1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I am writing to demand immediate action following the documented pattern of violence by Department of Homeland Security officers against protesters and community members across multiple American cities. Federal judges in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland have found that DHS officers violated civil rights in ways that "shock the conscience" and deployed crowd control weapons "indiscriminately and with surprising savagery." These are not isolated incidents but a systemic failure that requires fundamental change. The evidence is overwhelming. In Chicago during Operation Midway Blitz, officers broke a 67-year-old resident's ribs, fired tear gas that sickened a 2-year-old girl, and sprayed an orange chemical into a family's car that burned their 1-year-old daughter's eyes. In Minneapolis, a flash-bang grenade shattered 73-year-old Leon Virden's jaw, requiring surgical reconstruction with metal plates. In Los Angeles, Alec Bertrand suffered finger damage from rubber bullets that ended his ability to play guitar. Officers violated their own policies by hitting children with tear gas, shooting pepper spray directly into faces at close range, and striking people in the head and groin. Stephen Miller's October 1 statement that criminals "have no idea how ruthless we are" and his claim that officers are "unleashed" with "federal immunity" created a culture that celebrates violence over diplomacy, as U.S. District Judge Michael Simon found. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino planned to ship in "tractor-trailer loads" of less lethal weapons and told agents to arrest anyone who touched them. This leadership encouraged the escalation that former ICE official Joseph Lestrange said set officers up "to get hurt and to hurt the public." Minor adjustments like body cameras and pulling Bovino from Minneapolis do not address the fundamental problem. ICE has demonstrated it cannot operate within constitutional bounds or its own policies. I urge you to call for Stephen Miller's immediate removal, the firing of agency leadership who enabled this violence, and legislation to dismantle ICE and replace it with an immigration system that respects human rights and the rule of law.