The official overseeing Trump’s escalating immigration agenda won’t provide disciplinary details on an ICE agent who shot and killed an unarmed mother.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem refused to directly say whether or not ICE agent Jonathan Ross, 43, was suspended and investigated after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
“Is he back at work? Did you give him his three days of suspension?” host Margaret Brennan asked the DHS head on CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday.
Noem, 54, was silent for a moment before responding: “We followed the exact same protocols that we always have for years as to investigations into these situations.”
Brennan, who had earlier noted that Ross was released from the hospital the same day as the shooting, asked again: “Three days of administrative leave?”
“I’m not going to talk about his medical records,” Noem said, before adding that her concern was for law enforcement officers to be able to work in the knowledge that “they can do so safely and that the media and people aren’t going to attack them for standing up for what’s right.”
Brennan asked Noem her question again, this time framing it around Minnesota Governor Tim Walz—reportedly under federal investigation alongside Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey—who has claimed that Ross’ actions were not officially looked into.
“I’m asking you about your policies. I asked you if you had put him on administrative leave. This is in question, because the governor of Minnesota said, ‘The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her,’” Brennan said.
The host asked: “Is he correct that the federal agent is not being investigated in any way? Is there any review of protocol here?”
“We are following the exact same investigative and review process that we always have under ICE and under the Department of Homeland Security and within the administration. The exact same policy that the Biden administration used,” Noem said, with Brennan interrupting: “So his actions are being reviewed?”
Noem ignored the cut-in, and continued: “We haven’t changed any of that. I would not listen to Governor Walz. He has a very bad track record.”
Using Minnesota fraud concerns as a reason Walz’s claim should be dismissed, Noem stated: “He certainly doesn’t have good judgment in these types of situations and I’m not going to be taking any advice from him in how we implement the law and protect people.”
Considering Noem’s statement that “policy” was being followed, Brennan then raised the need for the Office of Professional Responsibility to undertake a “probe to determine that the ICE agent violated protocol,” which, according to the handbook, requires three days of administrative leave.
“The protocol and the advice and the guidance within that handbook and within our policies is being followed exactly like it has been for years,” Noem responded.
“Okay, so there is some review of his actions, is what I understand you are saying there,” Brennan judged.
Noem concluded her claims by saying that all officers “absolutely know that everything that they do will be analyzed and investigated,” but that an equally pressing matter was how “the liberals and the Democrats in the media would attack them and try to ruin their lives for doing what’s right.”
The DHS head has repeatedly blamed “the liberals” for their treatment of Ross, and soon after Good’s shooting—and before any potential investigation could have taken place—explained the shooting by branding the mother of three a “domestic terrorist” and claiming that she had been trying to hit Ross with her car.
Video evidence disputes the Trump administration’s version of events.
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