1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

ICE must be defunded and disbanded immediately. ProPublica has documented more than 40 cases in the past year of immigration agents using chokeholds and other life-threatening tactics that were banned by the Department of Homeland Security after George Floyd's murder in 2020. These are not isolated incidents. They represent a pattern of abuse by masked agents who cannot be identified or held accountable. In Houston, a 16-year-old U.S. citizen was chokeheld until he couldn't breathe and needed morphine at Texas Children's Hospital. In Massachusetts, agents used a carotid restraint on Carlos Sebastian Zapata Rivera, causing him to pass out and convulse so violently his 1-year-old daughter shook in his lap. DHS policy explicitly prohibits these restraints "unless deadly force is authorized," yet agents are using them to control people who are already handcuffed or simply trying to flee. Secretary Kristi Noem claims agents "followed their training" and acted with "professionalism." That defense is unacceptable when the training violates DHS's own deadly force policy. The government won't even track how many times agents choke civilians or detain citizens. This agency cannot be reformed. Vote to defund ICE and disband it entirely. Remove Stephen Miller from any position of influence over immigration enforcement.