House Democrats Introduce Bill to Help Wrongfully Detained Citizens Sue ICE
What Happened: A New Mexico Democrat in the House introduced a bill last week that would make it easier for U.S. citizens to sue immigration agents and the federal government over wrongful detentions and arrests.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández credited ProPublica’s reporting as the catalyst for the bill, the Justice for Citizens Wrongfully Detained by ICE Act. Earlier this month, we revealed that more than 500 U.S. citizens have been detained in warrantless arrests during the second Trump administration.
Leger Fernández said the legislation would roll back the protections from lawsuits that agents and the federal government currently have. It would also establish a minimum level of compensation for people who win their suits, and extend the statute of limitations for such cases.
The legislation would also take back any unspent Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding from President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Leger Fernández’s bill was introduced with co-sponsor Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat.
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https://www.propublica.org/article/american-citizens-wrongfully-detained-ice-billOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
4 replies
I’m sorry, but this is the dumbest shit ever. Why are we putting American tax dollars at risk as restitution for ICE trampling constitutional rights. Lawmakers should be creating laws to prosecute the individuals in ICE that are violating the constitution.
Such laws already exist but there's no one to enforce them.
Civil cases can work around the executive branch. And this will help the victims in a way that prosecution wouldn't.
Both. We can do both. Holding agents accountable via the criminal courts is great, but that’s only half of the equation. The other half is making victims whole via civil court. Criminal charges for criminal acts should be the expectation, but a criminal charge does nothing to remediate the damage to the victim. If the state collects a fine as part of a criminal case, the victim doesn’t get any of that money. It is collected by the state as part of the judgement against a criminal. But that money doesn’t go to the victim, it goes to the state.
Oftentimes, the victims are locked up without any notice or ability to contact friends and family, which means they end up with lost jobs, missed rent/car/utility payments, etc… Because if you’re suddenly locked up for a week, that’s an entire week of sudden no-call-no-shows at your job. Even if they cut you loose afterwards, it doesn’t change the fact that they directly caused you to lose your job due to an entire week of missed shifts. And who keeps the victim solvent while they look for a new job, in one of the worst job markets in living memory?
And that’s before you even get into the emotional side of things. If you end up needing therapy to deal with the trauma of being kidnapped and illegally held in a torture camp, who pays for that therapy? Especially if you just lost your health insurance (because you lost your job) because of their illegal actions.
Everyone ice stole they did so wrongfully, if they had a "legitimate" (so far as one could possibly suggest the law in such a place as this has ever been legitimate) reason they would call the sherrifs