Democrats nibble around the edges
Democrats in Congress have issued a list of demands for more restrictions on federal agents in exchange for funding the Department of Homeland Security (Washington Post):
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) laid out their demands late Wednesday in a letter to Republicans, including barring immigration agents from wearing face masks and entering private property without a warrant from a judge.
Republicans immediately criticized Democrats’ proposals as excessive. Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R-Alabama), who is representing Senate Republicans in negotiations with Democrats, described it as “a ridiculous Christmas list of demands.”
The details are irrelevant despite multiple polls showing they have public support.
First, because cosmetic changes won’t address the cultural rot at the heart of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ask people if they support requiring judicial warrants to enter homes and oppose having masked secret police on their streets, and what else will majorities of Americans say? But if you want to know how Americans really feel, don’t ask, listen:
Second, the changes Democrats demand don’t address the problem of CBP/ICE thugs violating people’s civil rights with impunity. They know they can’t be touched if they bust your head. It’s what they’ve been hired to do, egged on by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump, and Shadow President Stephen Miller. Republicans are all about personal responsibility and accountability … for their enemies. Disincentivizing random brutality by agents of the state — their agents of the state — is not on the fascist agenda.
“Scores of claims are expected to arise out of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Experts say suing the government will be tough,” The Washington Post begins. The Federal Tort Claims Act stacks the legal deck against the Trump administration’s victims. The process is long and arduous (another Washington Post article):
“It’s absolutely bonkers,” said Brian Orozco, a Chicago attorney for Ricardo Aguayo Rodriguez, the bike-riding immigrant who was hospitalized and is now detained, awaiting deportation to Mexico. “If a Chicago police officer abuses my civil rights, I can file a claim immediately. I don’t have to wait six months [to file a lawsuit]. I have a right to a jury trial. I don’t have that when I’m up against the federal government. It’s scary to me how protected these federal agents are.”
After the Civil War, Congress passed a law that established the right to sue local and state officials for the violation of constitutional rights. Federal officials weren’t included in the law, though a 1971 Supreme Court ruling established precedence for such lawsuits. But legal experts said that the court’s decisions within the past decade have narrowed that path and made it nearly impossible to successfully sue federal agents for civil rights violations.
“It is arguably harder today in 2026 than at any other time in American history to sue federal officials for money damages if they violate your constitutional rights,” said Harrison Stark, senior counsel at the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
As we mentioned on Monday, Democrats in the 119th Congress have filed over a dozen bills touching on removing qualified immunity from federal officials who violate people’s civil rights under color of law. The bills establish a right to for Americans to sue federal officials who violate their civil rights. But they’ve gained little traction with Republicans holding a trifecta in Washington, D.C. And don’t expect Schumer or Jeffries to break a sweat fighting for them.
“It’s a somewhat complicated area of law across different jurisdictions,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) said of the challenges in garnering support for the bill, which he sponsored. “But I didn’t see any huge partisan issues.”
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Last fall, Whitehouse and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Georgia) reintroduced the measure. Legal experts told The Post they think it is unlikely to pass, citing anticipated concerns about exposing federal law enforcement officers to personal liability.
Personal liability, say, like Chicago policemen face? Or the New York Police Department? In the United States of America, some law enforcement officers are more equal than others. Republicans marching in step down the road to fascism mean to keep it that way.
We covered on Monday how a variety of states have passed or introduced measures to level the playing field for victims. Until then, under existing law victims may encounter difficulty in finding lawyers to take their cases. The government thumb on the scales of justice makes the cases tough to win.
Anya Bidwell, senior attorney for the nonprofit Institute for Justice in the D.C. area tells the Post, “even getting to trial is extremely difficult.” Plus the length of the existing process makes bringing cases cost-prohibitive for many victims.
Justice delayed, they say.