How many officer-involved shootings by CBP and ICE occurred each year from 2015–2025, and how were they recorded?
Executive summary
Public reporting and independent trackers document a sharp rise in officer-involved shootings by U.S. immigration agents in 2025, but there is no single authoritative, year-by-year public tally for 2015–2025 that can be reconstructed from the available sources; the best evidence shows multiple independent counts for 2025 (for example, The Trace and media compendia) while government data systems publish use-of-force statistics without a standardized public “shootings” time series [1] [2] [3].
1. What the sources actually record: fragmented trackers versus agency statistics
Independent newsrooms, advocacy groups and Wikipedia compile incident lists from media reports and public notices — for example The Trace’s ongoing tracker identified dozens of incidents through late 2025 and early 2026 [1], the ACLU of Texas maintains a “Fatal Encounters” tracker for CBP dating back to 2010 [4], and a Wikipedia compilation reported “at least 30 shootings by immigration agents since January 20, 2025” as of its upkeep [2]; by contrast, CBP’s official public pages publish aggregated “Assault and Use of Force” statistics that count use-of-force incidents but do not present a straightforward annualized list of officer-involved shootings in the public-facing format used by independent trackers [3] [5].
2. The clearest signal: 2025 as an outlier and why reporting converges there
Multiple outlets and trackers converged on 2025 as an anomalous year: The Guardian cited data (from The Trace) showing 16 shootings involving ICE agents and a surge in deaths in ICE custody in 2025 [6], The Trace and Marshall Project chronicled a string of incidents and highlighted individual high-profile cases such as the January 7, 2026 killing of Renee Good that sparked national attention (noting agents fired at a vehicle) [1] [7], and Wikipedia’s compiled list flagged at least 30 shootings by immigration agents beginning with the 2025 enforcement surge [2]. Those compilations reflect concentrated media attention and DHS deployments that produced more public incidents and thus more entries in media-driven trackers [6] [8].
3. How these shootings are “recorded” in practice — official channels and their limits
Official recording takes multiple forms: CBP publishes aggregate “Assault and Use of Force” reporting that counts incidents during CBP operations and explains counting rules (e.g., multiple subjects may be one incident) but does not present a public, itemized annual shootings ledger comparable to independent trackers [3]. DHS and component offices (CBP, ICE) also notify Congress and open internal probes; for instance, shootings have prompted OPR or HSI reviews and placement of involved officers on administrative leave [9] [1]. However, agencies often do not publicly disaggregate Border Patrol (USBP) actions from other CBP units in media summaries, and internal classifications can differ from media or NGO compendia — creating mismatches between official tallies and independent lists [2] [5].
4. Why a complete 2015–2025 annual table cannot be produced from these sources
None of the provided sources supplies a consistent, audited annual count of officer-involved shootings for each year from 2015 through 2025; available materials emphasize aggregate use-of-force reporting (CBP’s pages) or episodic compilations centered on the 2025 spike (The Trace, Marshall Project, Guardian, Wikipedia) rather than a standardized historical series [3] [1] [7] [2] [6]. Advocacy trackers like the ACLU’s list fatal encounters but do not substitute for an official, year-by-year shootings dataset, and some claims in non-official analyses contain caveats about attribution between CBP, USBP and ICE personnel [4] [2].
5. Bottom line and implications for researchers
Researchers seeking precise year-by-year counts should triangulate: obtain CBP and ICE internal use-of-force logs and Congressional notifications (which record incidents and investigations), cross-reference independent trackers (The Trace, Marshall Project, ACLU, media compendia like Wikipedia) for events flagged publicly, and treat discrepancies as expected given differences in definitions, attribution and public disclosure; current public records make it possible to demonstrate a marked increase in 2025 incidents but do not permit construction of a fully authoritative 2015–2025 annual shooting table from the provided sources alone [3] [1] [7] [2].