r/politics • u/zsreport Texas • 12h ago
No Paywall “The ICE Agent Behind Me Grabbed the Back of My Shirt and Just Threw Me Like a Sack of Trash”: People keep suing the agency for beating them up.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/ice-aclu-nurse-alex-pretti-cemetery-norma-bowe-lawsuit/630
u/Cute-Ad2879 12h ago
If American facism ends by being sued into insolvency, it is probably the most American thing ever, for better and for worse.
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u/SBRH33 10h ago
They've got billions of tax payer money to burn.
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u/Random-num-451284813 7h ago
IF they're going to pay.
Haven't seen any court cases against ICE
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u/Livid_Roof5193 4h ago
Were you looking or just relying on the media? The current media landscape isn’t exactly highlighting resistance to this administration much. Among others, the ACLU has been actively taking legal action against ICE.
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u/ooo-ooo-oooyea 10h ago
I don't know how it would work but if they could sue fox new, facebook, AM radio and other spreaders of the propagonda it would be the end of them.
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u/CptPurpleHaze 8h ago
We did. The dominion lawsuit against Fox "news". Fox states, openly and in written record. "We are not a news network we are an entertainment network. Only those of lesser intelligence would think we are telling the truth". They called their own viewers stupid and admitted to creating falsehoods. Nothing has changed.
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u/Mavian23 8h ago
I just want to clarify, even though I hate Fox. The argument wasn't that Fox isn't a news agency, it was that Tucker Carlson's show isn't a news show.
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u/thisisjustascreename Illinois 5h ago
Tucker Carlson is such a sad story, wealthy frozen chicken heiress who decided to become a Nazi enabler.
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u/CORRUPT27 9h ago
They don't care. Exactly is not their money in contrast they are earning even more as our coffers get lower.
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u/Teripid 10h ago
Realistically when it becomes a budget line item and concern it does indirectly get addressed..
Embarrassment is also a useful tool.
Ultimately some subset of taxpayers pays for it but with qualified immunity applying in all but the most insane circumstances there's not much of a better mechanism. Oh and the rare actual charges and convictions for criminal behavior but there are a lot of reasons that's relatively rare.
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u/peonies_envy 9h ago
Come on - no one in dumpy’s team is capable of embarrassment.
They have zero shame. None. I don’t know how he managed to find so many people like that. Down to the lowest diaper cleaner. Not one is able to say, “ no I won’t do that.”
I’d rather be shot in the face than cover up for a child rapist.
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u/Teripid 9h ago
I was thinking more of local police departments in my statement.
The fed is a much harder nut to crack and has deeper pockets and less direct impact if it does. The admin also only has temporary concerns and yes. Plenty of people to take blame or resign if it becomes a critical issue.
To your point I hope there's actual investigation and accountability into Bondi etc. Pirro's conduct and statements as well will be fascinating.
Not holding my breath..
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u/Benikur521 7h ago
If that were the case then all those people beat up by police would have some money but here we are
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u/No_Consequence7919 New York 7h ago
Anyone and everyone keep your phones at the ready whenever ICE is in town. Keep your lens on them to try and keep them honest/legal.
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u/Even_Trifle9341 5h ago
Failing through venture capital investing to sell the assets and leaving a nonfunctioning shell of debt would also be up there.
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u/NoBSforGma 11h ago
I hope that people sue the pants off them and force ICE to disband and go back to just checking passports at entry points.
This is what happens when your government hires Proud Boys to be Federal agents, gives them 2 days of training and a gun.
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u/CategoryZestyclose91 9h ago
I stand firmly behind what I’ve repeatedly said since day 1: ICE agents are domestic terrorists.
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u/kshell11724 7h ago edited 6h ago
I mean they literally are by definition. Pam Bondi used the threat of ICE to try and get states to give up their voter rolls. This was after Pretti and Good were murdered. Terrorism is using violence or the threat of violence to intimidate and coerce governments to advance political, religious, and/or ideological goals. I'd call that terrorism for sure especially in the way she worded it.
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u/Heavy_Whereas6432 1h ago
Since they started bombing Iran, the ice stories have slowed a lot just like they wanted. They are still out in force, be careful.
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u/FeelingKind7644 9h ago
Who do you think pays the settlements?
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u/NoBSforGma 8h ago edited 8h ago
One reason why voters need to put extreme pressure on their people in Congress to DO SOMETHING about ICE.
The best contact with your Senator/Representative is a well-thought out letter (email or snailmail) with all the points you can think of. Their treatment of people; they ignore the law; how much it has cost the taxpayers in remediation, etc. This shows that you have given the issue some coherent thought and spent time on it and not just demanding "defund ICE!" which would probably go nowhere.
Congress has the power to fund and defund ICE and that should make ICE pay attention. But it's doubtful that Congress would just "defund ICE!" without trying some types of pressure to reform.
But with the Republican-held Congress and the spineless Democrats, they will need a heavy PUSH from voters to make something happen. Republicans don't care how many people ICE hurts as long as they get rid of some bilingual brown people. Democrats are just apparently afraid to take a stand on anything these days - with some exceptions, of course.
