When ICE Agents Shoot, Local Cops Often Step Back

Legal experts say local police have obligation to investigate shootings by feds, but it rarely happens
Posted Feb 15, 2026 1:40 PM CST
Local Cops Hedge on Investigating Federal Agents
ICE agents are seen at a gas station in Minneapolis on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.   (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

Police in one Chicago suburb were securing the scene when they decided that the one thing they wouldn't do is scrutinize the federal agent who'd just killed a man. Bodycam footage from Franklin Park, Illinois, shows then-police chief Mike Witz telling his officers last September that they wouldn't be looking into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot 38-year-old Silverio Villegas Gonzalez. "You're not going to investigate a federal officer," he said, as the department left the inquiry to the FBI and didn't even record the agents' names in its report. The same hands-off approach has surfaced around the country, a pattern that has sharpened amid an aggressive immigration crackdown under President Trump, per a deep dive by ProPublica.

In Minneapolis last month, ICE and Border Patrol agents fatally shot two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and injured a Venezuelan man. Minnesota state investigators say federal officials blocked them from crime scenes, despite a warrant, and refused to turn over basic information such as the names of the agents involved. Legal scholars and civil rights advocates argue that, with federal agencies largely policing themselves, state and local authorities have a duty to step in, despite constitutional hurdles and political risk. The Constitution's supremacy clause protects federal officers acting reasonably within their duties, and agents can shift prosecutions to federal court or seek immunity, as happened when Virginia prosecutors tried to charge two US Park Police officers with manslaughter.

Still, a small group of local officials is pushing back. Chicago's mayor has ordered police to document alleged crimes by federal immigration agents and refer potential felonies to prosecutors. California officials, meanwhile, have reminded police they can investigate federal officers, and a new nationwide coalition of prosecutors has formed to support such cases. Even so, it's a patchwork response. Some jurisdictions, including in Arizona, Maryland, Texas, and Oregon, have opened independent probes into recent shootings. Others have stayed on the sidelines, bowing down to federal jurisdiction. That leaves communities like Franklin Park and Minneapolis waiting for answers from the same federal system whose agents pulled the trigger. More here.

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