latest release encompasses over three million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images from the Epstein investigation. Among them, a 2020 FBI memo cites a confidential source alleging Epstein was ‘trained as a spy‘ and relayed information to Mossad through intermediaries.
The document mentions phone calls between Epstein and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz reportedly shared with Israeli intelligence, alongside links to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Such claims echo earlier reports from sources like former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe, who asserted Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell ran a Mossad honeytrap in the 1980s.
Leaked emails from 2015 show Epstein partnering with Barak to invest in a security tech startup, later renamed Carbyne, staffed by ex-Israeli intelligence operatives. These connections extend to deals involving facial recognition technology tested in Gaza and sold to Nigeria. Hardly a surprise, given Epstein’s funding of pro-Israel groups like the Jewish National Fund.
Surveillance Systems and Blackmail Allegations
Epstein’s properties were reportedly equipped with extensive surveillance, fuelling theories of a blackmail scheme. Emails from 2014 reveal him directing an aide to install hidden, motion-activated cameras in his Palm Beach home, concealed in items like Kleenex boxes. Similar setups existed across his residences, with former employees confirming 24-hour cameras in every room.
On Little St James, his private island, ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou has claimed hidden video cameras were placed literally everywhere, including bathrooms, to capture compromising footage.
Bombshell report says Epstein stashed photos and hard drives in a half dozen storage units arond US
03:30, 23 Feb 2026, updated 15:44, 23 Feb 2026By JENSEN BIRD
Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein hid hard drives and photos from authorities in multiple storage lockers across the country, a report said.
The pedophile rented at least six units, the majority of which were in Florida, paying thousands between 2003 and 2019, according to an investigation by The Telegraph.
The lockers may have remained uncovered by US authorities, suggesting they held never-before-seen evidence in Epstein’s long string of horrific crimes.
The outlet obtained files and credit card statements detailing Epstein’s various secret hiding places for computers, CDs, pictures and files.
His lockers could point to answers after authorities long suspected that Epstein received insider information about raids of his properties.
Former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter told NBC that during a 2005 search, the sex offender’s place ‘had been cleaned up.’
Epstein allegedly recruited detectives to move documents, photographs and computers to one of his multiple storage lockers.
Uncovered credit card statements suggested that he paid a private detective agency $38,500 from January to May 2010 alone.
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Florida units were traced just miles from his Sunshine State home outside of Palm Beach and Delray Beach.
Epstein allegedly began leasing one locker at Uncle Bob’s in Florida in 2003, paying $374.13 per month until March 2015. Smaller payments continued until 2016.
At least one Florida unit, which he used between 2009 and 2011, was accessible to patrons 24 hours a day and was capable of storing vehicles.
Payments pointed to more units in Florida, which Epstein leased across a decade.
One detailed monthly payment of $140 for a Royal Palm Beach location until 2019.
============
He also asked investigators to rent out a unit on his behalf in New York beginning in 2010 at around $500 per month.
Another unit, just five minutes from his New York City mansion, mainly contained furniture, equipment and computers.
New Mexico ranch
Pictures taken by staff in 2012 from one of the units showed furniture and cardboard boxes jammed in the cluttered unit.
Files also suggested Epstein was interested in a ‘secret storage unit’ near his New Mexico ranch.
Much of the confusion in the debate over whether social media1 is harming young people can be cleared away by distinguishing two different questions, only one of which urgently needs an answer:
The historical trends question:Was the spread of social media in the early 2010s (as smartphones were widely adopted) a major contributing cause of the big increases in adolescent depression, anxiety, and self-harm that began in the U.S. and many other Western countries soon afterward?
The product safety question: Is social media safe today for children and adolescents? When used in the ordinary way (which is now five hours a day), does this consumer product expose young people to unreasonable levels of risk and harm?
Social scientists are actively debating the historical trends question — we raised it in Chapter 1 of The Anxious Generation — but that’s not the one that matters to parents and legislators. They face decisions today and they need an answer to the product safety question. They want to know if social media is a reasonably safe consumer product, or if they should keep their kids (or all kids) away from it until they reach a certain age (as Australia is doing).
