ICE officer accused of excessive force, then sent back to work despite active probe

In the span of less than 72 hours, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Victor Mojica went from being widely vilified and placed on administrative leave — to being returned right back to his old job.

On a Friday in September, Mojica was caught on several cameras roughly pushing a woman into the hallway and then to the ground, as the woman screamed.

The incident at an immigration court in New York rapidly circulated online and prompted the Homeland Security Department to place Mojica on administrative leave – a rare instance of such leave being publicly announced.

By the following Monday, Mojica was back on the job, without any further explanation from the agency.

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NPR has now learned that he returned to work before the Homeland Security Department's internal watchdog had concluded a review into his behavior. The DHS Office of Inspector General ultimately decided — nearly two months later — that the incident did not merit a criminal probe.

The disclosure of the probe raises questions about the adequacy of DHS oversight mechanisms to investigate employee misconduct. It comes as the department has gutted some internal oversight agencies and faces consistent pressure from Trump officials to ramp up deportations.

Critics of the administration, and former ICE personnel, also worry the lack of transparency about DHS's disciplinary practices can further erode trust in federal law enforcement.

"That's the scary part, that this is just one small case of a larger systemic issue of how law enforcement is being hyper-politicized," said Jason Houser, former ICE chief of staff under President Biden. He said the incident adds to the negative view of ICE officers.

DHS has not responded to NPR's questions about its investigation process and procedures.

When Mojica was first suspended, DHS issued a statement that criticized his behavior.

"The officer's conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE," Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of media affairs at DHS, said at the time. "Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation."

NPR had also documented this officer's previous use of force while on the job.

But a few days later, Mojica returned to "full active duty" at ICE, according to media reports at the time. The news was re-shared on social media by Trump advisers, including deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, seen as one of the architects of Trump's aggressive immigration policy. No further explanation was provided.

Push for more details from DHS

Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat, represents the district in New York that includes the immigration court where the incident took place. He had also been interested in getting answers about what happened with Mojica.

He questioned Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about it at a hearing this month, and Noem promised she would give the congressman "the investigation and the information that you would like."

Noem's response, shared with NPR in an undated letter, was five paragraphs long. She said ICE referred the incident "for appropriate review." And DHS's Office of Inspector General on November 25 made the decision to not open a criminal investigation.

It was not immediately clear why Mojica was able to return to work before the agency's inspector general's office had closed its review of his behavior.

It's also unclear whether the inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, who was confirmed by the Senate during Trump's first term, is still pursuing an administrative complaint against Mojica.

"ICE officers continue to operate in a highly challenging and increasingly dangerous environment," according to Noem's response. "Allegations of excessive force are reviewed through established internal mechanisms and accountability is imposed where warranted, consistent with law and due process. DHS will not litigate individual personnel matters through correspondence."

Goldman called the letter "a wholly unsatisfactory response."

It "didn't answer the question as to what investigation had been done in the three days between the incident and when he was reinstated, and certainly did not provide any more information about any additional investigation by the inspector general or anyone else," Goldman said in an interview.

"So it begs more questions than it answers."

Concerns about DHS discipline

Concerns about how DHS investigates and disciplines its employees predate President Trump.

During the Biden administration, the DHS OIG conducted a review of policies and procedures regarding senior executive employees going back nearly a decade and found that ICE did not follow its written policy when conducting disciplinary reviews of these employees.

But immigration policy experts say prior problems could be exacerbated by the rapid surge in hiring new officers, and the pressure the agency faces to detain more immigrants.

For example, groups like the Migration Policy Institute say the rapid expansion of Border Patrol in the mid-2000s led to cutting corners on training and eased applicant vetting, two factors that may have contributed to an increase in misconduct.

Noem's letter to Rep. Goldman also said ICE relies on internal processes, including through its Office of Professional Responsibility, to address personnel and compliance matters. She declined to provide further details, citing that information "is not appropriate for public disclosure."

Darius Reeves, a former ICE field office director for the Baltimore Enforcement and Removal Operations branch, said it is standard for administrative matters to be handed to the Office of Professional Responsibility, especially if there are no broader systemic issues.

Reeves was with the agency during the first Trump administration and left after the Biden administration.

If it was not a criminal complaint, it could be reasonable for an officer to be reinstated quickly given the administration's push for arrests, he said. But he said DHS should have given the public more of an explanation of why it reinstated Mojica since it had publicly denounced the incident.

"ICE is losing its professionalism," he said, speaking about the lack of public response and viral moments like this one. "ICE has lost what I've always deemed us to be: the silent service."

Houser, the former ICE chief of staff, agreed that both the inspector general and internal Office of Professional Responsibility could still be looking into a case like this, but the processes are lengthy.

"That takes a lot of time and diligence and it doesn't happen overnight and it doesn't happen over a weekend," Houser said. He said investigations may be followed by additional review from legal counsels across the agency.

"Those processes need to be carried out by those that won't have political motives as their goal. It should be carried out by law enforcement," he said. "And when that happened historically, there's a long paper trail of interviews, of witnesses and review and assessment.

"It's not just brushed under the rug over a weekend."

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