United States of America

Report: FBI Will No Longer Probe ICE

Is ICE being handed unchecked power or has oversight of federal officers remained intact?

JUL 20·Updated JUL 21

Story

Above: A federal agent aims his pepper spray gun in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Feb. 3. Image credit: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

FBI managers nationwide reportedly received a notice on Thursday saying the bureau won't probe confrontations involving ICE agents. The DOJ and DHS, however, denied any such change in policy.
Common Dreams
The New York Times
Under the reported new guidance, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an arm of ICE, would take over probes involving immigration agents. HSI does not have jurisdiction over civil rights violations.
Verge
CBS News
Over 550 people have faced assault charges for confrontations involving ICE. Of the more than 400 resolved cases, nearly half ended in acquittal, dismissal or withdrawal of charges, The New York Times reported.
International Business Times UK
DAWN
ICE border czar Tom Homan announced Sunday that ICE officers must record vehicle stops with body cameras, citing a desire for transparency following two fatal shootings by ICE agents earlier this month in Texas and Maine.
CBS News
Guardian
An ICE agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 7 during a traffic stop while he was driving to a job site. Officials later acknowledged he was not the intended target of the operation.
International Business Times UK
The New York Times
Six days after the Houston shooting, another ICE agent killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian man, during a traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine. Guerrero was not the target of the operation either.
CNBC
Guardian

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The Spin

Left narrative

Letting ICE investigate its own violent encounters is a dangerous conflict of interest — Homeland Security Investigations has no jurisdiction over civil rights violations, meaning agents who use excessive force face zero real accountability. The Trump administration charged over 550 people for allegedly assaulting federal officers, yet nearly half of the resolved cases were thrown out or acquitted. Pulling the FBI out of these investigations hands ICE unchecked power over life and death.

Common Dreams

Right narrative

The claim that FBI oversight of ICE was stripped away is flat-out wrong. The DOJ and DHS issued a joint statement confirming the FBI will continue investigating assaults on federal officers exactly as before. Anyone who attacks law enforcement will face the full force of the law, and no policy change has altered that commitment.

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