Internal emails have revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership was fully aware of a large rise in agents’ use of force during enforcement operations, months before the fatal shootings in Minneapolis. The emails, sent in February and March 2025, show that senior ICE officials were informed about a sharp increase in reported use-of-force incidents compared to the year before.
Use-of-force incidents in early March alone had quadrupled year-over-year. In the first two months of 2025, officers reported 67 incidents, nearly four times the 17 incidents reported during the same period in 2024. American Oversight, a nonprofit organization, obtained these emails through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
