ICE Agent Adam Saracco Pleads Guilty to Battery, Gets 12 Months of Supervision

Q: An off-duty agent pleaded guilty to attacking a civilian who filmed him, but did this conviction actually cost him his federal job?

No public evidence shows that Adam Saracco’s misdemeanor battery conviction cost him his federal job. The reporting on his guilty plea says only that it was “not immediately clear” whether he was still employed by ICE. Neither ICE nor Saracco’s attorney provided clarification in the cited coverage, and no searched material indicates that ICE fired, suspended, or otherwise publicly disciplined him after the plea. What is clear is that Saracco pleaded guilty in Cook County to misdemeanor battery for an off-duty attack on Robert Held at a Brookfield gas station and received 12 months of court supervision plus a no-contact order. That creates a criminal record of accountability in state court, but it is separate from any federal employment action. A misdemeanor conviction does not automatically mean termination from a federal law-enforcement job. Whether an agent keeps a position can depend on internal disciplinary rules, fitness-for-duty reviews, security clearance considerations, union protections, and whether the agency treats the conduct as job-related misconduct. Because this incident happened off duty, that distinction may also matter administratively. So the best answer, based on the available reporting, is that the conviction established criminal accountability, but there is no confirmed public record that it cost Saracco his ICE job.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 13

Cook County Judge sentenced ICE agent Adam Saracco, 41, to 12 months of supervision after he pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor battery.
December’s confrontation at a Brookfield, Illinois, gas station led to the charge: Saracco, off duty after leaving a nearby immigration detention center, took activist Robert Held’s phone and threw him to the ground.
Held, 68, said he was not injured and welcomed “some accountability,” while prosecutors barred Saracco from contacting him under the sentence.
The case grew out of protests against a surge in Chicago-area immigration arrests under the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz, and Cook County’s state’s attorney said local prosecutions of immigration agents remain rare.