Police and Federal Use of Force

An MS NOW investigation found 15 federal immigration agent vehicle shootings since July. In one high‑profile case, CBP’s preliminary Office of Professional Responsibility report to Congress says two agents — a Border Patrol agent with a Glock 19 and a CBP officer with a Glock 47 — fired after an agent yelled “He’s got a gun!,” describes whistles, OC spray and a brief struggle with shots fired roughly five seconds later, notes an agent secured the suspect’s firearm in a government vehicle without clear chain‑of‑custody documentation, and partially contradicts earlier DHS and White House claims that only one agent fired “defensive shots.”

On 60 Minutes, two U.S. citizens — paralegal Dayanne Figueroa and teacher’s assistant Marimar Martinez — gave on‑camera accounts of guns‑drawn Border Patrol stops after collisions with Border Patrol SUVs in Chicago, with bystander and surveillance video that appears to show an agent’s SUV veering into Figueroa’s car, agents drawing guns, dragging and handcuffing her, and Martinez saying she “feared for [her] life” after being wounded. Their lawyers provided footage they say contradicts DHS’s claim that agents were “boxed in,” and the broadcast highlighted lasting physical and psychological harm while increasing pressure on DHS to explain the disparity.

An aggressive wave of firings and resignations at Attorney General Bondi’s Justice Department has removed what watchdogs estimate as more than 230 DOJ lawyers and roughly 6,400 overall departures in 2025 — erasing “centuries of combined experience” across national security, civil‑rights, environmental, ethics and Jan. 6 prosecutions, former acting AG Stuart Gerson warned. The purge has included veteran counterterrorism prosecutor Michael Ben'Ary, whose DOJ phone was remotely disabled and who was fired mid‑case after a right‑wing commentator highlighted his past work under Deputy AG Lisa Monaco, and the formal termination of multiple Minnesota AUSAs (including No. 2 Joseph Thompson) amid a dispute over the ICE‑shooting probe while the FBI excludes local prosecutors and state leaders launch parallel investigations.