1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

The recent collapse of federal prosecutions against protesters and immigrants reveals a disturbing pattern that demands immediate action to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Department of Justice has suffered an unprecedented series of defeats in cases relying on statements by Department of Homeland Security officers that lacked supporting evidence or were proven false by video footage. On February 12, Minneapolis prosecutors dismissed with prejudice felony assault charges against two Venezuelan men accused of violently attacking an ICE officer with weapons on January 14. The motion cited newly discovered evidence materially inconsistent with the complaint affidavit. ICE director Todd Lyons acknowledged that sworn testimony from two officers "appears to have made untruthful statements." Defense lawyer Frederick Goetz, a federal criminal defense lawyer for nearly 40 years, identified a pattern where unreasonable uses of force by ICE agents are followed by false narratives to cast victims as violent perpetrators. The statistics are staggering. In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases resulted in no charges, 13 had charges filed and dismissed, and there were zero convictions as of late January. In Los Angeles, federal public defenders won all six cases that went to trial since June. Fewer than 1% of federal criminal defendants were acquitted across the US in fiscal year 2024, making this losing streak what LA defense lawyer Katherine McBroom called "really unheard of." These false prosecutions have devastating consequences. Jonathon Redondo-Rosales spent six months in jail accused of assaulting an officer with a cloth hat before a federal judge dismissed his case with prejudice. Even exonerated defendants face enormous costs, with mugshots publicized internationally and reputations permanently damaged. Federal criminal defense lawyer Goetz noted the high volume of cases is overwhelming federal courts and diverting resources from traditional federal prosecutorial work. I urge you to support legislation to defund ICE. An agency whose officers routinely make untruthful statements under oath and fabricate assault allegations cannot be reformed. The pattern of misconduct, combined with the chilling effect on free speech and first amendment rights, demonstrates that ICE poses a threat to constitutional protections and judicial integrity.