FBI Reportedly Ends Investigations of Assaults Against ICE Agents
According to the New York Times, federal agents have been told that the FBI will no longer investigate confrontations involving ICE agents, although the DHS and DOJ deny the change.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly informed its agents that it will no longer investigate incidents involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, according to sources cited by The New York Times. While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) officially deny any policy change, the report highlights growing scrutiny over violence by ICE agents.
In the past two weeks, ICE agents have killed two people—one in Maine and one in Texas. These are the latest civilian deaths at the hands of ICE agents, who, according to the newspaper, have attempted to intimidate witnesses following a recent spate of high-profile killings.
The new guidance would end FBI investigations of assaults against DHS agents. Previously, the government aggressively pursued cases against protesters and others who had even fleeting, unintentional physical contact with agents. However, these felony assault cases often fall apart: nearly half end in acquittal, dismissal, or withdrawal, according to a Times analysis.
While FBI investigations are ostensibly aimed at building cases against protesters, they often provide evidence against the officers themselves that could be used in future trials.
Under the change, responsibility for investigating cases involving federal immigration officers would likely fall to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an arm of ICE, effectively leaving the agency to investigate itself. HSI does not have jurisdiction to investigate civil rights violations, so implementing this change would make it far less likely that shootings of unarmed people by ICE agents would be investigated to determine if the agents broke federal law.
