Minnesota leaders and demonstrators are calling for accountability after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman during an operation. But the Trump administration has restructured key federal agencies in ways that leave fewer avenues for investigations that could determine whether the officer’s response was overly aggressive, legal experts said.
At the same time, there is no sign immigration raids are slowing, or that the tactics used by Homeland Security officers will change; federal officials said their efforts in Minneapolis would continue, even as tensions rise.
“We’ve been warning for weeks that the Trump administration’s dangerous, sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety, that someone was going to get hurt. Just yesterday, I said exactly that,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said at a news conference after the shooting this week. “What we’re seeing is the consequences of governance designed to generate fear, headlines and conflict.”
The Department of Homeland Security has substantially cut back staff and sought to shutter three agencies, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, watchdogs that are tasked in part with investigating instances where there was a misuse of or excessive force by officers and agents. DHS officials have said the divisions were “roadblocks” to immigration enforcement operations.
A whistleblower report sent to Congress last year alleged that as a result, hundreds of complaints were left and that staffing had been cut so much that the agencies could not properly do their mandated work. Homeland Security officials have said the agencies are now just better streamlined.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which is typically involved in prosecutions of law enforcement officers accused of using excessive force, has lost hundreds of lawyers over the course of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. It dismissed lawsuits against a number of local police departments and ended investigations into patterns and practices of unconstitutional behavior, including in Minneapolis. Department officials have said the division is focusing on important administration priorities.
But questions are growing over DHS tactics as federal immigration raids have targeted communities in Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and Portland, Oregon. Demonstrations have shut down streets, and protests outside of detention centers have led to dozens of arrests.
Immigration officers are wearing masks that obscure their identities and have been accused of using chokeholds and pepper spray and pointing their guns at bystanders who are recording their actions. In one case, DHS officers intentionally rammed a car during a chase through a Chicago neighborhood. DHS has said the move was used to apprehend dangerous suspects, and has repeatedly defended the tactics of its officers.
There have been at least 10 shootings by immigration officers amid Homeland Security operations, including in Portland on Thursday when U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and wounded two people. At least three people have died and at least six others have been injured.
All but two involved a vehicle stop in which officers accused the driver of attempting to ram them with a car. Some drivers have faced criminal charges.
Scott Shuchart, who was ICE’s assistant director for regulatory affairs and policy during the Biden administration, said the increase in vehicle encounters represents a move away from more targeted and less risky tactics, “at great cost to collateral, property or people.”
The Trump administration has defended the DHS officers, arguing they are doing necessary and difficult work in dangerous circumstances. Homeland Security has said its immigration enforcement officers are facing a sharp increase in threats and are suffering injuries during raids and operations nationwide.
"In the face of this violent behavior and death threats, our officers have behaved with utmost professionalism and followed their training to use the least amount of force necessary," said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
But some of those narratives are being challenged by eyewitnesses, and in at least two cases, criminal charges have been dropped. In Chicago late last year, charges were dropped against a woman who had been accused of using her car to assault and impede law enforcement.
Last summer, charges were also dropped against a man in California accused of assaulting an officer with his truck during a traffic stop. His attorney, Greg Jackson, said he believes the lack of prosecutions, plus charges being filed and dropped against others accused of vehicle attacks, indicates “something is wrong” with DHS’ side of the story.
“The fact that the [Department of Justice] repeatedly is failing to get indictments in these cases shows that the initial claims by DHS are without merit,” he said.
Trump said Renee Nicole Good “viciously ran over” the officer before he shot in Minneapolis this week. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem argued Good had “weaponized” her car and that the officer had been struck and required a trip to the hospital.
Videos from the shooting show that Good did not knock down the officer, whose legs were to the side of the SUV as it moved by him while he fired. He walked away from the scene unassisted.
Cellphone footage from the ICE officer obtained by NBC News shows him before the shooting walking around Good’s Honda Pilot as she smiles at him. “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you,” she says. A dog is perched in the backseat.
