JD Vance is facing backlash for claiming an ICE agent involved in a fatal shooting is protected by “absolute immunity”—an assertion experts say is particularly bizarre since the vice president went to law school.
Elliot Williams, formerly a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department for the Obama administration, spoke out on CNN after the vice president defended the actions of the officer who shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Vance declared that the ICE agent was engaging in “federal law enforcement action” at the time of the shooting and claimed he therefore was shielded from any legal blowback, echoing the Department of Homeland Security’s narrative that the fatal shooting was an act of “self-defense.”
“That’s a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job,” Vance told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
In a brutal takedown on Friday morning, CNN’s Williams suggested the vice president was deliberately lying to the public with this claim.
“That is not correct, and the vice president of the United States went to literally the most prestigious law school on the planet and knows that that’s not accurate,” the network’s legal analyst said.
“Now, certainly law enforcement officers enjoy tremendous and very broad immunity for the actions that they carry out on the job, and they should, because they have to make very stressful on-the-spot decisions without the benefit of hindsight that we all have watching things on TikTok,” said Williams.
“That said, when someone steps far outside the bounds of either state or local law or, frankly, even their own guidelines as law enforcement officials, absolutely, they can be held accountable both by the agency they work for or state, local or federal authorities.”
Williams added: “So that’s just simply not an accurate statement from the vice president.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Vance’s office for comment.
Vance’s claim of “absolute immunity” has been met with a torrent of skepticism from experts. While the Trump administration has insisted Good “weaponized” her vehicle, footage from the scene contradicts that version of events, with her vehicle shown pulling away from the ICE agent as he opens fire.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has vowed to “do everything possible to get to the bottom of this, to get justice, and to make sure that there is an investigation that is conducted in full.” State authorities say their criminal investigators have been blocked from investigating by Trump officials, however.
Good was one of four people killed in ICE raids since Trump’s immigration crackdown began last year, according to an analysis by nonprofit news outlet The Trace.
Citing data from the Gun Violence Archive and reports from news outlets, The Trace documented 31 incidents overall since the Trump administration’s crackdown began in July in which immigration agents either shot someone or pointed guns at individuals.
The outlet found that at least three people were shot while observing or documenting immigration raids, while five others were wounded as they attempted to flee traffic stops or evade enforcement operations.
The figures “are likely an undercount, as shootings involving immigration agents are not always publicly reported,” the outlet reported.
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