The Democrats held a hearing on the ICE detentions of American citizens, based upon ProPublica’s reporting. (It would be nice if there was more press about it but…)
A congressional investigation out today has found that, contrary to the Trump administration’s claims, immigration agents have frequently detained and mistreated U.S. citizens.
The report by Senate Democrats, which was prompted by ProPublica’s reporting, included interviews with nearly two dozen Americans. Citizens told congressional investigators that immigration officers had dragged them from cars, detained them for days, fabricated claims of assault, routinely used excessive force and denied medical care.
The investigation also found that agents “treated children with reckless disregard for their safety and well being.” One citizen recalled that federal agents pointed guns at her youngest children, ages 6 and 8, and dragged her 14-year-old daughter out of a pickup and zip-tied her.
The citizen, Anabel Romero, told investigators that an agent threatened to “fucking blow your head off” during the chaotic raid at a rural Idaho racetrack. Romero also said agents “wouldn’t let people get diapers or food for their kids.”
Romero and her children were born in Idaho.
And this is especially important, which a lot of congressional leaders probably don’t know unless they spend plenty of time on social media which has these reports in great numbers from all over the country every single day:
Five other citizens are giving their accounts publicly Tuesday on Capitol Hill. The citizens’ accounts paint a dire picture, the senator behind the report told ProPublica in an interview.
“What most struck me is the brutality and physical violence involved in every story,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “This is stuff that should be unrecognizable as AmericaBrutal. It should make everyday Americans outraged that their fellow citizens could be treated this way.”
If they’re doing it to American citizens you know they’re treating immigrants even worse. The government isn’t tracking any of this and insists that this is all a lie and they have never detained American citizens.
The issue is all the more critical since the Supreme Court issued a temporary order this fall allowing immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to stop civilians without clear cause. Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued that citizens had no reason to worry. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.”
That’s why they call these grotesque assaults, Kavanaugh stops. Many people are being traumatized, some being held for days despite their legal status or citizenship. It’s a nightmare.