DOJ denies policy shift after some FBI agents told to stand down on assault probes involving ICE officers

FBI agents around the country received guidance last week that they will no longer participate in investigations involving assaults on immigration agents, though Justice Department and Homeland Security Department officials deny such a policy change is taking place.

In an email reviewed by CBS News, senior FBI officials in field offices were advised that the FBI would be deferring such assault on federal officer inquiries to Homeland Security Investigations. The email also asked each office to compile a list of existing investigations involving assaults on federal officers from DHS.

It is unclear how many people received the email.

HSI is an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, both of which are overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, meaning the immigration enforcement agency would effectively be investigating incidents involving its own agents. 

The change was first reported by The New York Times.

Sources familiar with the matter told CBS that the directive was issued on Thursday to leaders in various FBI field offices.

However, both the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department deny that any such change is taking place, with each agency posting on X that the changes spelled out in the email 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. 

An FBI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Questions surrounding how assault-on-federal-officer cases should be investigated come on the heels of fatal shootings by federal immigration officers in Texas and Maine earlier this month.

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 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 flash point 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.

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.

Editor's note: After this article was published on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department stated that the FBI's handling of assault on federal officer cases has not changed.