Marcos Charles is a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official and the Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the ICE division responsible for the arrest, detention and removal of people found to be in the country in violation of U.S. immigration law.
Case
An ICE officer shot a man in a car in Marble Hill on October 8. DHS calls it a targeted arrest and had not said by October 9 why the officer fired. Mamdani says early reports indicate agents surrounded the man and child before firing.
Case
DHS says Silverio Villegas González struck and dragged an ICE agent before the fatal shooting. Compare that account with the Illinois commission's video review and the evidence limits it identified.
Role at the time: ICE Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations, at a DHS press conference in Washington
Statement summary
Marcos Charles, ICE's Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations, said at a DHS press conference that the man refused lawful orders to exit his vehicle, accelerated and smashed into two ICE vehicles, then weaponized his vehicle by accelerating toward other officers. He said the officers, believing their lives and the lives of their partners and the public were in danger, used their training and fired their weapons, and that the man was struck superficially in the neck.
“He then accelerated his vehicle, smashing into two of our government ICE vehicles, and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate going towards other officers. Our officers, using their training and believing that their life and the life of the partners in general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons.”
The reference point is whether the ICE officer was justified in shooting the man in the car. Charles says the man accelerated into two ICE vehicles and toward other officers and that the officers fired believing lives were in danger, which defends the shooting as justified, so we labeled it Defended or excused. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization, which would fit a dispute with critics' description of the shooting; he gives a substantive justification for the shots, so it loses.
Role at the time: Acting executive associate director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations
Statement summary
Charles told the Associated Press that, after seeing the officer’s injuries, he regarded the force as appropriate.
“The Associated Press reported that Charles had met with the officer in the hospital, saw his injuries and “felt that the force used was appropriate.””
His reported assessment directly defends the level of force used in the shooting.
Statement dates: September 19, 2025 to October 9, 2026
Statement dates: September 19, 2025 to October 9, 2026
Statement dates: September 19, 2025 to October 9, 2026
Statement dates: September 19, 2025