Social scientists have been debating this question intensively since 2017. That’s when Jean Twenge suggested an answer to both questions in her provocative article in The Atlantic: “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” In it, she showed a historical correlation: adolescent behavior changed and their mental health collapsed just at the point in time when they traded in their flip phones for smartphones with always-available social media. She also showed a correlation relevant to the product safety question: The kids who spend the most time on screens (especially for social media) are the ones with the worst mental health. She concluded that “it’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen [Gen Z] as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.”
The Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, testified at a landmark trial of social media companies on Wednesday. Plaintiffs’ lawyers grilled Zuckerberg about internal complaints that not enough was being done to verify whether children under 13 were using the platform.
Zuckerberg claimed Meta had improved in identifying underage users but also said: “I always wish that we could have gotten there sooner.”
Zuckerberg also said some users lie about their age when joining Instagram and that the company removes those it identifies as underage. The plaintiffs’ lawyers hit back at those claims: “You expect a nine-year-old to read all of the fine print? That’s your basis for swearing under oath that children under 13 are not allowed?” After repeated questioning about age verification, Zuckerberg said: “I don’t see why this is so complicated.”
In response to questioning by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Zuckerberg also said: “I think a reasonable company should try to help the people that use its services.”
Asked about media training and his famously stiff responses to public questioning: he said: “I think I’m actually well-known to be sort of bad at this.”
FIRST, the Manchester-based youth science organization founded by New Hampshire inventor Dean Kamen, says it has placed him on leave from “all activities” related to its work, while it reviews recent revelations of Kamen’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
In a statement posted on FIRST’s website over the weekend, Board Chair Laurie Leshin said: “FIRST® is aware of the recent disclosures released by the U.S. Department of Justice involving FIRST Founder Dean Kamen’s interactions with Jeffrey Epstein. The FIRST Board of Directors has engaged an outside law firm to conduct an independent review, and Dean has indicated he will cooperate fully with the review.”
Part of that cooperation, the statement read, entails Kamen stepping away from all activities related to FIRST, which he founded in 1989. The robotics program was originally focused on New Hampshire, but now has a global reach, with teams in more than 30 countries.
The Epstein files are creating headaches for the Sununus and Shaheens in New Hampshire
The founder of Segway has longstanding ties with the Sununu and Shaheen families — and, we now know, Jeffrey Epstein.
Dean Kamen arrives at the ninth Breakthrough Prize Awards on Saturday, April 15, 2023, at The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) | AP
A New Hampshire magnate with ties to power players in both parties has appeared in successive batches of the Epstein files, roiling politics in his home state and threatening its two most influential political dynasties.
Documents recently released by the Department of Justice suggest that entrepreneur Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway and other devices, kept in contact with Jeffrey Epstein long after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, with emails indicating he visited the disgraced financier’s Caribbean island in 2013. Kamen has not been accused of wrongdoing and did not respond to requests for comment through his companies Monday.
The recently released files indicate a closer relationship between the two than was previously known. The disclosures have prompted Kamen’s organizations to launch investigations into their ties. And the situation has ratcheted up scrutiny of the New Hampshire politicians who have worked with him, received campaign contributions from him or helped his organizations secure tens of millions in federal funds.
The ‘Missed’ Epstein-Rothschild Email Exposed—$25M DOJ Deal Payment Unearthed in Files
Unsealed documents shed light on Epstein’s ties with the Rothschild Group, revealing a significant payment and a controversial email
By Rohit David Published 20 February 2026, 11:10 AM GMT
The Epstein files Justice.gov/epstein
Newly unsealed documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case have exposed a missed Epstein-Rothschild email from 2014 commenting on the Ukraine crisis, along with evidence of an £18.6 million ($25 million) payment to his firm tied to a Rothschild Group’s settlement with the US Department of Justice.
The materials, part of millions of pages released by the DOJ in early February 2026, detail Epstein’s business links to the prominent banking family, including emails and financial deals.
Such revelations keep Epstein’s shadowy network in the spotlight, more than six years after his death in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The ‘Missed’ Epstein-Rothschild Email
Dated March 2014, the email from Epstein to Ariane de Rothschild, chief executive of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, responded to an apparent inquiry about events in Ukraine. He wrote simply, ‘Ukraine upheaval should provide many opportunities, many.’ This came amid the Euromaidan protests that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, followed swiftly by Russia’s annexation of Crimea—a flashpoint that escalated into broader conflict.
