ICE’s use of force incidents skyrocketed after President Trump took over last year, according to new agency documents released Tuesday that show officers grappling with the early phases of the White House’s call for mass deportations.
American Oversight, a left-leaning watchdog group that obtained the documents through open-records lawsuits, said Homeland Security saw a 353% increase in use of force over the first two months of the Trump administration.
The documents detailed 10 incidents involving officers shattering vehicle windows and deploying pepper spray.
In one incident, where a U.S. citizen was killed, the report describes a driver accelerating a vehicle and hitting an ICE agent. Another agent then fired into the vehicle, slaying the person, similar to the Renee Good killing of last month.
The documents also detail the extent of “collateral arrests,” where DHS officers went seeking particular targets but ended up arresting other migrants along the way. In one operation last March, ICE made 370 arrests, 225 of which weren’t targets.
“The violence ICE officers bring into these communities has been well documented: Officers have assaulted, detained, and killed protesters and suspected undocumented immigrants,” American Oversight said in releasing the documents. “The public has a right to know more about how these federal law enforcement officers may impact their or their neighbors’ lives, including how officers are being trained and whether there are consequences for violating that training.”
The Washington Times has sought comment from DHS for this story.
The 352 pages of documents also include training material describing directives ICE personnel are given for when to use force and what constitutional guardrails they must obey.
The instructor notes for a July refresher training on the Fourth Amendment describe how to handle “disruptive protestors.”
That includes admonitions to advise unruly protesters that their actions may be federal crimes before making any arrests.
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The notes also say officers “may use force that is both necessary and reasonable to effectuate an arrest.”
“A designated immigration officer shall always use the minimum non-deadly force necessary to accomplish the officer’s mission and shall escalate to a higher level of non-deadly force only when such higher level force is warranted by the actions, apparent intentions and apparent capabilities of the suspect, prisoner or assailant,” the material states.
That training has come under question after the deaths of two U.S. citizens in January in Minneapolis at the hands of DHS personnel.
An ICE officer shot and killed Good as she defied orders to exit her SUV and lurched the vehicle toward him as she tried to drive away.
And several Customs and Border Protection personnel shot Alex Pretti during a scuffle with several protesters.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, after leading DHS officials through a video review of the Pretti shooting, said reforms are needed.
“You need to look at the policy because I don’t think they’re living up to the same standard of the police. I think the police are better trained,” Mr. Paul said.
