Marimar Martínez, the Chicago woman shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in October, will attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech before Congress later this month, her attorney said in a court filing Thursday.
Martínez, who was charged with assault only to have the case dismissed by the U.S. attorney’s office weeks later, will attend the address on Capitol Hill as a guest of U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, a Chicago Democrat, the filing stated.
Her presence in the audience will undoubtedly cause a stir. Martínez has gained national attention particularly after she told a Senate forum earlier this week that she considers herself a “voice” for Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens fatally shot by immigration agents in Minneapolis in January, as well as others who have suffered abuses under the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation push.
“Presumably, (Department of Homeland Security) Secretary Kristi Noem will be present,” attorney Christopher Parente wrote in the filing. “Perhaps former Commander of the Border Patrol Gregory Bovino will also be present. There is no doubt that between now and February 24, 2026, DHS will continue to defame Marimar and continue to brand her as a ‘domestic terrorist.'”
The revelation that Martínez will attend the high-profile event came as a judge is weighing whether to release body camera footage and other evidence in her criminal case, which ended in November when all charges were dropped.
Prosecutors have said they will not oppose the request to lift the protective order on the bodycam video, which depicts the moments leading up to the Oct. 4 crash that led to Martínez’s shooting by Border Patrol agent Charles Exum, but does not show the shooting itself. Some of Exum’s text messages to co-workers bragging about his marksmanship have already been published in court.
The U.S. attorney’s office said it will oppose the release of any communications Exum sent that have not already been made public, saying in a motion last week the texts would “serve only to further sully Agent Exum, his family and co-workers without any corresponding benefit to Ms. Martínez.”
In his response Thursday, Parente said the still-sealed materials “completely undermine” what Exum claimed happened on the day of the shooting, and “topple” DHS’ narrative of Martínez as a “domestic terrorist.”
Parente said the U.S. attorney’s office is no longer simply a “passive observer” to the lies of their bosses, but “are active enablers of an out-of-control client.”
“Exum’s messages contain his statements of the events that the U.S. Attorney’s Office knows is belied by the evidence in this case,” Parente wrote. “To attempt to withhold these messages the U.S. Attorney’s Office is failing in its duty to always ‘do the right thing.'”
U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis is set to rule on the release of the materials on Friday.
At a hearing last week, Alexakis took the U.S. attorney’s office to task over the federal government’s failure to remove statements on its official websites and social media branding Martínez as a terrorist with a long history of doxing immigration agents.
“I’m hard-pressed to credit the idea that (the Department of Homeland Security) couldn’t change the narrative around this incident if they set their mind to it,” Alexakis said. “And as far as what I’ve been presented with as well, it’s not just DHS, it’s the FBI director who is also participating in this ongoing narrative.”
Alexakis also noted the government’s failure to correct the record has even seeped into decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, where a dissenting opinion by Justice Samuel Alito used the Martínez incident as an example of the purported dangers faced by immigration agents trying to enforce the laws.
“Did they tell the Supreme Court that in their filings in the Illinois National Guard case?” Alexakis asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald DeWald at the hearing last week. “Did they ask the Supreme Court to correct its opinion when Justice Alito represented these facts as found as determined? Did the government do that?”
DeWald said he did not believe any such ask had been made.
Asked by the Tribune whether there would be any retraction, a DHS spokesperson responded via email Thursday: “DHS stands by our press releases and statements. The facts of what happened did not change.”
Parente said Thursday that if the U.S. attorney’s office will not correct the misstatements, “it is left entirely to Ms. Martínez to do so on her own.”
He also included a sarcastic footnote in which he described how to delete a post on social media, writing to go to the original message, “click/tap the three-dot menu icon (…) on the top right of the tweet and select ‘Delete.'”
“There (are) also a plethora of YouTube videos that can be accessed if they run into issues,” Parente wrote.
Prosecutors had alleged Martínez was part of a convoy of civilians who were following agents on Oct. 4 when she rammed Exum’s vehicle near 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue, prompting Exum to jump out of his Chevrolet Tahoe and fire five shots, wounding Martínez seven times.
Martínez’s attorneys argued it was Exum who sideswiped Martínez and that his extreme use of force was completely unjustified. They also alleged evidence tampering, saying Exum was inexplicably allowed to drive the Tahoe more than 1,000 miles back to his home base in Maine, where a Border Patrol mechanic attempted to “wipe off” some of the scuff marks from the crash.
After the charges against Martínez were dropped on Nov. 20, it’s since been revealed in court that Martínez’s car is part of a second, ongoing criminal investigation into the shooting, which is being handled by the U.S. attorney’s office in South Bend, Indiana.
In her testimony Tuesday before a forum organized by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, Martínez said she was speaking out in part because she saw herself as a voice for others who did not survive their encounters with federal agents. Good’s brothers and Chicago attorney Antonio Romanucci, who is representing the Good family, spoke to the forum moments before Martínez did.
“I am Renee Good, I am Alex Pretti, I am Silverio Villegas González, I am Keith Porter,” she said. “This needs to stop now. How many more lives must be lost before meaningful action is taken?”
Martínez said her main ask of the federal government at this point is for federal officials to take back their words.
“Sorry, you’re not a domestic terrorist, that’s it,” she said. ”That’s all I’m asking for. A simple sorry. That’s it.”
