Border Patrol shooting of Mexican migrant in Starr County remains under investigation

A Border Patrol agent killed 31-year-old Isaias Sanchez Barbosa after a confrontation near the Rio Grande, and the incident is still being examined by state and federal investigators.

On a December evening before the holidays, Border Patrol officer Armando Flores shot and killed Isaias Sanchez Barbosa, a 31-year-old Mexican man, after a struggle broke out when agents moved to detain a group that had crossed the Rio Grande into Starr County. Flores asserted that he fired in self-defense as the migrants attempted to flee back toward Mexico. The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Customs and Border Protection Office of Professional Responsibility are still investigating, and both agencies have declined to release any body-camera, dash-camera, radio or incident reports.

Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez said a grand jury in June chose not to indict the officer, effectively closing the criminal inquiry. The case, which received little media attention, is the third documented fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in Texas since the administration began. Officials from the Mexican consulate and the Mexican foreign ministry have not responded to inquiries about the death.