Congressman Cohen Demands Answers about ICE Training and Qualifications

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today wrote an eighth letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in an effort to understand Trump Administration immigration policy and the surge in employment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The letter was sent a day after an ICE agent killed an American citizen in Minneapolis.

The letter reads in part:

Dear Secretary Noem:

I write to inquire about the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruitment and training procedures. 

Like many, I am deeply disturbed by the killing of a young mother in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE agents on January 7, 2026.  Before my tenure as a legislator, I taught police officers about their legal obligations and use-of-force training.  After watching several videos of yesterday’s incident, I am deeply concerned that ICE agents are either not being adequately trained or not appropriately applying their training during law enforcement operations.  To me, as I expressed in a House Judiciary Committee markup this morning, the shooting looked unjustified. 

I have also written to you about ICE recruitment activity. I am concerned that ICE recruitment advertisements demean the work of local law enforcement officers and actively encourage them to leave their departments for ICE—undermining morale, straining local agencies, and ultimately degrading public safety.  Just as importantly, these advertisements insulate that local law enforcement officers are ordered to “stand down” and allow dangerous individuals to go free. This is untrue and implies that, at ICE, standard policing rules and regulations do not apply.  This sends the message that the official procedures, including those reinforced in training, are optional.  

To that end, I ask:

• How are ICE agents trained regarding the use of deadly force? 
  • Please provide materials about applicable laws, regulations, and policies governing the use of deadly force.
  • Have any exceptions been made for recent recruits?
  • Have these trainings and materials been changed since January 20, 2025?  
• How are ICE agents trained regarding interactions with individuals in moving vehicles?
  • Please provide materials about applicable laws, regulations, and policies governing the firing of weapons at a moving vehicle. 
  • Have any exceptions been made for new recruits?
  • Have these trainings and materials been changed since January 20, 2025?
• When recruiting ICE agents, do you conduct criminal background checks?
  • Please provide materials about applicable laws, regulations, and polices regarding the hiring of individuals for law enforcement positions who were previously convicted of crimes. 
  • Has ICE hired any individual to be an agent who was previously convicted of a crime, pardoned or not?
  • Have any exceptions to standard policies been made for recent recruits?
  • Have any of these polices changed since January 20, 2025?  
• Since January 20, 2025, how many new ICE agents previously served as law enforcement officers?  How many from state law enforcement agencies?  How many from local law enforcement agencies?
  • Do you conduct a review of previous professional conduct, including disciplinary action, before hiring new agents?
  • Were any recently hired ICE agents the subject of disciplinary action when previously employed by a law enforcement agency?
  • Were any recently hired ICE agents involuntarily separated from previous employment at another law enforcement agency?
  • Were any recently hired ICE agents the subject of an investigation regarding the use of deadly force?
• What are the procedures to review and discipline agents for improper use of force? 
  • How many times since January 20, 2025, have ICE agents used deadly force?
  • Please provide the results of the investigations of every such incident.

I appreciate your prompt attention to these questions and request a written response by January 23, 2026, as my office has not received responses to multiple prior inquiries on related matters.  A complete and timely reply is necessary to ensure meaningful congressional oversight.

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