Law Enforcement

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting
The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.
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Mayors Describe ICE Presence in Their Cities
As federal immigration enforcement agents continue to clash with protesters in cities around the country, U.S. mayors gathering last week in Washington, D.C., said they’re anxious about what might be coming next. “We were told the actions would be precise. They were not,” said Edina, Minnesota, Mayor Jim Hovland.
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I’m a Former FBI Agent Who Studies Policing, and Here’s How Federal Agents in Minneapolis Are Undermining Basic Law Enforcement Principles
As a policing scholar and former FBI special agent, I believe the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti illustrate how some federal agents are engaging with the public in a way that undermines established principles of policing and constitutional law.
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The Second Amendment Is Meaningless If the Government Can Kill You for Exercising It
The law is not supposed to make Americans choose between their lives and their constitutional liberty. The Second Amendment gives people the right to bear arms, and the Fourth Amendment promises to stop the government from killing them for doing so. People should demand better of a government that voices their rights one day before insisting, a couple of days later, that civilians can be killed for exercising them.
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ICE Not Only Looks and Acts Like a Paramilitary Force – It Is One, and That Makes It Harder to Curb
ICE and CBP meet many but not all of the most salient definitions of a “paramilitary force.” Both are also not subject to the same constitutional restrictions that apply to other law enforcement agencies. ICE and CBP thus bear some resemblance to the informal paramilitaries used in many countries for “regime maintenance,” carrying out political repression along partisan and ethnic lines, even though they are official agents of the state.
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License to Kill? The Legal Black Hole of Federal Misconduct
The killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents reveals a disturbing reality: everyday Americans falling victim to a system that enables—or even encourages—gross misconduct. To understand how we got here, we have to look at the bolted-shut doors of the American courthouse—a legal regime designed to ensure federal agents remain untouchable.
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Democratic AGs Stress Importance of Citizen-Generated Evidence in Challenging ICE
Cellphone video has emerged as a powerful rebuttal to Trump’s – and Trump officials’ — version of events, at a time when the federal government has restricted state and local investigators from accessing potential evidence to pursue their own investigations into excessive force and fatal shootings by immigration agents in their jurisdictions.
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Quote of the Day
Masked agents of the state shooting protestors against government policy have rightly cast the Iranian regime as autocratic pariahs. What, then, do we make of the killing in Minnesota of two demonstrators by members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)?
— Editorial, The Telegraph, 26 January 2026

Parental Firearm Injury Linked to Increased Mental Health Burden in Children
Each year, 20,000 children and adolescents across the U.S. lose a parent to gun violence, while an estimated 2-3 times more have a parent who has been injured due to a firearm.
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Footage, Documents at Odds with DHS Accounts of Immigration Enforcement Incidents
As a growing number of encounters between civilians and DHS agents are scrutinized in court records and on social media, federal officials are returning to a familiar response: self-defense. Often, this line of defense is contradicted by the evidence. Still, as Trump’s crackdown intensifies, people face steep barriers to holding federal agents accountable.
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Empowering Users to Discern Fact from Fiction in the Age of AI
A new project will investigate interventions that enable individuals to effectively harness AI while building the literacy needed to avoid scams and other forms of abuse.
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We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing
We found over 40 cases of agents using chokeholds and other moves that can block breathing. We showed former police and immigration officials videos of incidents. They said agents are out of control. One said it’s “the kind of action which should get you fired.” There is a federal ban on chokeholds and similar tactics. But there is no sign of punishment for officers who’ve used them.
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DOJ’s Dangerous Silence in the Face of Federal Immigration Agents’ Violent Tactics
The killing in Minneapolis is but the latest in a series of incidents involving federal immigration agents’ use of apparent excessive force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment and federal criminal law. Samantha Trepel writes that DOJ has remained disturbingly silent through months of these tactics. “This silence is a dangerous abdication of DOJ’s authority and responsibility.” Unfortunately, DOJ’s current abdication of responsibility “puts communities at needless risk and undermines the rule of law itself.”
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How a Manhattan Institute Comparison of Immigrant Incarceration Rates Is Rhetorically Misleading
I compared incarceration rates between Somali immigrants, native-born Americans, all legal immigrants, and all illegal immigrants in the 18–54 age range. The Somali adult (18-54) immigrant incarceration rate in the US in 2023 was slightly below that of native-born Americans, according to American Community Survey.
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ICE Killing of Driver in Minneapolis Involved Tactics Many Police Departments Warn Against − but Not ICE Itself
Debates over deadly force are often contentious, but for the most part there is consensus on one point: Policing should reflect a commitment to valuing human life and prioritizing its protection. One expression of that commitment is the prohibition on shooting at moving vehicles – but ICE’s policy on shooting at moving vehicles lacks a clear instruction for officers to get out of the way of moving vehicles where feasible. It’s an omission at odds with generally recognized best practices in policing.
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Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting

Mayors Describe ICE Presence in Their Cities

I’m a Former FBI Agent Who Studies Policing, and Here’s How Federal Agents in Minneapolis Are Undermining Basic Law Enforcement Principles

The Second Amendment Is Meaningless If the Government Can Kill You for Exercising It

ICE Not Only Looks and Acts Like a Paramilitary Force – It Is One, and That Makes It Harder to Curb

License to Kill? The Legal Black Hole of Federal Misconduct

Democratic AGs Stress Importance of Citizen-Generated Evidence in Challenging ICE

Quote of the Day

Parental Firearm Injury Linked to Increased Mental Health Burden in Children

Footage, Documents at Odds with DHS Accounts of Immigration Enforcement Incidents

Empowering Users to Discern Fact from Fiction in the Age of AI

We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing

DOJ’s Dangerous Silence in the Face of Federal Immigration Agents’ Violent Tactics

How a Manhattan Institute Comparison of Immigrant Incarceration Rates Is Rhetorically Misleading

ICE Killing of Driver in Minneapolis Involved Tactics Many Police Departments Warn Against − but Not ICE Itself

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