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Democrat Reps. Eric Swalwell and Dan Goldman will introduce a bill that would strip Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of their qualified immunity.
The bill, called the “ICE Out Act,” will be fielded in response to the death of Renee Good, an activist who was shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis while obstructing immigration enforcement.
“Renee Good was a mom of three kids. And if you looked at her glove compartment, which has been photographed and shared, you don’t see a weapon, you don’t see a knife, you don’t see a gun. You see what we as parents call ‘stuffies,’ stuffed animals. You see a little cup of Cheerios,” Swalwell said on an episode of “The Daily Blast” from The New Republic.
Goldman added that current protections make it difficult for ICE agents to be prosecuted, because the standard in force “allows for the officer’s own view to carry a lot of weight.”
“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,” he continued.
“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.”
Goldman added the bill would also narrow the official scope of duties for ICE agents.
“Their only authority is to investigate and civilly arrest immigrants for immigration violations. And so they should have never been in the situation they were in, where they were trying to take a woman out of a car. That was not part of what they should be doing. They could ask her to move if they needed to. It doesn’t look like from the video that she was doing anything that was obstructing them.”
37-year-old Good was shot by an ICE agent in a residential neighbourhood in south Minneapolis, on Wednesday.
Good, who is reported to have been a “legal observer” documenting immigration enforcement, blocked the road with her SUV. When asked to move, she attempted to drive away, but was shot by an officer whom she struck with her vehicle.
This morning Infowars reported that Good’s wife Becca is a member of a group called “ICE Watch” and attended a training session two days before the shooting that provided instruction on how to block ICE agents carrying out their lawful duties.
Becca Good was present when her wife was shot. In video footage, she can be heard taunting ICE officers. She has since expressed remorse for her role in encouraging her wife’s actions.
The President and Vice President have both defended the shooting as self-defense, calling it a “tragedy of [Good’s] own making.”
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem revealed that the officer who shot Good had previously been hit and dragged by an illegal alien attempting to flee apprehension in a vehicle. The officer was seriously injured and required hospitalization.
There have been angry protests across Minneapolis in response to Good’s death.
On Friday night, state police in riot gear declared an unlawful assembly after protesters gathered outside a hotel believed to be housing ICE agents and staged a “noise protest.”
“Video posted by activists on social media showed protesters, some wearing brightly colored inflatable costumes, creating a din by beating on drums, banging pots and pans, yelling through bullhorns and blowing on brass instruments and whistles,” Reuters reports.
“Others directed high-power flashlight beams at the hotel’s windows.”
Civil-liberties and migrant-rights groups say that over 1,000 protests will take place this weekend in response to the shooting of Renee Good, a left-wing activist who was attempting to hamper ICE agents when she was shot and killed.
According to Reuters, the protests will demand “an end to large-scale deployments of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ordered by President Donald Trump, mostly to cities led by Democratic politicians.”
Over 2,000 DHS agents have been deployed to Minneapolis in what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has called the “largest DHS operation ever.”
The nationwide protests will rally under the banner of “ICE out for good.”
The rallies are being organized by a coalition of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn Civic Action, Voto Latino, and Indivisible, which also helped organize the “No Kings” protests against Trump last year.
