ICE conducted 37 investigations into officer misconduct in last year : NPR

Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons testifies before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on February 12, 2026.

Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

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Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted 37 investigations into agents’ use of force, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in congressional testimony Thursday.

Of those, 18 are closed and 19 are still pending or referred for further investigation, he said. Lyons did not say whether any investigations resulted in any firings.

The investigations affect a tiny fraction of ICE’s workforce. DHS said it has managed to nearly double its workforce in recent months, to 22,000 people, not all of whom are making arrests.

Lyons’ comments come after immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month, intensifying questions about immigration agents’ tactics, training and use of force. It also raised further questions about the integrity of the ministry’s internal control mechanisms.

Lyons shared details of the investigations during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday, which included top immigration enforcement officials. Republican Sen. Rand Paul, Ky., convened the hearing after federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. killed Alex Pretti, 37American citizen.

The Department of Homeland Security rarely shares information about its internal misconduct investigations, although several have come to light in recent months.

For example, ICE briefly placed an administrative leave Victor Mojica in New Yorkwho brutally pushed a woman into the hallway of an immigration court. Are also placed on administrative leave Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who shot two-year-old US citizen Renee Macklin Good Border Patrol Agents involved in the Pretti shooting, and Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum, who shot American citizen Mariamar Martinez.

Lyons’ comments on the investigations concerned only ICE; it is unclear how many Customs and Border Protection officers are under investigation for misconduct; Lawmakers at the hearing did not question CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott about his agency’s investigations.

Questions about training

Some of the officers involved in the recent incidents had been with their agencies for several years. But critics of the law’s growing enforcement have also raised concerns about the training provided to ICE’s 12,000 new employees.

In response to questions about the training schedule from Sen. Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, on Thursday, Lyons said the program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia had been truncated from 75 days to 42 days for new recruits — and instead had a longer duration. It’s time for them to “train on the job”. He said that after the academy, officers receive “real-world training, like when they [a] A local police officer walks out of the academy.

Lyons said it’s possible a new recruit could go from never having held a gun to finding themselves on the field in a state like Minnesota after those 42 days of training.

He previously said those who are former law enforcement officers and special agents completed a shorter training module at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, focused only on topics such as immigration and nationality law. It is unclear how long this would last.

“I’m glad you’re investigating, to be clear — but the fact that there’s a consistent misuse of weapons, a use of escalation of force beyond what’s necessary, and there hasn’t been a command decision on how to address the situation — that’s concerning,” Gallego said in response to Lyons’ comments.

Internal control questions

Administration critics and former ICE staffers have told NPR They fear that the lack of transparency about DHS disciplinary practices will further erode trust in federal law enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security has cut jobs in civil rights-focused surveillance divisions, part of a broader workforce reduction across the federal government. This includes jobs at the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which could be involved in any investigation of fatal incidents.

The administration was quick to defend the officers after violent incidents were made public.

For example, Trump administration officials initially labeled Good and Pretti “domestic terrorists” after they were shot and killed by immigration agents.

A preliminary government review later contradicted the Trump administration’s initial account of the Pretti shooting, as well as several bystander videos and testimonies.

DHS officials who testified before Congress notably refused to substantiate these initial assertions by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, among others.

“Any comments made publicly, privately, via text message, on Instagram, are going to bias the investigation,” Lyons said Thursday.