How many US citizens were shot and killed by Federal immigration officers during Barack Obama's presidencies?
Executive summary
A review of the reporting provided finds no documented cases in those sources of U.S. citizens being shot and killed by federal immigration officers during Barack Obama’s two presidencies; the deaths linked to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in that period were largely in-custody fatalities tied to medical neglect and other causes, not agent shootings [1] [2] [3]. High-profile fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents that appear in the supplied material—such as the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti—occurred after the Obama years and are reported in the context of the later administration [4] [5] [6].
1. What the question is actually asking and how reporting frames it
The user is asking for a count of U.S. citizens killed by federal immigration officers during Obama’s presidencies, a narrowly framed query about agent-inflicted, lethal shootings of citizens; most public reporting about deaths associated with ICE under Obama instead documents detainee fatalities inside the civil detention system and systemic medical failures that led to deaths, not officer shootings of citizens in the field [1] [3] [7].
2. The factual record on deaths in ICE custody under Obama
Investigations and NGO reports compiled from government records counted dozens of deaths in ICE custody during the Obama years — the report Fatal Neglect and related coverage cite 56 deaths in ICE custody under Obama (an analysis based on FOIA and internal reviews) and highlight that many of these fatalities were linked to inadequate medical care rather than use-of-force shootings by officers [1] [2] [3] [7].
3. What the supplied sources say about shootings by federal immigration agents
The supplied contemporary coverage that documents federal agents shooting U.S. citizens concerns incidents that took place after the Obama administration; for example, reporting about Alex Pretti and Renée Good situates those killings amid a later federal operation in Minneapolis and identifies them as events in 2025–2026, not during Obama’s tenure [4] [5] [6]. Those pieces explicitly treat the fatalities as recent and tied to a different administration’s operations [4] [5].
4. Absence of evidence in the reviewed materials and the limits of this review
Within the set of sources provided, there is no documentation or authoritative account that attributes any on-duty, lethal shooting of a U.S. citizen to federal immigration officers during the Obama presidencies; the available materials instead focus on in-custody deaths, wrongful detentions, and broader enforcement statistics [1] [2] [8] [9]. That absence should not be conflated with a definitive, exhaustive proof that nothing occurred; it reflects that the supplied reporting and reports do not identify any such shootings during Obama’s terms [1] [3].
5. Alternative angles and contextual data readers should consider
Scholars and advocacy groups have documented large numbers of deaths in the immigration detention system and wide-ranging concerns about medical care and oversight during the Obama years—facts that illuminate systemic lethality without implying officer gun deaths of citizens [3] [7]. Separately, research into wrongful detentions and deportation errors shows that American citizens have been mistakenly detained or subjected to removal proceedings in prior eras, but that body of work addresses administrative failures rather than fatal shootings by immigration agents [6] [9].
6. Conclusion — the direct answer framed by the evidence at hand
Based on the reporting and documents provided for review here, there are zero documented incidents in those sources of U.S. citizens being shot and killed by federal immigration officers during Barack Obama’s presidencies; the deaths associated with ICE under Obama cited in NGOs’ and media reporting were in-custody fatalities tied to neglect, illness, or suicide rather than agent shootings [1] [2] [3]. If a comprehensive, authoritative government list of officer-involved shootings covering that era exists, it was not included in the supplied sources; corroboration from federal use-of-force data or contemporaneous investigative reporting would be required to overturn this finding [1] [3].