1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I am writing to demand accountability and congressional oversight of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following recent fatal shootings of United States citizens. Peaceful protestors Renee Good and Alex Pretti were publicly murdered by ICE ‘officers.’ Those murderers have still not faced any accountability. Pretti’s murderer, who shot him in the back 10 times, has yet to be named. This is unacceptable. This rogue agency is rotten to the core. There is no reforming or retraining a decades-long culture of lawlessness. There is only uprooting every part of it, then rebuilding something different. At the very least, ICE must have a judicial warrant for everyone they arrest. ICE’s warrantless abductions are kidnappings, and a flagrant violation of the 4th Amendment’s due process requirement. The Department of Homeland Security must be required to cooperate with local and state investigations into its ‘officers’ wrongdoings. ICE ‘officers’ must wear visible identification cards and body cameras to better hold them accountable. The use of facemasks by ICE ‘officers’ must be banned. They are not undercover agents whose identities need to be kept secret. Customs and Border Patrol agents, widely believed responsible for much of the violence, must not be allowed to operate more than 100 miles of the border. Schools and churches must be off limits to and ICE raids and arrests. My wife and I urge you to support independent investigations of questionable ICE activities, enforce meaningful oversight of ICE and DHS, ban enforcement tactics that endanger children, and ensure consequences for unlawful conduct and deception by ICE ‘officers.’ Our democracy depends on accountability, transparency, and respect for civil and human rights. You, as a member of Congress, have a duty to take the lead in this.