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An Open Letter

To: Sen. Banks, Sen. Young, Rep. Yakym

From: A verified voter in South Bend, IN

January 10

I am writing in anger to condemn the actions of ICE and to hold you accountable for enabling an agency that now operates openly in violation of the Constitution you swore an oath to uphold. The death of Goode makes one reality unavoidable: ICE violence is no longer confined to immigration enforcement. Goode was not an immigrant. She was a peaceful protester, exercising her First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly. She posed no threat. She committed no crime. She is dead because federal agents have been empowered to use militarized force against civilians with little restraint and virtually no accountability. This is not a policy disagreement. It is a constitutional crisis. The First Amendment is meaningless if peaceful protest is met with force. The Fourth Amendment is rendered void by warrantless raids, unlawful detentions, and indiscriminate violence. The Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process is routinely ignored in detention, enforcement actions, and the denial of basic rights. These are not allegations—they are well-documented patterns of abuse that you and your colleagues continue to excuse, fund, and defend. You cannot claim to stand for “law and order” while supporting an agency that kills protesters. You cannot call yourself a constitutional conservative while endorsing federal agents who operate above the law. And you cannot hide behind immigration rhetoric when citizens themselves are being brutalized for exercising their rights. Your oath was not to ICE, not to a president, and not to the Republican Party. It was to the Constitution. Continuing to provide ICE with funding, authority, and political cover—without demanding accountability or restraint—is a betrayal of that oath. Statesmanship requires more than silence and talking points. It requires drawing a line when government power becomes abusive and lethal. History does not excuse those who looked away while civil liberties were crushed in the name of enforcement. I expect you to publicly condemn ICE’s conduct, support real oversight and limits on its authority, and end the blank-check funding of constitutional abuse. Anything less signals that your commitment to freedom applies only when it is convenient. I am watching closely. I will remember your response—or your silence.

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