FBI Ends Assault Probes of ICE Agents
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- FBI managers received written notice on Thursday that the bureau will no longer investigate claims of assault against ICE agents, with ICE personnel across the country informed by their FBI counterparts
- Under the Trump administration, the FBI had been tasked with determining whether ICE agents were assaulted before opening fire in fatal shooting incidents — evidence that could later feed civil rights investigations or prosecutions against those agents
- The new guidance would shift assault investigations to Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of ICE itself, letting DHS examine its own officers' conduct in shooting cases
- DHS lacks jurisdiction to investigate federal civil rights violations, meaning ICE agents who fatally shoot civilians would face a narrower path to civil rights scrutiny under the reported change
- Both the DOJ and DHS issued a joint statement denying any policy change, asserting 'the relationship between DHS and DOJ in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed'
- The reported shift comes days after an ICE agent shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian man, in Biddeford, Maine — at least the seventh person shot by ICE agents since January 2025
- Guerrero was the second person fatally shot by ICE this month, following the July 7 killing of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston
Why it matters: Because DHS cannot investigate civil rights violations and the DOJ denies any change, the bureau most likely to probe whether ICE agents crossed the line in fatal shootings is now being replaced by the agents' own parent agency — at least seven ICE shooting incidents since January 2025 make the accountability gap concrete, not theoretical.