The message gained attention as the ’email that everyone missed’ via an Instagram reel highlighting its ominous tone amid the new files’ darker revelations. Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev seized on it to allege a ‘satanist cabal‘ profited from the unrest, hardly a surprise in the realm of geopolitical spin
Email shows Peter Mandelson reminiscing about his ‘first meeting’ with Jeffrey Epstein – as officials probe whether ex-Blair minister was feeding Cabinet secrets to paedo financier as far back as 1999
Peter Mandelson reminisced about being introduced to Jeffrey Epstein at the lavish holiday home of a wealthy British-American businesswoman in emails published as part of the probe into the paedophile financier.
Documents show the disgraced former Labour minister talking about first meeting Epstein at the summer home of Lynn Forester de Rothschild in Martha’s Vineyard, an island enclave of the super rich in New England.
It came as officials investigating Lord Mandelson’s ties to the disgraced late child abuser were told to extend their probe to cover his time in government as far back as 1999, when he was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
It would also cover his time as business secretary and de facto deputy prime minister under Gordon Brown between 2008 and 2010.
Mandelson is believed to have known Epstein since the early 2000s, with previous documents released by the US House of Representatives showing the American covering his travel bills as far back as 2003, when he was on the backbenches as MP for Hartlepool.
The peer, who denies any wrongdoing, is currently the subject of a police investigation into accusations the peer passed market-sensitive information to Epstein in the 2000s.
The unsealed deposition of billionaire Les Wexner reveals his five-hour testimony regarding his history with Jeffrey Epstein. YouTube Screenshot / GOPoversight
The testimony, delivered during a House Oversight Committee inquiry, revisited decades-old financial relationships while probing how Epstein gained extraordinary access to political, corporate and philanthropic elites.
Lawmakers pressed Wexner on Epstein’s connections across global finance and technology networks, including references raised during questioning to the Rothschild family, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and the technology giant Google.
Taxpayers paid for a Ministry of Defence official to spend almost a year working for an elite investment bank that’s seeking to increase the role of private finance in military budgets, openDemocracy can reveal.
The staffer was seconded to Rothschild & Co in February last year and recalled to the MoD on 5 January 2026 – the same day we contacted the government to ask about it.
They were placed in the bank’s geopolitical advisory department to work under Mark Sedwill, who was the UK’s cabinet secretary and national security adviser until 2020, when he left office and was appointed to the House of Lords.
Today, as well as being a crossbench peer and a member of Parliament’s Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, Sedwill advises Rothschild’s clients on geopolitical risk – and has also been involved in lobbying the government to increase private finance’s investment in national defence spending.
Member, Member of the Risk Committee, Member of the Audit Committee and Member of the Sustainability Committee
Mark Sedwill, Baron Sedwill of Sherborne GCMG FRGS, is a cross-bench peer and a member of Parliament’s Joint Committee on national security.
Lord Sedwill is a non-executive director of Rothschild & Co (R&Co). He is Chair of R&Co Geopolitical Advisory and of R&Co Saudi Arabia. He is Chair of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and of the Atlantic Future Forum (AFF) and a member of Temasek’s EMEA advisory group. He is a senior adviser for McKinsey & Company, Temasek and Rasmussen Global.
Lord Sedwill is President of the Special Forces Club and of the Special Boat Service Association, a Vice-President of the Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charities (RNRMC), and an Honorary Colonel in the Royal Marines. He is President of the Civil Service Retirement Association, and a Trustee of St Andrews University and of the RNLI.
Lord Sedwill chaired the 2021 G7 Panel on Global Economic Resilience. He was Cabinet Secretary & Head of the Civil Service (2018-20), National Security Adviser (2017-20), Permanent Secretary at the Home Office (2013-17), and British Ambassador and NATO Representative in Afghanistan (2009-11). Before that he had a diplomatic and security career serving in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus and Pakistan. He was educated at St Andrews and Oxford Universities.
Lord Sedwill is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Institute of Directors, an Honorary Fellow of Oxford University and of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He is an Honorary Doctor of Laws of St Andrews University, and an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple. He is also the recipient of several other awards and honours for national and international public service.
