U.S. Army Major General Antonio Taguba and Keith Rohman both conducted investigations of prisoner abuse at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Taguba’s mandate from the Army was to investigate the U.S. military police’s conduct at the prison. Rohman served as principal investigator for the lawyers representing Abu Ghraib detainees.
As the two experienced investigators reflected on the recent fatal shootings by ICE agents, they recognized similarities with their experience at Abu Ghraib and questioned the government’s process for investigating such misconduct. They decided to share their thoughts in an op-ed, As ICE-related killings continue, we need a real investigation of the agency. published by the Minnesota Star Tribune on July 17, 2026.
In their article, Taguba and Rohman question the approach taken to date investigating the ICE shootings:
- They question the status of investigations into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti over seven months ago and whether anyone has been held accountable for them. In the Abu Ghraib scandal, there were at least 14 investigations of abuse at the prison with 1,700 witnesses interviewed and 15,000 documents reviewed. Still, accountability never reached the top.
- While “the matter remains under investigation” has been a standard White House response regarding the ICE incidents, Taguba and Rohman question what “investigation” means in that context. They point out that investigations are vital tools of democratic accountability and their concern is whether the term “investigation” is being used to merely contain the controversy instead of uncovering the truth.
- The ICE controversy has grown to include questions about how federal immigration operations were planned, authorized, supervised, documented and defended; how evidence was preserved and produced; and whether public narratives were shaped before facts were established. In Iraq, Taguba’s investigation mandate went beyond the abuse by individual soldiers; its wide breadth was designed to address institutional misconduct by the Military Police, including unclear orders, weak supervision, deficient training, and poor discipline.
- The scope of an investigation and choice of investigators matter. Investigators must be able to follow evidence wherever it leads, without concern for institutional loyalty, political reprisal or personal advancement. They must be independent of the agencies under scrutiny and evidence cannot be filtered through those institutions whose conduct is under review. At Abu Ghraib, while the public saw photographs of low-ranking soldiers committing abuse, deeper questions remain to this day concerning the leadership, policy, command structure and permissive conditions that made the abuse possible.
To trust an investigation of killings and abuse by ICE agents, the public deserves neutral, independent investigations – this is the only way to distinguish facts from talking points.