FBI ends independent investigation of ICE agent confrontations amid fatal-shooting scrutiny

Federal agents were told in mid-July 2026 that the FBI would no longer investigate physical confrontations involving ICE officers, The New York Times reported; written guidance reached FBI managers on July 16 and was passed to ICE agents nationwide in the following days. Under the new arrangement, Homeland Security Investigations — an ICE-internal unit without jurisdiction over civil-rights violations — would instead review such claims, reducing the likelihood that agents who use deadly force face federal civil-rights scrutiny. The reported change follows a string of fatal ICE shootings, including the killing of Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, and Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston earlier in July — the seventh and sixth fatal ICE shootings since January 2025. The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint statement denying any policy change had occurred, saying the FBI "will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy," even as agents briefed on the internal notices told reporters the guidance had already circulated nationwide.