The badge of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
Michael M. Santiago | getty images
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have recently been told that the FBI will no longer investigate claims of assault against federal officials, according to a report. the new York Times.
On Thursday, FBI managers received written notice of the change, sources told the Times, and some ICE agents across 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 attacked before opening fire. But evidence uncovered during those investigations could be used in later civil rights investigations or prosecutions against ICE agents.
According to the Times, the new guidance would mean that Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, would investigate claims of such attacks by its agents. Sources told the NYT that allowing DHS to handle those investigations could lead to less accountability for immigration agents.
Since DHS does not have jurisdiction to investigate civil rights violations, the policy change could make it less likely that ICE agents who shoot unarmed people will be investigated for breaking federal law.
Both the Justice Department and DHS have denied that any changes to the surveillance have occurred.
“The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are partners in addressing crime and upholding the rule of law while ensuring the safety of American communities,” DHS and DOJ said in a joint statement provided to CNBC.
“The relationship between DHS and DOJ in the investigation of assault on federal officials cases has not changed, and the FBI will continue to conduct investigations in accordance with agency policy.”
The reported change in surveillance comes just days after an ICE agent shot and killed a Colombian man, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, in Biddeford, Maine. She was at least the seventh person shot by ICE agents since January 2025, and the second this month after Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araújo was shot dead by an agent in Houston on July 7.