The Rothschild connection surfaced as well. Leslie Wexner’s recent deposition confirmed what the archive has long suggested: the Rothschild family hired Jeffrey Epstein as early as the mid-1980s, and he was still working for them in 2019 when he died. Ariane de Rothschild is the single most frequent correspondent in Epstein’s email records, communicating with him almost every other day. Lynn Forester de Rothschild introduced Prince Andrew to Epstein and maintained deep ties to the Clintons.
Epstein across the world’s troubles:
1990s Trump in debt, bailed out by Rothschild:
Getting Donald Out Of Debt: The 25-Year-Old Ties That Bind Trump and Wilbur Ross
ByChase Peterson-Withorn,Forbes Staff. Chase Peterson-Withorn is a senior editor at Forbes covering wealth.Follow Author
Dec 08, 2016, 04:52pm ESTDec 08, 2016, 06:01pm EST
This article is more than 9 years old.
America’s first billionaire president is riding into the White House with populist support — and he’s bringing some billionaire friends with him. One of them is distressed-asset investor Wilbur Ross, who is Trump’s pick for commerce secretary. The two have a history that spans more than 25 years.
Trump made a bold bet on Atlantic City when he opened a third casino there — the colossal Taj Mahal — in April 1990. Even riskier: He financed the project with $675 million in junk bonds at a 14% interest rate. Within months Trump was struggling to make the massive bond payments as Atlantic City floundered.
In stepped Ross, then head of Rothschild Inc’s bankruptcy advising team, to represent bondholders, who were pondering forcing the casino into involuntary bankruptcy and ousting Trump. Ross reportedly saw crowds pressed against Trump’s limo windows to get a peek at the mogul, and realized the value of Trump’s celebrity.
Epstein affair: Olivier Colom, the sexual predator’s French ‘friend’ and networker
A former adviser at the Elysée under Nicolas Sarkozy, the ex-diplomat is at the heart of the Epstein case. His correspondence reveals a close relationship with the American sexual predator. He now claims to ‘regret’ his actions but insists he never ‘participated in any private activities that were not strictly professional and lawful.’
Let’s talk on the phone, I dn’t [sic] like emails,”wrote Jeffrey Epstein in September 2013 to one of his main French contacts: Olivier Colom. Despite this, the former deputy diplomatic adviser at the Elysée during Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term as president (2007-2012) now finds himself at the center of the Epstein scandal for his prolific correspondence with the American sexual predator, between 2013 and 2019, as revealed in the trove of emails released by the US Department of Justice on January 30.
Today, the former diplomat, age 56, is a consultant to heads of state and business leaders through his company founded in 2016, OC Advisory, and is very active in Africa. According to a report by Africa Intelligence, the Frenchman, whom Le Monde interviewed at length, played a key role in organizing far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s trip to Chad in 2025.
BREAKING: French police raided the Paris headquarters of Edmond de Rothschild bank as part of the Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking and money laundering investigation. A former bank employee’s name appeared in 200+ documents including emails sent directly to Epstein. Every country is investigating the Epstein network — except the United States, which is firing the agents who would. Developing story. More to follow.
Epstein files reference individuals linked to Singapore in emails
Newly surfaced documents linked to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have drawn attention online after emails appeared to reference Singapore-linked individuals.
The materials are part of a broader release of documents related to Epstein’s associates and correspondence, which have been circulating internationally in recent weeks.
Among the documents released by the United States (US) Department of Justice is a 2010 email sent to Epstein, which stated that he “did not want to call” because “we were not alone: girl from Singapore”.
Source: US Department of Justice
The individual, whose email address has been redacted, then asked whether they could call Epstein the following day before heading to China.
Guess who else mentioned Singapore in 2010, this from Ellie Leonard Substack research concerning the then Prince Andrew here writing to Jeffrey Epstein:
5/18/2010 2:27 AM – 3:18 AM
JE: we should try to talk before
PA: Will do. I’m in KL and Singapore until Sunday night. I’ll ring Monday evening London time if that suits?
In Singapore, where universities like the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) actively court international donors to fuel research excellence, these disclosures serve as a stark reminder. Singapore’s higher education institutions, ranked among Asia’s best, must reflect on donor vetting to safeguard their reputations.
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In higher education, survivors urge universities to disclose full donor histories. This push for accountability resonates in Singapore, where transparency in funding is a cornerstone of public trust. The Ministry of Education (MOE) oversees university governance, but global scandals highlight the need for independent audits.
