Senate Democrats are right now formulating a list of conditions they say must be fulfilled for them to consider providing votes for more funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One of those items could be Democratic legislation that is already written and introduced in Congress: a bill to end qualified immunity for ICE agents, so that communities can hold those agents legally accountable when they murder people.
Days after ICE killed Renee Good, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tweeted out Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller on Fox News declaring, “To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties.”
REMINDER. “To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. Anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony. You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one—no city official, no state official,… pic.twitter.com/xoWDjOctLe
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) January 13, 2026
DHS and Miller were referring to qualified immunity, which the National Lawyers Guild notes “is a legal doctrine created by the U.S. Supreme Court that protects public officials, including police officers, immigration officers, and immigration detention center staff from civil liability for constitutional and statutory violations.”
In its story about whether the families of those murdered by ICE can sue federal agents, Reuters points out that under existing legal doctrines, “federal officers are immune from civil lawsuits unless their conduct clearly violated a clearly established constitutional right. This legal standard, known as qualified immunity, has become a highly effective tool for shielding police officers accused of using excessive force.”
But simple, two-page legislation introduced in Congress would change that. This bill has been just sitting there in the US House for months. To be sure, it wouldn’t fix everything. But it…
Auteur: David Sirota