At the same time, Ross is approached by Good’s wife, who is also filming, and asks the masked officer to show his face. She says: “You want to come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, Big Boy.”
Two additional officers approach the SUV. One officer says to Good, “Get out of the car. Get out of the f-----g car.”
Good instead turns her steering wheel so the wheels are away from the officer and begins to drive. Shots are fired. Then a male voice says, “f-----g bitch.” A moment later, the car crashes.
A senior DHS official told NBC News that ICE is trained in best practices, including to never approach a vehicle from the front, to not shoot at a moving vehicle since firing at a vehicle would not make it stop traveling in the direction of an officer, and to only use force if there is an immediate risk of serious injury or death.
But law enforcement officers are also taught to use their own discretion during what are often chaotic moments.
Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina professor who studies law enforcement tactics, said there should be at least two parallel investigations when an officer is involved in a shooting.
“One is ‘Did he commit a crime?’ and then ‘Did he violate his policies?’" Alpert said. "Now, ‘Did he violate his policies?’ probably has to be done by ICE because they’re the ones who are familiar with the policies and the training.”
McLaughlin told NBC News that all use of force incidents and any discharge of a firearm is reported and reviewed by the agency. The “appropriate federal, state, local, or tribal law enforcement agency principally charged with first response to the incident” will initially evaluate a shooting, McLaughlin said, and then “ICE will conduct an independent review of the critical incident.”
“Secretary Noem has been clear: if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” McLaughlin said.
The FBI had said the Minneapolis shooting was being probed and it was working closely with law enforcement partners; it’s routine for local and federal officials to work together to gather evidence in such cases. But on Thursday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said that federal officials had reversed course and said the probe would be led solely by the FBI.
“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” the Bureau of Apprehension said.
The FBI didn’t immediately comment on the change. Noem said local law enforcement hadn’t been cut out, “they don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation."
Among the key factors that are considered when evaluating whether an officer wrongly used force is whether the suspect posed a threat to the safety of a police officer or others. Multiple policing experts interviewed by NBC News said it appeared the ICE officer was in the path of the car when he fired the first shot and could therefore reasonably argue that his life was in danger.
Homeland Security’s policy says deadly force should not be used solely to prevent a person from fleeing in a moving vehicle. An officer can use deadly force toward a moving vehicle when there is a “reasonable belief that the subject poses a significant threat of death or serious physical harm” and “force is necessary to prevent escape,” according to the policy.
Anthony Cangelosi, a former Secret Service agent and DHS criminal investigator, said he believes it was a justifiable use of force because the officer faced the threat of significant bodily harm or even death if he was struck by the vehicle.
But he also suggested that the officer used poor tactics by putting himself in front of the car, although that ultimately doesn’t matter in deciding whether it was justified.
“You can make the argument that he shouldn’t have been there,” Cangelosi said. “But he was.”
But the Trump administration has already declared publicly the shooting appeared justified. The officer involved had been dragged roughly 100 yards by a car during an earlier enforcement operation in June, DHS said.
“All of us are on the same page in the fact that this law enforcement officer followed his training and that he defended and acted in defense of his life and those around him,” Noem told reporters the day after the shooting.
In Portland late Thursday, Border Patrol agents shot and wounded two during a car stop. McLaughlin, the DHS spokeswoman, said the target was a passenger in the vehicle, described as a Venezuelan “illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” who was involved in a recent shooting in Portland.
But the Oregon Attorney General’s Office took the unusual step of opening its own investigation to determine whether the agents used excessive force, and said it would press local charges if a crime is uncovered, a rare but not impossible move.
“It is true that federal agents have some amount of leeway — or what we in the legal world would call immunity from criminal prosecution — but there is a limit to that immunity,” said Karianne Jones, a Minneapolis-based lawyer who worked on the Biden and Harris campaigns.
