Why there will be a government shutdown over DHS
By 
Two federal officers appear to have lied about an incident last month in Minneapolis that ended with one of them shooting a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said Friday.
The two officers are under investigation by the Justice Department, Lyons said. The announcement comes one day after federal prosecutors dropped the criminal cases against two immigrants in connection with the Jan. 14 episode. Department of Homeland Security leaders, including Secretary Kristi Noem, had previously defended the officers, saying they had fended off an “attempted murder” and that one officer had fired in self-defense.
“A joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Lyons said in a statement. “Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation….The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these false statements.”
Agents had initially said that two men — Alfredo Aljorna and Julio Sosa Celis – assaulted them with a broom and a shovel before one of them shot Sosa Celis. But that account was quickly called into question, and prosecutors now say “newly discovered evidence” contradicts the officers’ story.
Local law enforcement and prosecutors are also investigating the incident. The reversal by ICE comes a day after the White House announced it was ending its surge of federal immigration enforcement officers in the Twin Cities and after a judge excoriated the Trump administration for violating rights of immigration detainees held at a local facility.
It’s the latest twist in a harrowing odyssey for the two men initially charged with assaulting the officers, and for several other immigrants who lived in the apartment complex where the confrontation occurred.
On the night of the shooting, ICE also detained Aljorna’s 19-year-old partner — who arrived in the country as a minor and was initially housed in a humanitarian shelter — and whisked her to Texas and then New Mexico for potential deportation. A federal judge in New Mexico deemed her detention illegal and ordered her quickly freed after learning that the couple’s one-year-old son had been badly burned and required emergency surgery.
“Newly discovered evidence.” ;) It’s good that we have not reached the point of total impunity, but it remains telling how many agents act like it. (And while the charges against the victims won’t stick, I certainly wouldn’t bet on any consequences for the prejurious officers.)
She has donned flak jackets on ICE raids, posed toting a large gun and recorded messages urging immigrants to self-deport. In one, she stood before a group of imprisoned men with shaved heads packed into tight rows in a notorious El Salvadoran prison. And she has done it all with an eye to her style, with TV-ready hair and makeup.
Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski frequently berate senior level staff, give polygraph tests to employees they don’t trust and have fired employees—in one incident, Lewandowski fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Noem’s blanket was left behind on a plane, according to people familiar with the incident.
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Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski have cut employees or put them on administrative leave. The pair have fired or demoted roughly 80% of the career ICE field leadership that was in place when they started.
In the blanket incident, Noem had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn’t moved to the second plane, according to the people familiar with the incident. The Coast Guard pilot was initially fired and told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination. They eventually reinstated the pilot because no one else was available to fly them home.
A defining feature of fascism is that top officials tend to be both dangerous and ridiculous.