ICE discloses 37 excessive force investigations in one year

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons testified on Feb. 12, 2026, before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (chaired by Sen. RPRand Paul, R-KY; ranking member Sen. Gary Peters, D-MI) that ICE conducted 37 internal investigations into officers' use of force from January 2025 through January 2026. He disclosed that 18 were closed, 19 were pending or referred for further investigation, and one was referred for further action, but didn't specify whether any investigations resulted in terminations or discipline.

The hearing centered on the Jan. 7, 2026, killing of Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, mother of three, and poet, shot by ICE officer JRJonathan Ross in Minneapolis. Good had stopped her Honda Pilot during an ICE enforcement operation to support immigrant neighbors. Ross, standing at the front-left of her vehicle, fired three shots as her car moved forward and to the right—away from him. President Trump called her "very violent" and "very radical," while Minneapolis Mayor JFJacob Frey said it was "an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying."

The FBI and 🦆Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension initially announced a joint investigation, but the U.S. Attorney's Office stripped the state agency of access within hours, asserting unilateral federal control. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division declined to open a civil rights investigation, prompting more than a dozen federal prosecutors in Minneapolis and 🌲Washington to resign in protest. Minnesota Attorney General KEKeith Ellison testified that state investigators were denied "critical information" including Ross's gun, shell casings, and Good's vehicle.

Border czar Tom Homan announced on Feb. 12, while the hearing was underway, that Operation Metro Surge had concluded. The operation launched Dec. 1, 2025, deployed 2,000-3,000 ICE and CBP agents at peak, and resulted in over 4,000 arrests. Homan credited improved state and local coordination, praising Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor JFJacob Frey, and Attorney General KEKeith Ellison despite political differences.

Sen. RGRuben Gallego (D-AZ) extracted critical admissions about training: ICE had cut recruit training from 75 to 42 days, meaning someone who had never handled a weapon could be deployed to a high-stress urban environment in less than seven weeks. Only about 3,000 of ICE's 13,000 agents had body cameras. Agents routinely wore identity-concealing masks and recorded encounters on personal cell phones.

Operation Metro Surge was described by DHS as "the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out," but the numbers revealed disconnects from stated goals. Only 23 arrestees were from Somalia despite the operation targeting fraud investigations in the Somali-American community, and none had ties to the fraud cases under investigation. Many detained individuals were U.S. citizens, legal residents, asylum seekers, refugees, and workers.

Chairman RPRand Paul—the lone Republican who actively questioned ICE conduct—opened the hearing declaring "the public trust has been lost" and demanded agents "admit their mistakes." He showed frame-by-frame video of a second killing: ICU nurse Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen shot by Border Patrol agents on Jan. 24 while filming enforcement operations. Paul concluded: "I saw no resistance. Everything was retreat."

Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz found ICE had violated at least 96 court orders in 🦆Minnesota since Jan. 1, 2026. DHS had "all but eliminated" its Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in March 2025, abandoning 550 pending complaints. The administration argued agents have "absolute immunity" for on-duty actions. ICE has never faced a Department of Justice pattern-or-practice investigation, unlike hundreds of local police departments.