Report points to FBI pullback in probing assaults tied to ICE shootings
Why it matters: if ICE investigates its own agents' assault claims, civil rights scrutiny after fatal shootings could narrow.
The FBI has been told to stop handling claims that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were assaulted, according to a New York Times report cited by CNBC, a shift that could change how fatal ICE shootings are reviewed. Under current practice, the FBI has examined whether agents were assaulted before they opened fire, and evidence from those cases could later support civil rights investigations or prosecutions. The reported change would likely leave Homeland Security Investigations, part of ICE, to review those assault claims instead. The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security denied that oversight had changed and said the FBI would keep investigating under agency policy. The report surfaced days after ICE agents fatally shot Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, and after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed in Houston on July 7.