Internal ICE records obtained through a FOIA lawsuit revealed that a Homeland Security Investigations agent fatally shot 23-year-old U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez during a March 2025 traffic incident in Texas, contradicting earlier public reporting and sparking mounting calls from lawmakers and watchdog groups for a full, independent investigation into what critics describe as a months-long cover-up amid broader scrutiny of ICE’s use of deadly force.
Source: Aaron Parnas, Substack
Ruben Ray Martinez
US citizen, 23, was shot and killed by ICE agent nearly a year BEFORE Renee Good and Alex Pretti
An American citizen was shot and killed by a federal agent last March, nearly a year before two Minneapolis residents died at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was fatally shot in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025, according to newly released documents by the watchdog organization American Oversight, viewed by the Daily Mail and first reported by Newsweek. The 352-page release was published by American Oversight and included several ‘significant incident’ reports by ICE never before seen by the public. An incident report from last March revealed that an American citizen was shot by an ICE officer after allegedly striking an agent in a Blue Ford 4-door vehicle. Martinez was allegedly driving the vehicle and came in contact with federal agents conducting immigration enforcement operations while working with the South Padre Island Police Department. The Department of Homeland Security said in the report that multiple officers gave commands for the vehicle to stop and surrounded the Blue Ford. ‘The driver accelerated forward, striking a HSI special agent who wound upon on the hood of the vehicle,’ the incident report stated. One of the agents then discharged ‘multiple rounds at the driver through the open driver’s side window.’
And
Who Was Ruben Ray Martinez? US Citizen Fatally Shot by ICE Agent
Ruben Ray Martinez, the U.S. citizen who was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent on South Padre Island in Texas last year, had traveled there to celebrate his 23rd birthday, his mother said.
Martinez was shot by an officer with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 15 last year, but the involvement of ICE was not publicly disclosed at the time.
DHS said in a statement to Newsweekon Friday that the HSI agent fired “defensive shots” at a driver after he “intentionally ran over” another agent. DHS said the HSI team were assisting local police following a major incident.
Ruben Ray Martinez in a family handout and file images shows an ICE patch and ba…Read More | Jim Watson – Pool/Getty Images
The Context
The fatal shooting of Martinez appears to be the first known instance of a federal agent fatally shooting a U.S citizen and the earliest of at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since the start of a nationwide immigration crackdown in President Donald Trump’s second term.
The fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens—Renee Good and Alex Pretti—by federal officers in Minneapolis in January ignited protests and prompted changes to the Minnesota immigration operation. Trump administration officials had initially said Good and Pretti intended to harm federal agents when they were killed, but videos that emerged of the shootings challenged the administration’s narrative.
Read More
What To Know
Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, told The Associated Press that her son, who had just turned 23, and his best friend drove from San Antonio down to the beach for the weekend to celebrate his birthday. South Padre Island, located north of the U.S.-Mexico border, is a popular spring break destination.
“He never really got a chance to go out and experience things. It was his first time getting to go out of town,” she said.
Reyes said her son worked at an Amazon warehouse, liked to play video games and hang out with friends. She said he had never had any prior run-ins with law enforcement.
“He was a nice guy, humble guy. And he wasn’t a violent person at all,” she said.
Worst of the worst? Most US immigrants targeted for deportation in 2025 had no criminal charges, documents reveal
A Guardian analysis finds the vast majority of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time from January to August last year had no criminal convictions
A Guardian analysis of government records has found that the vast majority – 77% – of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time in 2025 had no criminal conviction, exposing a stark gap between the Trump administration’s rhetoric and reality.
Within days of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) trotted out a phrase that his surrogates would come to use over and over again: “the worst of the worst.”
The term has become a shorthand justification for the administration’s unprecedented overhaul of immigration enforcement – a relentless campaign the administration claims is focused on arresting and deporting violent criminals.
However, a review of records obtained by the Guardian and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against DHS, raises questions about those claims.
The findings come from little-known documents known as I-213 forms. DHS uses these forms in court to prove that a person is in the country illegally. The documents are filed when a person first encounters ICE, and DHS begins the deportation process, which is often when they are arrested. The documents contain biographical details about the person, including their criminal history, as well as any information that DHS feels is relevant to the immigration court case.
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