Democratic Party representatives are preparing a bill to strip ICE agent immunity, making convictions easier in future.
Congressman Eric Swalwell and congressman Dan Goldman confirmed they would work on a bill to prevent “mother-murdering thugs” from continuing with their controversial immigration order. Speaking to The New Republic, Swalwell denounced Donald Trump and the ICE agents’ aims.
He said, “Donald Trump has sent these mother-murdering thugs into our community. And of course this is what was gonna happen because it started with putting ICE in the streets and then deporting a six-year-old, stage 4 cancer victim, U.S. citizen, dragging women by their hair. Those apparently were the lucky ones when you look at what happened to Ms. Good.”
Renee Good was shot dead by ICE agents earlier this week in Minneapolis. A separate incident in Portland saw two people hospitalized after being shot by Border Patrol representatives.
Swalwell and Goldman believe restrictions currently in place make it hard for courts of law to take action against ICE agents. The bill has since been explained by Goldman, with the hope being it would be “difficult” for an ICE agent to use “subjective” arguments.
Goldman explained, “Yeah, well, basically what the officer is going to say would be that, I personally, subjectively, myself believed that she was driving her car right at me and using her car to try to run me over, and therefore I had to shoot her in self-defense.”
“And because the standard is subjective and it allows for the officer’s own view to carry a lot of weight, it will be very difficult for him to be prosecuted with the current status of qualified immunity.
So what this bill does is only for civil enforcement officers—not criminal enforcement officers who are dealing with real bad guys, not moms driving cars it—would say that it’s an objective test.”
“And if you are acting completely outside of your duties and responsibilities, you don’t have immunity from a civil lawsuit and you don’t have a defense from a criminal charge.”
Part of the bill would remove the protection against lawsuits from victims who allege their constitutional rights were violated by an agent. Swalwell added, “It’s very hard today with qualified immunity to bring a civil action against somebody who has that immunity.”
“We see these guys as acting as if they’re invincible, they’re untouchable—that they can drag women by their hair, throw them in vans that are unidentified, and now shoot them three times in the face and nothing will happen to them.”
“So yes, civilly, this puts them into a place where they can be liable. And criminally, it knocks out a defense that they would otherwise enjoy, which would make a prosecutor think twice as they try and put forward a case that they’d have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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