Federal immigration agents have shot into vehicles at least 13 times in the last six months

Here is a block of news worth reading from The Marshall Project:

When is deadly police force justified? Police officers are taught not to fire their weapons into vehicles. ICE agents haven’t had the same training. Mother Jones Federal immigration agents have shot into vehicles at least 13 times since July. The Wall Street Journal As protests against ICE agents grow, ICE officials tell agents to take “appropriate and decisive” action against perceived threats. The New York Times Even before Renee Good was named, the Trump administration began re-writing the history of her killing. Wired This isn’t a new problem. In the past, federal immigration agents have intentionally stepped in front of moving vehicles to justify shooting at drivers. The Nation TMP Context: Use of force by ICE agents. The Marshall Project

CREATORS: A Breakthrough in Fingerprint Analysis

Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
December 30, 2025

Fingerprints have long been considered the gold standard of crime investigation techniques. As early as 1903, America — with its new young president and former New York City police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt — began using fingerprints in criminal investigations. Fingerprint analysis became a "thing" back in the mid-18th century in India.

Within a couple of decades, the FBI began cataloging fingerprints. Today, the bureau is storing more than 200 million fingerprints.

Until recently, the FBI described fingerprint identification as 100% infallible. That is no longer the case. In the last twenty years, there hasn't been a lot of good news when it comes to forensic analysis, including fingerprint analysis.

What do we know about fingerprints? Impressions of fingerprints are left behind on various surfaces by the natural secretions of sweat. The friction ridges, the raised portion of the epidermis on fingers consisting of one or more connected ridges, are often the point of comparison.

First, an intentional recording of the fingerprint is made with black ink on a white card or recorded digitally. These are often collected after arrest and secured in a database. At a crime scene a "latent print," the chance recording of a fingerprint deposited on a surface, is captured through chemical methods and brought into a lab for expert analysis.

Fingerprint identification came under scrutiny in 2004. The FBI publicly acknowledged the fingerprint misidentification of an Oregon lawyer wrongfully implicated in a terrorist bombing in Madrid — a place he had never visited.

Through a study conducted in 2004, cognitive neuroscientist Itiel Dror found that otherwise competent and well-meaning experts were swayed by what they knew about a case submitted for analysis. Dror's study demonstrated that if an analyst knew that the suspect confessed or was arrested, the analyst's findings could be influenced. According to Frontline, cognitive bias seeped into the process even with the best-trained experts.

In steps deep learning, the use of multi-layered artificial intelligence to automatically learn complex patterns from vast amounts of data.

A recent study published in Science Advances entitled "Unveiling intra-person fingerprint similarity via deep contrastive learning" revealed a breakthrough in fingerprint analysis.

Law enforcement agencies worldwide have operated under the long-standing belief that no two fingerprints are alike, even across the ten fingers of a single individual.

The authors suggest that an investigator can sidestep the same-finger limitation by exploiting nontraditional fingerprint features. "Past studies provided evidence that fingerprint patterns may be partially genetically determined which implies that there could be similarities among fingerprints from the same person," the authors found.

In addition, "recent research shows that partial fingerprints from different users have common features that can be exploited to fool authentication systems."

The study concluded, "the ability to process and match distinct fingerprint samples from the same individual opens new investigative possibilities, particularly in cases where fingerprints are partial or collected under suboptimal conditions."

This breakthrough moves investigators away from matching the best print with the exact finger of a suspect. The study found, "The new AI model reduces this dependency by identifying shared features that remain stable across different fingers."

How does fingerprint evidence get in front of a jury?

Specialized rules of evidence allow expert testimony if the conclusions are based on knowledge, skill, experience, training or education in the techniques involved and the specialized knowledge will assist the judge or jury to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue. The testimony must be based on reliable principles and methods, consistently applied.

Here is the new dilemma. If Artificial Intelligence is used to determine a fingerprint match, how does the expert witness convey the process of using AI to evaluate the evidence? This information is crucial to whether a judge allows the expert's opinion and whether the opinion helps jurors understand the reliability of evidence.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner's Toll, 2010, was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino

To visit Creators CLICK HERE

FBI refuses local Minnesota authorities access to ICE homicide investigation

Minnesota state officials have urged the FBI to bring them back into the fold on an investigation into the shooting by an ICE agent of Renee Good, reported Minnesota Public Radio.

Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was initially working in tandem with the FBI after an ICE officer killed the 37-year-old Good. But reversed course, saying it has sole authority.

Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson said that could hamper a state investigation and possible prosecution.

“Unless we do that thorough investigation, unless we have access to all of that evidence, unless we have access to the agents that were involved in that, to any witnesses, without any of that, we would not be able to put together a quality investigation for any prosecutor to be able to make a determination as to whether or not someone should be charged with a crime,” he said.

