Why DHS agents face less accountability than cops
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Then-CPD Superintendent Garry McCarthy speaks during a news conference about a Chicago shooting in 2013. Photo: John Gress/Getty Images
Investigations into the killings of Renee Nicole Good or Alex Pretti would likely proceed differently if a local police officer, instead of DHS agents, had pulled the trigger.
Why it matters: A local police shooting usually initiates a multi-agency investigation and the threat of prosecution. DHS agent shootings, however, are handled almost entirely inside the federal government — where accountability is far harder to reach.
Zoom in: Officials at Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police and Police Department declined Axios' requests to comment on the discrepancy, but former CPD chief Garry McCarthy tackled it head-on during a Fox 32 interview last week.
- "No municipal police department in this country could do the things that [DHS agents are] doing and not expect blowback," he said.
What's more: McCarthy, who led CPD from 2011–2015, decried federal agents' practices of shooting pepper balls, using tear gas and throwing people to the ground.
- "You don't stand in front of vehicles … [or shoot] into moving vehicles, because if you happen to get that one-in-a-million kill shot, you have a 2,000-pound bullet riding down the street, which is exactly what we saw in Minnesota. Poor tactics, poor policy."
Yes, but: McCarthy said he remains "OK with the mission of ICE" and Border Patrol, and criticizes local politicians for what he sees as encouraging people to "resist the law."
- "It is illegal in almost every state in this nation to resist arrest, even if it's an unlawful or an illegal arrest," he told Fox. "You can get arrested for a robbery, get acquitted and still get convicted of resisting arrest …Yet we have elected officials and signs saying 'resist, resist.'"
Between the lines: ICE is a relatively young federal agency — created after the 9/11 attacks with fewer guardrails — and hasn't faced the number of court challenges that forced other agencies to rein in their officers.
- That's unlikely to change under President Trump. His administration has halted all Department of Justice "pattern-or-practice" investigations into police departments accused of excessive force, and likely won't launch one into ICE despite a spike in shootings.
Zoom out: At least 12 DHS agent-involved shootings, four fatal — including Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in Franklin Park — have occurred since Trump sent DHS agents into cities in early 2025.
- An Axios analysis of publicly known ICE excessive force cases shows that before 2025, the agency had one agent shooting case per year on average, and sometimes had none.
What we're watching: How Mayor Brandon Johnson's new executive order aimed at holding immigration agents accountable through a collaboration between the CPD and State's Attorney's Office will work in practice.
- If and how Congress is able to attach DHS reforms to a spending bill now stalled on Capitol Hill.
Editors note: After the publication of this story, State's Attorney officials contacted Axios to say they never had a chance to review the mayor's executive order before it was issued. They say they have concerns and are reviewing it now.