An ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, the latest in a series of shootings by federal agents carrying out immigration enforcement operations in American cities.
In the last four months alone, immigration officers have fired on at least nine people in five states and Washington, D.C. All of the individuals targeted in those shootings were, like the woman killed on Wednesday, fired on while in their vehicles. In each case, officials have claimed that the agents fired in self-defense, fearing they would be struck by the vehicle.
At least one other person died as a result of those shootings.
In September, immigration officers pulled over a man driving a Subaru on a busy street outside of Chicago. The man, a Mexican immigrant named Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, was shot and killed less than a minute later. Homeland security officials said that Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez had hit and dragged one of the officers with his car and that the officer who shot him was acting in self-defense. But a Times analysis of video calls into question key aspects of the government’s account.
The following month, a Mexican man living in Los Angeles was shot during a traffic stop where the man was targeted for immigration enforcement. Federal officials said the man, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, had tried to ram officers as he fled the scene, and homeland security officers fired shots, hitting the man in the elbow. A federal marshal was struck in the hand by a ricocheted bullet.
Days later, an American citizen was shot in the shoulder by an immigration agent near a bus stop in a suburb east of Los Angeles. Lawyers for the man, Carlos Jimenez, said he had asked federal agents to move away from the area, where schoolchildren would soon be gathering. Mr. Jimenez’s lawyers said he was later shot as he was driving away. But federal prosecutors accused him of pulling forward and accelerating toward an officer.
Since last January, federal immigration agents have deployed across the country as part of President Trump’s deportation blitz, often in fast-moving enforcement operations targeting individual cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and Portland. Those sweeps have spurred protests that at times turned hostile, with protesters throwing objects at law enforcement and officers responding by firing non-lethal munitions.
In the 12 months through September 2024, ICE’s internal firearms and use of force committee investigated three incidents in which an officer used a firearm, according to ICE.’s annual report, and in the year before that, there were five incidents in which an ICE officer used a firearm. It was not known on Wednesday what those investigations concluded.
ICE and the Homeland Security Department’s policy on the use of force says that officers are authorized to use deadly force only if the officer “has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.” The policy further states that officers should “avoid intentionally and unreasonably placing themselves in positions in which they have no alternative to using deadly force.”
Chris Hippensteel is a reporter covering breaking news and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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