Machete (Danny Trejo) is a renegade former "Mexican Federale". He roams the cities, towns, and streets of Texas looking for work after a shakedown from a drug lord called Torrez (Steven Segal).
Machete has a run-in with Michael Benz (Jeff Fahey), a local businessman and spin doctor, who tells Machete that McLaughlin (Robert De Niro), a corrupt senator, is sending hundreds of illegal immigrants out of the country and that he must be killed. Benz offers Machete $150,000 to kill McLaughlin who quickly accepts the murder contract out of greed for the money.