Early in the morning of July 31, 2025, Gabriel Martinez-Segura and four other men got into a white Chevrolet van and headed to a construction job in East Austin.

At around 7:08 a.m., just after they crossed over the Longhorn Dam, their van caught the attention of Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Ricky Cotto. He later said it looked like their front license plate was not in the right place.

Within 15 minutes of Cotto noticing the misplaced plate, all five occupants of the van were in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Now, The Texas Newsroom has obtained body and dash cam videos from that morning on Town Creek Drive, and is sharing them for the first time.

The records shed light on the tactics, language and technology used by police in Texas to quickly sweep people into deportation proceedings.
They also reveal that Texas Department of Public Safety special agents broke state police rules by wearing face-concealing masks during the operation.

Experts who have reviewed the images say they raise questions about the erosion of trust between officers and the general public amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

They also highlight the quick and nearly invisible way the vast majority of people are detained and deported in places like Texas, where state and local law enforcement officials often partner with federal immigration agents.

“We might not have the big kind of [ICE] occupations that we see in Minneapolis, Chicago, LA, but we are doing that type of disappearance at a much larger scale,” says Kristin Etter, director of policy and legal services at the Texas Immigration Law Council. “You just don’t know it because it’s happening quietly.”

In response to questions from The Texas Newsroom about DPS agents wearing masks, the Texas Department of Public Safety says “each agent will be counseled, and their chain of command will be making it clear face coverings should not be worn on duty unless for reasons outlined in the attached policy.”

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Video produced by Deborah Cannon (@dycannon) using DPS video