FBI to Stop Investigating ICE After Three Fatal Encounters

Donald Trump’s administration has found a new way to grant ICE total impunity after a slew of deadly incidents involving federal immigration agents.

Last week, FBI agents received notice that their agency would no longer investigate claims of assault against immigration agents, sources told The New York Times.

Instead of involving the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations—a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement—would likely be responsible for investigating confrontations, according to the agency’s guidance.

The purpose of these investigations is to determine whether federal immigration agents were in fact attacked, but their findings can also be used to prosecute DHS agents who are involved in violent confrontations.

Trump administration officials have insisted that anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with immigration agents should be charged with felony assault, which is punishable by up to eight years in prison. In multiple violent confrontations between agents and civilians, both fatal and not, the government has been quick to claim that the agents felt threatened.

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security denied that any such change had been made.

“The relationship between D.H.S. and D.O.J. in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and F.B.I. will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy,” the agencies told the Times in a joint statement. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Already, hundreds of criminal cases alleging assault against immigration officers have completely fallen apart. If implemented, this guidance would be particularly concerning considering how many lies immigration officials have told about their violent confrontations with protesters and immigrants.

Last week, an ICE agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man legally in the United States, while he drove with his three-year-old daughter in Maine. The next day, a man in Florida was struck and killed by a tractor trailer while being chased by ICE.

The week before that, an ICE agent shot and killed longtime Houston resident and father of three Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while he was driving. Federal agents claimed that he tried to ram the officers—a claim that eyewitnesses denied and that has crumbled under the slightest scrutiny.

President Donald Trump and other Republicans are threatening retaliation against Canada for the wildfires ravaging Ontario, smoke from which has caused hazardous air quality in a significant swath of the United States this week.

On Truth Social Friday afternoon, the president accused Canada of “Willful Negligence,” vowing to add billions of dollars to existing tariffs against Canada to make up for the wildfires’ cost to the U.S.

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein,” the president wrote, “and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air.” Trump vowed to contact Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Trump was joining a growing chorus of angry Republicans. Earlier Friday, GOP Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio proposed a bill to slap Canada with sanctions “in response to transboundary wildfire smoke affecting the United States,” which he called an “atrocity.” Before that, three Republican congressmen representing Michigan penned a letter warning Carney to take “immediate action.”

Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada who also hails from Michigan, has sung a more temperate tune. On Wednesday, he described the more than 800 ongoing Canadian wildfires as “a shared challenge” that “demands a shared response.”

“I commend the outstanding cooperation between the United States and Canada as we confront these fires together,” Hoekstra said in a statement. “Our two governments are monitoring and sharing information in real time—coordination that reflects our partnership at its best.… This challenge knows no borders.”

Some obvious wrinkles plague MAGA’s blame-Canada narrative: A primary driver of the devastating wildfires is climate change, which Trump dismisses as a “con job.” Research shows that the United States is culpable for $10 trillion in climate damages globally since 1990. And Trump has systematically rolled back federal clean air protections while in office.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has yet more blood on its hands.

An employee at an ICE detention facility in Aurora, Colorado, shot a protester Thursday evening, Aurora Police Department shared in a written news release. The woman was hit in her lower body but is expected to survive.

The suspected shooter is Brandon Booth, a 42-year-old who works for ICE contractor GEO Group. Moments before the violent incident, Booth and other facility employees were waiting in their cars on Nome Street, reportedly unable to enter the detention center due to an anti-ICE protest, according to local law enforcement. Police say that two women broke off from the demonstration, verbally confronted Booth, took photos of his car, and walked away.

But Booth wouldn’t let them. Instead, he grabbed his pistol and fired a shot at the women, striking one in the lower body, according to the police report. He then hopped back into his car and drove away before he was caught by Aurora Police.

The department noted that additional officers found Booth in his car with his gun “a short distance away” after he fled the scene. Booth was booked on probable cause of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing, and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon.

In a statement to Colorado Public Media, a spokesperson for GEO Group acknowledged that one of its off-duty employees had been involved in a shooting. “This individual has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, and we will fully cooperate with law enforcement,” the spokesperson said.

