Federal agents have been told the FBI will no longer investigate certain confrontations involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, according to The New York Times. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice denied to the Times that such a policy change has been made.
If the reported guidance is put into practice, it would move a loaded accountability problem into a more convenient bureaucratic drawer. The Times reported that cases involving federal immigration officers would likely be handled by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE. That means an ICE component could be responsible for examining incidents involving ICE personnel.
The practical catch is jurisdiction. According to the Times, Homeland Security Investigations does not have authority to investigate civil rights violations. That gap matters when the incident is not a paperwork dispute or a scuffle at a doorway, but a shooting of an unarmed person by an immigration agent. Without the FBI in the loop, the Times reported, those cases would be less likely to be examined for possible violations of federal law.
What the reported change would alter
The guidance described by the Times would stop FBI investigations into alleged assaults against DHS agents. Those cases have become a favored tool against protesters and others who come into contact with federal officers, including contact the Times described as brief or unintended.
The government has pursued felony assault charges in many of those cases. A separate Times analysis found that nearly half ended with acquittals, dismissals, or prosecutors withdrawing the charges. That is not a great batting average for a system treating incidental contact as a federal felony, but the charging decisions are only part of the issue.
FBI investigations can also generate evidence about the officers’ own conduct. Even when the stated purpose of an inquiry is to build a case against a protester or another civilian, investigators may collect video, witness statements, and other material that could later be used to scrutinize agents. Removing the FBI from that role narrows the route by which outside evidence about ICE behavior reaches prosecutors or courts.
Scrutiny follows recent ICE shootings
The reported shift comes as ICE faces renewed attention over violent encounters. ICE agents have killed two people in the last two weeks, in incidents in Maine and Texas, according to prior reporting by The Verge. The Verge has also reported that ICE agents tried to intimidate witnesses after recent high-profile killings.
The Times report does not establish that the FBI has already stopped all such investigations, and DHS and DOJ dispute that a policy change occurred. The stakes are still straightforward: if ICE-linked cases are routed to an ICE arm that cannot investigate civil rights violations, accountability depends more heavily on the agency whose officers are under scrutiny. That is a design choice, not a technicality.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
