Federal immigration agents have shot eleven people in 2026, and Newsweek wants you to know every name on the list—while the bodies stacking up from fentanyl, cartel operations, and human trafficking go uncounted by the same outlets that clamor to frame the border as an enforcement problem, not an invasion.
Newsweek published a full inventory of ICE and Border Patrol shootings this year, led by the case of a 28-year-old Venezuelan DoorDash driver shot by an ICE agent in Austin. The tally includes fatal and nonfatal incidents across six states. Six of the eleven shootings occurred in January alone, after the Trump administration expanded immigration enforcement operations.
Some cases deserve scrutiny. In Minneapolis, an ICE officer was charged with lying to investigators after video contradicted the official account of the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. In the same city, CBP personnel fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who was observing federal immigration activity; the Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide, and two agents were charged for use of force—though not for the killing itself.
But other incidents on Newsweek's list involve genuine threats. In Arivaca, Arizona, Patrick Gary Schlegel was shot during a Border Patrol encounter; the FBI's Phoenix office said Schlegel had an active warrant for smuggling and was later indicted for attempted murder of a federal officer, transportation of illegal aliens for profit, and firearm possession by a prohibited person. In Minneapolis, federal officials said Renée Good was fatally shot after her vehicle posed a threat to an officer.
Newsweek framed the list as a pattern of escalating force. What the outlet buried: the reason agents are in these encounters in the first place. Cartels control the trafficking corridors. Fentanyl kills tens of thousands of Americans annually. Smugglers profit off human misery. None of that made the tally.
Meanwhile, the Gainesville Sun reported that Florida alone has seen 19 mass shootings in 2026, including eight people gunned down at a family memorial in Sanford on September 19. The Gun Violence Archive catalogs every domestic shooting with mechanical precision. No comparable database exists for Americans killed by fentanyl that crossed an open border, or for migrants who die in cartel-controlled trafficking pipelines.
The message from the establishment press is clear: when a federal agent fires a weapon, it's a headline. When a cartel ships poison north, it's a statistic. When agents operate under rules of engagement that put them in harm's way while politicians and pundits second-guess every trigger pull, the system isn't designed to protect anyone—it's designed to manage perceptions.
The question isn't whether bad actors exist in federal law enforcement. They do, and the charges in Minneapolis prove it. The question is why the only violence the press wants to itemize is the violence committed by the people trying to hold the line.
