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FBI agents around the country received guidance last week that they will no longer participate in investigations of assaults on immigration agents, including incidents that culminate in an immigration agent opening fire, emails reviewed by CBS News show.
Instead, an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement called Homeland Security Investigations will handle the probes.
Justice Department and Homeland Security Department officials deny such a policy change is taking place.
But in the emails reviewed by CBS News, FBI officials and HSI special agents in field offices were advised that the FBI would be deferring on all assault on federal officer inquiries involving DHS agents to HSI. In one email sent to FBI field offices, agents in each office were asked to compile a list of existing investigations involving assaults on federal officers from DHS.
HSI and ICE are overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, meaning the immigration enforcement agency would effectively be investigating incidents involving its own agents.
The FBI has historically served as the lead law enforcement agency to investigate assaults against federal agents. The bureau also handles highly specialized color-of-law civil rights investigations, such as when civilians are killed by police. Several high-profile fatal shootings by immigration agents over the last 18 months have involved elements of both, with DHS alleging agents were assaulted before they discharged their firearms.
Unlike the FBI, HSI is not typically tasked with investigating officer-involved shootings and is not structured or equipped to handle core elements of such cases, including ballistics analysis, forensic processing, firearm examinations, video review and large-scale witness canvassing, CBS News has previously reported. HSI typically handles a wide variety of cross-border crimes, ranging from human trafficking and cybercrime to art smuggling.
The change was first reported by The New York Times.
Sources familiar with the matter told CBS News that the directive was issued on Thursday to leaders in various FBI field offices.
Both DHS and the Justice Department publicly have denied that any such change is taking place, with each agency posting on X that the changes reported in the media on how assault investigations involving DHS agents would be investigated were "false."
The FBI "will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy," the Justice Department wrote on X. "This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
A Justice Department official told CBS News on Monday morning that the FBI was unaware of any such guidance being distributed to field offices.
Later on Monday evening, however, CBS News reviewed an additional email that was addressed on Thursday to HSI agents in one of its field offices, one source with knowledge of the matter said.
According to the email reviewed by CBS News, the new guidance will impact all assault investigations, from minor cases involving assaults on DHS employees, all the way up to agent-involved shootings. The abrupt shift prompted hours-long calls with FBI special agents in charge, U.S. attorneys, HSI leaders, and the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general's office, the email shows.
In the email, a local HSI official also expressed concerns about the need for more training and resources to handle some of the serious cases.
The FBI will still provide resources and assistance upon request, according to both the email and a different source with direct knowledge of the new policy. The email said that HSI would still have strong support from its local partners to work through the policy changes being directed out of Washington.
Several sources familiar with the matter confirmed the policy shift was communicated to FBI field offices last week, with one source adding that the change was reiterated again on Monday — even after both DOJ and DHS publicly denied any such change was taking place.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to additional follow-up questions from CBS News.
The new policy shift comes on the heels of fatal shootings by federal immigration officers in Texas and Maine earlier this month, and raises questions about what role the FBI will play — if any — on color-of-law civil rights investigations.
On July 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Mexican national in Houston who had lived in the U.S. for decades. Days later, an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian man in Biddeford, Maine.
The Justice Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions from CBS News about how this policy shift may impact the investigations in Texas and Maine.
The FBI earlier this year surged resources in Minnesota to investigate alleged assaults on immigration officers who were carrying out enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Some of those cases were later dismissed after prosecutors reviewed the evidence.
The issue became a flashpoint after a fatal encounter between an ICE officer and Renee Good. The Justice Department pressured the FBI and prosecutors to treat the investigation as an assault on a federal officer as opposed to a civil rights investigation into her killing, prompting several prosecutors and an FBI agent to resign.
When HSI was tasked with leading the federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, with the help of the FBI, the decision raised questions among current and former federal law enforcement officials.
After concerns were raised, the FBI and the Civil Rights Division were ordered to take the lead on the probe. That investigation remains ongoing.
