Can state officials prosecute the feds? Calls grow after Minneapolis shooting

The fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Macklin Good in Minneapolis sparked renewed calls Thursday for state officials to prosecute federal law enforcement, with a prominent lawyer saying local authorities have "fallen short" by not using that tool amid the feds' deportation campaign in Chicago.

Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke's office said in a statement that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations "have resulted in unnecessary deaths, broken relationships between law enforcement and our citizens, and an untold amount of terror unleashed on communities."

Still, it insisted the office "does not conduct independent investigations into criminal conduct. We do not have jurisdiction over federal agencies or facilities." Instead, it reviews "evidence appropriately collected by law enforcement" and makes charging decisions.

Meanwhile, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot also launched a new effort to hold federal agents who have "crossed the line" accountable Thursday. The ICE Accountability Project is an independent initiative aimed at collecting and verifying reports of alleged criminal and abusive conduct by federal immigration agents that will be available to the public, she said during a news conference at the Union League Club in the Loop.

“A mask cannot shield agents from accountability,” Lightfoot said.

It all came the same day that federal immigration officers also shot and wounded two people outside a hospital in Portland Oregon, authorities said.

Pathways exist for state-level prosecutors like Burke to file criminal charges against federal agents under certain circumstances. The key legal question is whether federal agents are acting reasonably in fulfilling their duties, experts say.

‘You don’t have the right to commit murder’

The strongest call for prosecutions came from Craig Futterman. He's a member of the legal team that brought the lawsuit that prompted U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to restrict the feds’ use of force in an order last fall. After a hearing in that case Thursday, he told reporters that local officials "have the power" to arrest federal agents who violate state crimes.

"You don't have the right to commit murder," Futterman said. "That's a state crime. And you have the power to prosecute state murder. You have the power to prosecute state assaults, state batteries. And that's something that we want to see our local law enforcement doing."

Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was set to investigate Good’s shooting alongside the FBI, but the U.S. attorney’s office changed that Thursday. The BCA was pushed out by the U.S. attorney’s office and would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the ICE officer who shot Good “acted according to his training.”

When asked if Illinois should be prosecuting federal agents who have committed crimes, Lightfoot said, “I think people should do their jobs.”

A ‘body of evidence’

Lightfoot said her effort to “unmask” agents comes after several reports of alleged excessive force by federal officers during Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign in the Chicago area.

Residents who have witnessed incidents of excessive force will be able to submit the evidence that will then be reviewed by a team of investigators. Once it is verified it will be shared on the project’s website.

The former mayor and ex-federal prosecutor said the website would provide “anyone with the ability to investigate” a centralized place to find information about the incidents, including photos, video, and descriptors of the agents accused.

“Our goal is to collect a body of work, a body of evidence, and then let the local authorities do what they do,” she said.

Lightfoot’s new initiative would “coexist” with the Illinois Accountability Commission, a commission convened by Gov. JB Pritzker to hold federal immigration agents accountable for aggressive tactics.

While the state’s commission focuses on documenting uses of excessive force to come up with policies and solutions to address the needs of residents, Lightfoot’s project will collect evidence to “provide information about the agents that are alleged to have engaged in misconduct.”

Lightfoot criticized the federal administration, saying officials “exonerate” agents without proper investigation and then claim their officers are being targeted and put at risk, despite evidence she says shows otherwise.

‘There is no immunity’

Veteran Chicago defense attorney Richard Kling put it bluntly: “There is no immunity, that I know of, for federal agents to commit crimes."

Like for any other human being, Kling said it would be up to a prosecutor to decide if there’s a proper case, for a grand jury to find probable cause, for the agent to decide whether to put on a defense, and ultimately for a “trier of fact” — like a jury — to decide “whether a crime was committed.”

Kling pointed to the recent charges brought against U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer Luis Uribe, who was accused last month of sexually assaulting women in the suburbs in 2022. Though Uribe was charged in federal court, Kling said there’s no reason he couldn’t have been charged by state prosecutors.

“I don’t see any reason in the world that a federal officer cannot be charged with a crime,” Kling said.

A known criminal investigation has actually been ongoing recently, tied to last fall’s shooting of Marimar Martinez by Border Patrol agent Charles Exum in Brighton Park. While details are scarce, Martinez’s attorney made one thing clear to a judge — the investigation isn’t into Martinez.

Martinez and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz have already faced federal assault charges. Prosecutors in Chicago dropped the case in late November, though. Afterward, the feds told U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis about the separate, ongoing criminal probe.

Christopher Parente, Martinez’s attorney, told Alexakis that he’d learned the U.S. attorney’s office in South Bend, Indiana, is investigating. He explained that Martinez is not the subject of the investigation, and he supports it. Ruiz is not the target either, his attorney explained.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Indiana declined to confirm or deny any such investigation exists.

President ‘stands behind them’

A state prosecutor might traditionally pause before pursuing a case that’s also the subject of an active federal investigation. But President Donald Trump would have the ability to pardon an agent charged in federal court, lending skepticism to the effort.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance wrote on social media Wednesday that he wants “every ICE officer to know that their president, vice president, and the entire administration stands behind them.”

Lightfoot said she anticipates that federal officials will issue threats in an effort to shut down her project, and said she would “not be silent.”

“Everything that we're doing completely is consistent with our rights, my rights as a private citizen to exercise,” she said.