Source: Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
Click here for 3-minute video by Adam Isacson, WOLA director for defense oversight.
Federal law enforcement agents are using deadly force in questionable circumstances—shooting unarmed individuals, deploying chemical irritants on subdued protesters, and operating with little accountability. Now, Border Patrol and ICE agents are bringing these tactics from the border into American cities.
Since 2010, the Southern Border Communities Coalition has documented 364 fatal encounters with Customs and Border Protection at the border. Between 2020 and 2023, at least 15 cases involved agents killing or severely wounding people in circumstances that appear unjustified. Yet in nearly 100 years of operation, no on-duty Border Patrol agent has been successfully convicted for a killing.
Adam Isacson from the Washington Office on Latin America examines the accountability gap in federal immigration enforcement. While DHS has written standards requiring deadly force only when "necessary" and when there's "imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury," these policies are rarely enforced. International standards require both necessity and proportionality—but U.S. agencies don't apply them.
