The badge of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents recently have been told that the FBI will no longer investigate claims of assault against the federal officers, according to a report by The New York Times.
On Thursday, FBI managers received written notice of the change, sources told the Times, and some ICE agents throughout the country were informed by their FBI counterparts.
In incidents where ICE agents have been involved in fatal shootings, the FBI under the Trump administration has been tasked with determining whether the agents were assaulted before opening fire. But evidence revealed during those investigations could later be used in civil rights investigations or prosecutions against ICE agents.
The new guidance would likely mean Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of ICE, would investigate such assault claims by their own agents, according to the Times. Allowing DHS to handle those investigations could lead to less accountability for immigration agents, sources told the NYT.
Since DHS does not have the jurisdiction to investigate civil rights violations, the policy change could lessen the likelihood that ICE agents who shoot unarmed people would be investigated for breaking federal law.
The Department of Justice and the DHS have both denied that any change in oversight has taken place.
“The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security are partners in addressing crime and upholding the rule of law, while securing the safety and security of American communities,” the DHS and DOJ said in a joint statement provided to CNBC.
“The relationship between DHS and DOJ in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and FBI will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy.”
The purported change in oversight comes just days after an ICE agent shot and killed a Colombian man, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, in Biddeford, Maine. He was at least the seventh person shot by ICE agents since January 2025, and the second person just this month after an agent shot and killed Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 7.
