When a police officer in Maryland shoots someone, the state attorney general’s office goes looking for answers.

Was the shooting justified? Did the officers follow best practices in a complex, dangerous situation? Were laws broken?

The AG’s Independent Investigations Division has more experience with shootings, fatal crashes, in-custody deaths and use of force than any other Maryland agency. But it won’t sort out the Christmas Eve shooting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Glen Burnie.

The law that created the division stopped short of giving it power to review shootings involving federal agents.

Instead, the job falls to Anne Arundel County Police. Their detectives face the unprecedented task of determining the facts of this strange, violent encounter.

The Criminal Investigation Division has to figure out not only what happened at the Woodside Square Condominiums and why but also whether agents lied.

“I asked, is that typical?” said County Councilwoman Allison Pickard, who represents the area. “There isn’t a lot of precedent for ​federal ... activity ​in the county, and how, let’s say, an FBI shooting or incident is investigated. We don’t have a ton of them, right?"

The investigation will unfold in a climate fraught with political meaning.

Agents involved are part of the divisive campaign by President Donald Trump to remove 1 million immigrants with an expanding deportation machine operating with impunity.

ICE agents claim they shot Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a Portuguese national whose visa had expired, after he rammed his van into agency vehicles and drove at agents. They say a passenger in the van, Salomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, was injured in the crash that followed.

An attorney who spoke with Serrano-Esquivel, however, relayed a different story. He said the man claims he was handcuffed in the ICE van when agents chased Sousa-Martins and was injured in the crash.

Anne Arundel Police declined to comment on their investigation.

The shooting fits into a disturbing pattern of violence, with immigration agents breaking car windows, tackling people in the street and using deadly force.

In September, an ICE agent dropped his handgun while wrestling a man to the ground in Hyattsville, then brandished it at bystanders. Weeks later, Homeland Security Investigations agents shot at an unarmed Black man during a traffic stop in D.C.

Trace, a nonprofit newsroom that reports on gun violence in America, tallied 22 incidents of immigration agents using guns through mid-December.

It tracked another 13 incidents when agents fired less-lethal munitions, such as rubber bullets and pepper balls — 10 of them at protests.

The FBI typically investigates when there is a question of civil rights violations. That’s less likely because the Justice Department under Trump stripped its Civil Rights Division.

The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution gives agents a level of immunity from local prosecution when they are acting within their lawful duties.

Local authorities generally get involved only when a shooting happens outside the scope of an investigation or enforcement action. You see that pattern in a number of incidents.

In Los Angeles, city police are investigating an off-duty ICE agent who shot and killed a man firing an assault rifle into the air on New Year’s Eve. Homeland Security called the incident a potential mass shooting.

In 2020, Montgomery County prosecutors charged an FBI agent after he shot a man during a confrontation on a Metro train.

And in 2014 Anne Arundel Police and the agency jointly investigated an off-duty FBI agent who shot a dog in a Glen Burnie park. No charges were filed.

If the Christmas Eve shooting took place, as ICE said, during the targeted capture of Sousa-Martins, police and prosecutors might not have the power to file charges over any misconduct.

There isn’t any violation of local and state law on police actions, such as a ban on high-speed chases. They don’t apply to federal agents.

Police Chief Amal E. Awad has expressed confidence in her detectives’ ability to find the truth. What happens depends on how cooperative ICE proves to be.

Militant rhetoric makes that an open question.

“This incident, which is still under investigation, comes as the extremist anti-ICE rhetoric and outright lies of politicians, the news media, activists, and violent agitators continue to fuel a more than 1,150% increase in assaults against ICE officers,” spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an email to The Banner.

There’s little precedent for holding ICE agents accountable.

Trace recorded 59 shootings by immigration agents from 2016-24. Twenty-three were fatal, but it found no record of prosecutions or discipline.

Body cameras have been a game changer for investigations into police use of violence, and ICE agents are required to wear them during enforcement actions under a policy released in February.

Agents at the scene after the shooting were not visibly wearing them, but those same rules might have exempted them.

Historically, Anne Arundel Police have good relationships with federal law enforcement. Ties to ICE are less clear.

In 2018, County Executive Steuart Pittman ended a local immigration enforcement program. ICE later canceled its contract to use a county detention center as a holding facility.

Local prosecution, if it reaches that point, faces its own hurdles. Serrano-Esquivel has been moved out of state. The Justice Department would likely seek to move any charges to federal court.

Civil lawsuits might provide accountability, but there are obstacles there, too.

If Sousa-Martins and Serrano-Esquivel can find attorneys, if they are not deported before a lawsuit can be filed and if they can pierce the civil liability protections federal agents have, they might find answers.

Only one thing is sure: More confrontations lie ahead.

Congress gave ICE $75 billion in 2025. The agency is launching a $100 million recruiting blitz, with a goal of fielding 10,000 new agents.

That was on display at the Military Bowl in Annapolis two days after the shooting in Glen Burnie, with scoreboard videos urging the crowd of 17,000 to join U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“That first down is brought to you by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, keeping America safe,” the announcer said.

ICE, suddenly, is everywhere.