In the past few weeks, federal immigration agents have shot and killed two people in Texas and Maine. These cases have received significant media coverage and investigation, as did several cases in January. That’s partly because journalists were able to learn the details about the victims. But another suspicious killing in December 2025 has received less attention.
On December 11, 2025, a Border Patrol agent killed a Mexican man in Starr County, Texas. On December 17, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a statement, saying a 31-year-old Mexican man with others “attempted to abscond to Mexico” from the Texas side of the border. The agent “engaged in an active struggle with the man for two minutes and ultimately discharged his CBP-issued firearm,” hitting the man three times.
Until now, no additional reporting had established who the agent was, why he felt that he must shoot the man, or any details about the deceased immigrant. A month ago, I obtained Starr County and Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) records, showing that Border Patrol agent Armando Flores was the shooter and that another agent, Jawuan Wallace, arrived at the Starr County Sheriff’s Office for fingerprinting at 11:25 p.m. on the night of the shooting. The records also stated that Texas DPS is still actively investigating the shooting seven months later, refusing to release body camera footage and audio from the scene.
Over the past month, I’ve worked with Texas Tribune reporter Lomi Kriel to build out the story. The Tribune published its story today, identifying Isaias Sanchez Barbosa as the victim.
Sanchez Barbosa had no known criminal history.
He has no record of any prior entry into the United States.
He apparently had no family in the United States.
He was from a largely rural and impoverished area in southern Mexico.
No weapons were found on his person or in the area.
CBP refused to disclose any details about the employment of the agents, the shooter Armando Flores or Jawuan Wallace, who was fingerprinted.
Flores shot Sanchez Barbosa at “close range” three times, hitting his right forearm as well as his right and left chest, fracturing his left rib and shredding his lungs.
Law enforcement failed to file the search warrant with the district court for eight months until the Tribune requested it.
A grand jury declined to indict the Border Patrol agent, though we have no idea what evidence was reviewed.
CBP’s statement was titled: “Border Patrol Agent Defends Himself in Deadly Struggle with Illegal Alien,” effectively exonerating the agent prior to the completion of the investigation. From the little information available, Border Patrol agent Armando Flores attempted to physically stop Sanchez Barbosa from returning to Mexico, and the agent shot him three times.
CBP’s statement itself does not explain why the shooting was justified. There is no statement to the effect that the agent feared death or serious bodily harm for himself or others—a prerequisite under the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) use of force policy. The policy explicitly states, “Deadly force shall not be used solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing subject.” Sanchez Barbosa was fleeing back to Mexico, which presumably lessens any threat he posed to the agent or others. The Tribune quotes me:
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., said the details of the case sparked his interest after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, an American citizen and 37-year-old mother of three who immigrant agents killed after she was leaving a Minneapolis protest in her car earlier this year. Video footage calls into question the Department of Homeland Security’s accounts that Good tried to run over the agent.
“After months of having DHS tell clear falsehoods about shootings caught on video, I doubted its account here where no film had surfaced,” said Bier, who first obtained some records in Sanchez Barbosa’s death. “This case had all the hallmarks of those later cases: An apparently unarmed victim who was retreating, a quick DHS statement exonerating the agent and very few other details.”
That so many questions remain months later is “stunning,” said Bier of the Cato Institute.
He questioned whether investigating authorities sought statements from other witnesses, including the migrants in the group with Sanchez Barbosa, and if law enforcement officials independently interviewed Flores, the agent who fired the shots.
Bier noted that the initial statement CBP issued did not state that the officer used force to prevent serious injury, either to himself or the public.
“So why was it justified?” Bier asked. “An administration that has repeatedly lost the confidence of the public should be open and transparent about the evidence that it used to conclude that this shooting was justified.”
CBP’s pronouncement accepting the officer’s self-defense claim should carry little weight given the extensive record of DHS agents lying to their supervisors about assaults on them. The Wall Street Journal has documented that about half of the US citizens who DHS has publicly accused of assaulting its agents were never even charged, and the New York Times has reported that of the resolved cases, nearly half of the individuals charged with assaulting officers failed to result in convictions. CBP’s statement by itself presents little reason to believe the agent’s self-defense claim.
I requested body camera footage and any recorded audio from Texas DPS and the Starr County Sheriff’s Office, in hopes that the early on-site statements would cast more light on the situation. But both agencies refused those requests on the grounds that the shooting was still being investigated.
Read the Texas Tribune’s report here.
Here’s the timeline with links to the relevant sources:
12/11/2025, 4:14 p.m.—Agents observe a group in camouflage walking north and approach, identifying themselves as agents (CBP).
4:18 p.m.—A struggle begins; the agent radios for help and, after roughly two minutes, fires his weapon. The man ultimately “sustained a total of three gunshot wounds” (CBP).
4:24:16 p.m.—Starr County dispatch logs the 911 call: “MCALLEN BP REQ EMS 83/MIDWAY INVOLVED IN A STRUGGLE AND SHOTS WERE FIRED” (Starr County CAD Event Sheet).
4:25 p.m.—Agents request EMS, apply chest seals, and begin CPR (CBP).
4:33 p.m.—Dispatch notes: “MUTIPLE BP UNITS AT LOC” (Starr County CAD Event Sheet).
4:36:40 p.m.—Dispatch logs: “123 ADV THERE ARE MULITPLE UNITS THAT ARE BLOCKING THE WAY FOR EMS” (Starr County CAD Event Sheet).
4:37 p.m.—Starr County EMS arrives and assumes care (CBP).
~4:41 p.m.—Dispatch logs EMS reporting the patient in cardiac arrest (“CODE BLUE”) (Starr County CAD Event Sheet).
5:08 p.m.—The man is pronounced dead at Starr County Hospital (CBP; corroborated by CAD log entry, “he is 10–7”).
5:35 p.m.—Texas Ranger Bryan Rodriguez arrives on scene (Starr County CAD Event Sheet/DPS Case File).
6:42 p.m.—Deputies are told “RANGER RODRIGUEZ WILL BE TAKING OVER THE CASE BODY CAM WILL BE TURNED OFF” (Starr County CAD Event Sheet).
9:50 p.m.—A search warrant for the scene is signed by Judge Jose Luis Garza (Starr County CAD Event Sheet).
10:44–11:25 p.m.—USBP Agent Jawuan Wallace arrives “for Fingerprinting” (Starr County CAD Event Sheet).
11:27 p.m.–12:25 a.m.—The body is released to a funeral home for autopsy; the log notes “NO ID WAS RECOVERED” (Starr County CAD Event Sheet).
12/12/2025, 10:50 a.m.—Ranger Rodriguez formally opens DPS case 2025–0057208, summarizing: “On 12-11-2025 at approximately 4:20 PM, I, Company ‘D’ Texas Ranger Bryan Rodriguez, was contacted by the Texas Department of Public Safety Command Post who advised me about an Officer Involved Shooting” (DPS Case File).
12/17/2025—CBP publicly releases its account, describing the incident as a “deadly struggle with illegal alien” and reporting the agent “defends himself,” six days after the shooting (CBP).
7/16/2026—DPS states the records related to the incident “would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of an open or pending criminal matter” under Gov’t Code § 552.108(a)(1) (Ref. #P018562-070926) (DPS records request response).
7/17/2026—Starr County Major Carlos Delgado responds: “This case is under investigation” (Starr County records request).
