ICE Has Proven it Won’t Police Itself

ICE Has Proven It Won’t Police Itself   I’m writing to ask you to take action to meaningfully rein in ICE. The agency has proven time and again that it will not police itself. Recent fatal ICE shootings — Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston (July 9) and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine (July 14) — are the latest in a broader pattern of abusive and unaccountable conduct by ICE and CBP over the past year.  In both cases, DHS has confirmed the men were not the actual targets of the warrants being executed. In both cases, agents were not wearing body cameras, despite Congress having appropriated $20 million for that purpose months earlier. DHS’s account — that both men “weaponized” their vehicles — has been disputed by witnesses and passengers present at each scene. These are not isolated incidents. They follow a pattern of behavior during ICE and CBP encounters that existing oversight tools — inspectors general, congressional hearings, internal reviews — have not changed. That track record is itself the argument for a different kind of accountability: one with legal teeth, not just political pressure. I’m asking you to support legislation that would let individuals bring civil suits against ICE, CBP, and other federal agencies for constitutional violations and wrongful deaths in the course of immigration enforcement. I’d also ask you to support extending that liability to the policymakers who set enforcement policy, not just the agents carrying it out. Current federal law largely shields policymakers from personal liability for these kinds of claims; Congress has the authority to change that. I understand this legislation likely won’t pass under the current Congress, and would face a presidential veto regardless. That’s exactly why I think it needs to be raised and debated now, not held back until after November. The public conversation, and the political will, has to start before any window to act opens — and simply introducing and debating this now puts current leadership and enforcement officers on notice that their conduct over the next two-plus years may carry consequences later.   Thank you for your time and consideration.