Jacobson and Gov. Tim Walz urged the Trump administration to allow state and local law enforcement officers to participate in the investigation to ensure public trust in its results.

“Use our professional folks. They will gain you the credibility and the trust of Minnesotans to believe the work that you're doing is honest and it's not just a whitewashed to back fill a preconceived notion,” Walz said.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Thursday that her office began exploring options available to ensure a state-level investigation could move forward.

“If the FBI is the sole investigative agency, the State will not receive the investigative findings, and our community may never learn about its contents,” Moriarty said in a statement. “We are speaking to our local partners on paths forward that will allow us to review the investigation and be transparent in our decision making."

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Propaganda failed at times for even the master purveyors of deceit

As the airwaves are flooded with government propaganda about the homicide of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of an ICE agent in Minneapolis, we are reminded that sometimes propaganda backfired on even the master purveyors of deceit. 

Hessy Levinsons Taft, who as an infant appeared on the cover of a Nazi magazine in Germany promoting her as the ideal Aryan baby, a distinction complicated by the fact that she was Jewish and had been exploited as part of a dangerous hoax, died on Jan. 1 at her home in San Francisco. She was 91.

Her death was confirmed by her family, reported The New York Times.

Terrifying at first, the story eventually became a source of pride for Mrs. Taft and her parents for the way it neatly illustrated the absurd pseudoscience underlying Adolf Hitler’s racial ideology.

“I feel a sense of revenge,” she said much later. “Good revenge.”

The episode began in 1934, when Hessy was 6 months old and her parents, Latvian opera singers living in Berlin, hired the well-known photographer Hans Ballin to take her portrait.

After framing the photo, her parents displayed it on their piano. One day, the woman who cleaned their home noticed it and told Hessy’s mother that she had seen her daughter on the cover of a magazine.

“My mother thought surely she must be mistaken, that there are many babies that look alike, and just told her, ‘Well, that couldn’t be the case,’” Mrs. Taft said in an interview with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990.

The woman insisted that it was the same baby. “Just give me some money,” she said, “and I’ll get you the magazine.”

Soon she returned with a copy of Sonne ins Haus, or Sun in the Home, one of several pro-Nazi magazines that were allowed to circulate in the country after Hitler had shut down thousands of other publications. And there, on the cover, was the portrait from the piano.

Hessy’s mother flipped through the pages.

“On the inside of the magazine were pictures of the army with men wearing swastikas,” Mrs. Taft told the Holocaust museum. “My parents were horrified.”

Her mother went to Mr. Ballin’s studio and showed him the magazine. “What is this?” she said. “How did this happen?”

He told her that the Nazis had invited him to submit photos for a contest to find a baby representing the epitome of the Aryan race, and Hessy was among those he included in his submission. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of public enlightenment and propaganda, chose the winner.

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Mangino joins Nancy Grace on Crime Stories

Watch my interview on Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

To watch the interview CLICK HERE

ICE: When is 'officer involved shooting' justifiable homicide?

A federal immigration operation in Minneapolis turned deadly this week when a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good during a confrontation involving her vehicle, reported The Associated Press.

Cellphone video captured the shooting, which federal officials claimed was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary. Video shows an ICE officer approaching Good’s SUV stopped in the road as the vehicle begins to move forward. Another ICE officer standing in front of it draws his gun and fires at close range as he jumps out of the way.

Here's what to know about regulations on using deadly force in these situations:

When can officers fire at a moving vehicle?

There is no universal training standard for law enforcement. But most police departments and federal guidance bar shooting at a moving vehicle unless the driver poses an imminent threat of deadly force beyond the car itself.

Why are shootings at vehicles restricted?

Experts say firing at a moving car is one of the riskiest forms of lethal force, increasing the chance of stray gunfire or a loss of vehicle control that can endanger bystanders.

Are officers expected to move out of the way?

Yes. Justice Department policy says deadly force is allowed only when no reasonable alternative exists, including stepping out of the vehicle’s path.

Can officers use deadly force just to stop or arrest someone?

No. Policies generally state officers cannot use deadly force solely to arrest someone or to disable a fleeing vehicle if the person does not pose an immediate threat.

Do federal immigration agents follow different rules?

Not fundamentally. ICE and other federal officers operate under similar Justice Department guidance limiting gunfire at vehicles, although federal agents have added legal protections when acting within their official duties.

What is ICE's policy?

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, allows deadly force only when an officer reasonably believes someone poses an imminent threat of death or serious injury.

Who investigates these shootings?

Federal agencies conduct internal reviews, and state and local authorities may also pursue criminal investigations. Federal agents are not immune from prosecution if they act outside their authority. The FBI is leading the investigation into the Minneapolis shooting.

To read more CLICK HERE

Mangino joins Law & Crime Network to discuss located runaway teen

I joined Angenette Levy on Law & Crime Network  to discuss South Carolina runaway teen.

To watch the interview CLICK HERE