DOJ Approves Release of Chicago Border Patrol Shooting Evidence

Federal prosecutors won’t entirely oppose the public release of video and other evidence related to a woman’s shooting by Customs and Border Patrol in Chicago last year, court records show.

They announced their stance the same day the woman who was shot, Marimar Martinez, is set to testify on Capitol Hill at a forum on federal agents’ use of force—a topic receiving intense public scrutiny after two fatal shootings last month by immigration officers in Minneapolis.

Prosecutors don’t believe the judge supervising Martinez’s now-dismissed criminal case has jurisdiction over the matter. But, they said, if the judge determines she has jurisdiction, they don’t oppose modifying a protective order such that agents’ body-worn camera footage, FBI reports, and photographs could be made public.

They continue to oppose the release of “law enforcement sensitive” material from license plate reader cameras as well as texts from the shooter that would be redundant to previous testimony or other materials.

Martinez was shot multiple times by a Border Patrol agent in October, as “Operation Midway Blitz"—the Trump administration’s aggressive Chicago-area deportation campaign—was gaining steam.

Prosecutors and Trump administration officials said Martinez rammed her vehicle into the agents’ car, characterizing her as a “domestic terrorist” and saying the agent fired defensively.

But, her attorneys said, the evidence showed there was no ramming, and in fact the agent shot her as she was trying to get away.

Prosecutors in November dropped the case against Martinez and her co-defendant.

Martinez’s attorneys went back to Judge Georgia Alexakis of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois last month to argue that public release of the case materials would help counter the administration’s narrative that Martinez was a violent criminal.

The government used the shooting to support their claim that immigration agents faced threats from violent rioters, an argument that made it all the way to the Supreme Court in briefing about the National Guard.

And, in light of the Minnesota killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January, having certain information revealed publicly “would be useful for both the public and elected officials to know regarding how DHS responds in cases where their agents use deadly force against U.S. citizens,” her attorneys wrote.

Alexakis initially denied a bid by attorneys for local news outlets to intervene in the case so they could request the materials’ public release—a decision that the outlets have appealed—but she said from the bench last week that Martinez’s request changes the equation.

“We do now have a willing speaker whose position is that she is being stymied by the protective order,” she said.

“We’re finding ourselves in an unusual situation in which the government made exceedingly public statements about a criminal defendant,” she said. “And have made no efforts to equally publicize the fact that they abandoned the opportunity to try to convict her within a court of law.”

Martinez is represented by Cheronis & Parente LLC.

The case is United States v. Martinez, N.D. Ill., No. 1:25-cr-00636, court filing 2/3/26.