By Zack Linly, NewsOne

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have shot and killed two immigrants within a week of each other, prompting national outrage and protests, as favorability toward the agency continues to plummet on the heels of the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. So, how does the Trump administration respond to concerns that ICE is out of control and has become a danger to the general public? Well, apparently, it has decided that the FBI will no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents, specifically cases that involve assault allegations against agents, and cases that could be used to prosecute federal agents implicated in violent encounters. Instead, those cases will reportedly be handled by an internal investigation arm of ICE, which essentially means the agency would be investigating itself.

Now, according to the New York Times, the administration is denying the rule change, and we’ll circle back to that in a second, but FBI agents have reportedly already been informed of it.

From the Times:

F.B.I. managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change on Thursday, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal communications. The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their F.B.I. counterparts.

The guidance shared with them said that the bureau would stop investigating claims of assaults against Department of Homeland Security agents, the people said. Even though such investigations are intended to determine whether the officers were in fact attacked, they can provide a crucial means of gathering evidence implicating the agents themselves.

Under the change, responsibility for investigating cases involving federal immigration officers would likely fall to Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of ICE, effectively leaving the agency to investigate itself, according to guidance circulated

Cases involving an assault on a federal officer have been a source of tension inside federal law enforcement agencies for more than a year. White House and Justice Department officials have pushed prosecutors to bring charges in as many of them as possible, particularly as Americans protest the administration’s immigration crackdown.

Under the federal statute, felony charges can be brought against anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with a federal law enforcement officer.among F.B.I. and ICE agents.

Cases involving an assault on a federal officer have been a source of tension inside federal law enforcement agencies for more than a year. White House and Justice Department officials have pushed prosecutors to bring charges in as many of them as possible, particularly as Americans protest the administration’s immigration crackdown.

Under the federal statute, felony charges can be brought against anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with a federal law enforcement officer.

Just to put this all in perspective, last year, a federal judge in Chicago ordered the release of numerous videos that show, among other things, that immigration agents and DHS officials have made a habit of lying about anti-ICE protesters assaulting or posing threats to agents before those agents began using tear gas, pepper-balls, and other non-lethal yet brutal tactics to get them under control. The order came on the heels of the case of Chicago activist Marimar Martinez, who was shot several times by federal agents and accused of following and ramming ICE vehicles while agents were conducting their operations. The charges related to those allegations were dismissed with prejudice because witness accounts and surveillance footage of the incident contradicted what agents said happened, among other discrepancies in the government’s narrative.

And we all saw the lengths the government went to to smear Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists” who attacked agents before they were fatally shot, which video footage showed was not true in both cases.

The point is, this is an administration that lies and spreads anti-immigrant and pro-ICE propaganda routinely, and any changes made in how these incidents are investigated would only be made so the administration could further insulate itself from outside accountability. (Not that the FBI should rightfully be considered an agency that is separate from the administration with Kash Patel at the helm, but still.)

At any rate, the administration denied that the rule change had happened.

“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,” a joint statement by the Justice Department and DHS said. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Notice the sleight of hand there. The concern is not that people who allegedly assault federal officers won’t be held accountable. This administration has been caught lying about agents being attacked numerous times, only for it to come out that the agents were actually the aggressors. The federal government’s statement even indicates that its only concern is for the agents accusing others of violence, not the other way around. And if it is true that officials have directed the FBI to no longer investigate these cases, leaving it to internal ICE departments to investigate themselves, it would only mean the administration is limiting scrutiny of immigration agents by law enforcement.

The administration that claims everything is rigged is continuing its attempts to rig everything in its own favor. We can’t let it.

Read the original article here.

Featured Image: ICE Death Memorial (Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Getty)