“This is a tragedy on all fronts, and the Aurora Police Department will investigate this incident with the same commitment to transparency and integrity as we do all shootings,” said Aurora Chief of Police Todd Chamberlain. “We remain committed to ensuring an ethical, thorough, objective, and comprehensive review of this case. Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora. Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society—violence is not.”

The attack is the latest in a long string of domestic bloodshed by ICE and its contractors. Just this month, federal agents have shot and killed at least two people: Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who was killed in Biddeford, Maine, despite having a valid work permit and Social Security number, as well as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican father of three and a local small-business owner who was killed in Houston.

There have now been 11 fatal shootings by ICE agents since Donald Trump returned to office and made mass deportations a cornerstone of his second-term agenda.

In January, federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good and, days later, ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Both were U.S. citizens. Their deaths sparked national outrage and further exacerbated the local pandemonium in Minneapolis that started weeks prior with Trump’s sudden decision to occupy the city with federal agents.

It’s been over six months since their deaths, but still virtually nothing has come of the federal investigation into the extrajudicial killings. Instead, Washington has reportedly utilized its heft to stow critical evidence—such as Good’s vehicle—away from the local and private detectives attempting to hold their killers accountable.

Tilman Fertitta, Texas billionaire and President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Italy, is conducting a two-month tour along the Italian coast on his luxury, 384-foot superyacht, supposedly to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States.

The voyage has not been well received.

The so-called “Coastal Diplomacy 250” tour, which began last month, has made a handful of its 13 planned stops. But Fertitta’s arrival in Venice on Friday, scheduled to overlap with a major Venetian festival, was all but smooth sailing. The ostentatious display was met with hundreds of protesters.

Demonstrators carried a banner stating “Venezia non si USA,” a double entendre combining the acronym USA with the statement “Venice is not to be used.” Organizers made the sign the length of Fertitta’s yacht, they said, to match “the dimensions of his arrogance,” according to the Associated Press.

Footage shows demonstrators delivering remarks against the Trump administration for promoting oligarchy, bombing Iran, and supporting genocide in Gaza, among other misdeeds. After a brief clash with riot police, protesters can be heard shouting “Shame!” at the authorities.

Protesters carried Palestinian flags, inflatable pool floats, and signs and T-shirts bearing anti-Trump messages. A sampling of those messages included: “Party Yes, American Arrogance No,” “No Kings, No Oligarchs,” “Trump Voters are Illegal Immigrants Here,” “Make America Read Again,” and “We are Not Trump’s Slaves and You Are Not the Emperors of the World.”

House Republicans released a much-anticipated continuing resolution Friday—and it omits Donald Trump’s biggest ask.

Despite Trump specifically ordering his congressional allies to include his unpopular voter restriction bill in the government funding mechanism during a late-night address to the nation the night before, Republicans’ 15-page C.R. makes no mention of the SAVE America Act.

“Congress must pass the SAVE America Act. How easy is that to do? Unless you want to cheat,” Trump said Thursday night. “The only reason you wouldn’t do it is you want to cheat, because your policies are so bad and your candidates are so pathetic that you can’t get away or can’t get elected any other way.”

Instead, Republicans offered a clean funding package. If passed, it would fund the federal government until December 4.

The president has predicated his support for any legislative effort on the Save Act’s passage. Since the beginning of the year, Trump has insisted it should be Congress’s top priority, refusing to sign any bill and derailing Cabinet confirmations until Capitol Hill bends to his will. So far, that stalemate has gummed up efforts to fund the Department of Homeland Security, stalled attempts to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, and upended a planned photo op of Trump signing a landmark housing bill.

The original iteration of the SAVE America Act sparked nationwide backlash for proposing numerous amendments to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, perhaps chief among them a requirement that voters bring either a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Critics argued that the mandate would unduly restrict millions of Americans from voting, pointing out that half of the country’s population lacks a passport and furthermore that the legislation as written would make it difficult for anyone who changed their name—including married women—to register.

The bill would also require voters to present photo identification when casting a ballot, and a total ban on mail-in voting. Trump has described the latter procedure as “crooked” and “corrupt,” despite the fact that he himself has cast several mail-in ballots.

The continuing resolution would temporarily extend current funding levels for the government while Congress continues negotiating appropriation bills for the coming year. It is expected to be put to a floor vote next week.

This story has been updated.