ICE officials knew use of force was rising well before Minneapolis shootings

Top Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials knew as early as March of last year that officers were using dramatically more force against civilians and the targets of their enforcement operations, months before ICE and Border Patrol officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

Internal emails obtained as part of a Freedom of Information Act request from the liberal-leaning watchdog nonprofit American Oversight show that top officials knew the amount of force — be it lethal force or non-lethal efforts to physically restrain or subdue people or neutralize threats — used by ICE officers was rapidly rising after President Donald Trump took office and that incidents were occurring nationwide.

Caleb Vitello, at the time the official tasked with overseeing field and enforcement operations at ICE, was informed on March 20 that ICE officers had reported 67 incidents where they had used force in the first two months of Trump’s term, according to the emails. In the same time frame in 2024, that number was 17 incidents, representing a nearly four-fold increase.

Days before, Vitello was informed that the use of force in the first two weeks of March alone had quadrupled compared with the same timeframe the year before, per another email.

The Department of Homeland Security has insisted that officers are complying with the standards set forth in their training and that officers continue to practice “incredible restraint” in using force. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the documents, which were shared first with POLITICO.

The contents of the emails challenge the administration’s assertions and efforts from its backers in the wake of the Minneapolis shootings to downplay incidents involving ICE’s use of excessive force by arguing that such cases were infrequent.

“These are hard issues that we should spend time talking about, because they're tragic and awful, but also, thankfully, rare,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said at a Thursday oversight hearing about the response to Minneapolis.

The FOIA request also turned up incident reports from operations across the country where officers used force during arrests and apprehensions. They include one March 10 incident where Border Patrol and ICE officers smashed a woman’s car windows as they sought to apprehend two unauthorized immigrants. One of the unauthorized immigrants was tased and then needed to receive medical attention due to vomiting and some scratches. At least one person in the reports from Trump’s first two months in office died as a result of an encounter with immigration officers.

The emails and incident reports show that cases of ICE and Border Patrol using force go beyond isolated instances circulating on social media and surges in major cities such as Minneapolis. They also show that agency leadership has been aware that nationwide, the agency’s officers are using more aggressive tactics as the Trump administration has sought to increase the number of deportations of unauthorized immigrants.

The emails and documents also do not reflect particular urgency on the part of ICE leadership to respond to that trend, either by directing more training or by establishing whether the increase tracks with a general increase in enforcement and deportation operations.

Instead, they show how ICE and DHS officials looked to publicly discuss a different trend — that assaults against officers are also at all-time highs. The March 20 email to Vitello highlights that assaults against ICE officers had more than quadrupled during the same time period that use of force had also increased.

The email indicated that ICE leadership was keen to prosecute those cases, with a unit chief writing to Vitello that a team in a regional office could “package up a summary of the needed elements of the crime, definitions of what constitutes assault, etc with the intent of broadcasting to the workforce in an effort to drive more presentations for prosecution.”

Officials, confronted with questions about ICE’s tactics, have insisted the officers receive adequate training and blamed officials in Democratic-led states and cities for stoking tensions.

As recently as January, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rejected suggestions ICE officers were using excessive force.

“Our ICE agents are following the law and are running their operations according to training,” Noem told reporters on Jan. 15 when asked if there were cases ICE had crossed the line.

Chioma Chukwu, the executive director of American Oversight, said in a statement that the documents paint a “deeply troubling picture of the violent methods used by ICE.”

The documents’ release comes as Democrats and some Republicans are looking to secure major changes to ICE tactics and training as part of negotiations to fund DHS and end the partial government shutdown. Lawmakers on the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees last week questioned acting ICE chief Todd Lyons, who replaced Vitello as acting director, over concerns about ICE’s use of force and other tactics nationwide.

“It's clearly evident that the public trust has been lost,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said at a hearing Thursday. To restore trust in ICE and Border Patrol, they must admit their mistakes, be honest, and forthright with their rules of engagement, and pledge to reform.”

The documents also revealed more details about how ICE agents were told how to navigate another controversial legal question: whether ICE agents need judicial warrants to enter homes. That question has been a sticking point in funding talks between Democrats and the administration.

A slidedeck from July included notes about the administration’s controversial move to allow ICE to enter homes with only an administrative warrant — ones issued by an agency, not a court — in order to apprehend and deport unauthorized immigrants with final orders of removal.

The slides contradicted the guidance of a May memo from Lyons, which said that agents could use I-205 forms — which apply to those with final orders of removal authorizing an immigrant’s deportation from the United States — to enter homes.

But instructor notes that accompanied the slidedeck, completed in July, indicate that instructors were advised to tell participants if specifically asked about I-205 forms that the policy is “under review.” That suggests that the policy was not as iron tight as previously believed.

The administration has said it has the legal basis to enter homes with only administrative warrants. Congressional Democrats have insisted ICE still needs a warrant signed by a judge to enter homes.

About the discrepancy, Chukwu said it “suggests ICE knows its practices are deeply problematic — and is deliberately hiding the ball to avoid public scrutiny.”