Do ICE Officers Have 'Immunity'?
episodePreviously titled “Will ICE Get Away With This?” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
Transcript
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What events led to the tensions in Minneapolis this week?
I'm Anne Applebaum. Over the past year, as I watched Donald Trump demand unprecedented new powers, I wondered, don't he and his team fear that these same powers could one day be used by a different administration and a different president to achieve very different goals? Well, maybe they are afraid. And maybe that's why they're using their new tools to change our institutions, even to alter the playing field in advance of midterm elections later this year, to make sure their opponents can't win. Ultimately, destroying trust is the currency of autocrats.
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Minneapolis remains tense this week. People are out on the streets clashing with ICE agents. Social media is full of a new kind of video. Federal agents not out arresting undocumented immigrants, but getting into physical confrontations with American citizens, sometimes on otherwise quiet suburban streets. One video circulating this week showed a masked ICE agent shoving a Minneapolis city councilman into the streets. The protests come, of course, after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed an unarmed protester, Renee Good, in her car. And they've grown dramatically with the Trump administration's response to the shooting, which has been no Department of Justice investigation, no sense of accountability, or even discussion of accountability.
In fact, the administration has reflexively defended the shooter and dismissed Goode as highly disrespectful and committing an act of domestic terrorism. And then the administration is sending hundreds more officers into the city to double down on their mission. which leaves citizens everywhere asking, have we reached the point where a federal agent can shoot an unarmed American citizen and we just continue on with the program? I'm Hannah Rosen. This is Radio Atlantic. Today, will there be justice or will things only get worse? Back in October, as Illinois leaders pushed back on the immigration deployment in their state, Trump's deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, had this message on Fox News.
To all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. And anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony. You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one, no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.
Miller's message that you can operate with impunity, even against Americans, suggests that maybe the role of ICE is evolving. Could Homeland Security be turning into an openly political entity that welcomes clashes with American citizens? We'll talk about that in the second half of the show. But first, there is another important authority in the mix, the state of Minnesota, which seems not to be falling in line with the administration's program. This week, six federal prosecutors in Minnesota reportedly resigned because the Justice Department pushed to investigate Good's widow, but not the ICE agent who shot Good.
I think this does mark a significant shift for the country and is potentially setting up an escalating conflict between states and the federal government in a way that we haven't seen in a long time.
That is Brenna Goddard, an attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Goddard studies the power that states have to hold federal officers like ICE agent Ross accountable. I started by asking her about Stephen Miller's claim that they were immune. Is that a real thing? Like, do federal officers have this kind of immunity that he's describing?
They do not have immunity that is that broad. Federal officers do have some immunity, but it is not absolute immunity for things that they do on the job.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What events led to the tensions in Minneapolis this week?
0:00–11:37
2
How has the Trump administration responded to the shooting of Renee Good?
11:37–24:30
3
What legal challenges exist in prosecuting federal agents like ICE officers?
24:30–28:26
4
What role do state authorities play in holding federal agents accountable?
28:26–29:55
5
How does federal immunity affect prosecutions of federal officers?
29:55–32:13