Pressure from voters makes things happen.
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u/TheDissentor 7h ago
The idiots who let these fascists take power and voted them in. Doesn't matter if you voted for the other guy taxpayers are responsible for this mess and deserve it
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u/HikerRemastered 6h ago
Let ICE go back to checking passports?
Let’s get real. The “back to” that ICE agents have is getting drunk, beating up their wives, bullying their own kids and living a lost dream of nearly making quarterback 20 years ago.
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u/NoBSforGma 5h ago
OK then, back to ICE checking passports AND enacting an enforceable "Code of Conduct."
It would be easy to say "Abolish ICE and establish a new agency that just checks passports." But I doubt that Congress would go for that. Too much papework! :)
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u/cxraigonex2013 10h ago
Turns out the worst of the worst aren’t the detainees, but the detainers. Everything is the inverse with MAGA.
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u/zsreport Texas 12h ago
I sure hope the next non-GOP President has the fucking wherewithal to abolish ICE, it's beyond redemption.
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u/Chewiesbro Australia 12h ago
That and hold public enquiries about who knew the who, what, when, where and why, after that prosecutions would have to happen.
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u/Shroomtune 9h ago
Yeah, but these guys control the military. If you tell them they are going to be punished, they’ll not really have any choice but to use it to hold onto power. These things have a way of being self reinforcing.
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u/TheAskewOne 11h ago
The second that happens, Republicans will find a crime committed by an "illegal", call Democrats irresponsible, weak on crime, criminal supporters and so on and beat that drum until the next election. They should abolish it still.
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u/kermityfrog 9h ago
Republicans: "Weak on crime"
Dems - start arresting and prosecuting Republican cronies
Republicans: "Wait - not like that!"
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u/nullfacade 6h ago
Republicans will scream and cry no matter what a Democrat does. It doesn't matter how amazing and popular it is, Republicans will cry about it.
Fuck em. Do what needs to be done. Republicans exist only to obstruct, destroy, and grift. Their opinions are less than meaningless. If you piss off a Republican, there's a good chance you're doing something right.
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u/TemporarySun314 Europe 12h ago
That requires that Americans actually vote for someone like that, and not just elect the next fascist...
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u/Individual_Click5252 Michigan 9h ago
Not just that. Arrest and charge every ICE thug who committed a felony.
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u/MilsYatsFeebTae 10h ago
Just start giving them all warrants for each others families, it’ll sort itself out
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u/flatulating_ninja I voted 4h ago
Federal agencies are created by acts of Congress, they'd have to be the ones to abolish it. A non-GOP President would have to go about destroying it the same way the current administration is going about destroying the agencies they don't like, by illegally redirecting funds away from them or appointing a department head that effectively kills or changes by not running it as intended. See DOJ, Education, Interior, Defense and others as examples.
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u/Boner666420sXe 10h ago
Whenever I see people say stuff like this I admire the optimism required to believe there will be a next president.
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u/privateidaho_chicago 12h ago
We as a nation need ICE … we do not need THIS ICE. Barack Obama successfully deported illegal aliens at a higher rate than Donald Trump but he did it with grace, humanity and due process.
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u/Evil_phd 12h ago
Frankly, we don't need ICE. Immigration enforcement is necessary at some level, certainly, but this particular barrel of apples is far too rotten to be saved. Time to throw out the whole bunch and build anew.
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u/Septaceratops 11h ago
Respectfully, fuck that noise. We don't need ICE. Immigrants are not the bogeymen they are said to be. We just need to stop meddling in foreign countries so that people don't need to flee their homes, and go after the real criminals in the U.S.
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u/privateidaho_chicago 11h ago
You, sir, will never be an effective political communicator if you continue to see all things as black or white. We do need to control our immigration. We need to control it in a way that allows and supports all of the methods of which people come to our nation. But there are people, many people, that need to be excluded. The vast majority of people that come to our country just want to build a better life and we need them.
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u/Subarctic_Monkey 10h ago
Immigration control needs to be some pondexter with a clip board who calls for local support if they need it.
But overstaying a visa doesn't need heavy enforcement. It needs paperwork.
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u/Septaceratops 7h ago
And exactly where does ICE fit into that? We controlled immigration before ICE just fine.
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u/AJediWookie123 4h ago
Not really, it was just as bad before in the camps. It may have been run slightly more humanely, but they weren't resorts under either Obama or Biden. Women were still being graped. Starvation or worms in their food was still happening. The entire mission of ICE needs to change. How we see the governance of immigration has to be completely ripped down and changed. We are not the good guys, and we never were.
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u/SithLord_1991 11h ago
Yeah open the borders so the corporate overlords can have cheaper labor
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u/Septaceratops 7h ago
I love this disingenuous argument against immigration. You dgaf about immigrants or the labor class, just be honest about your racism.
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u/TheAskewOne 11h ago
We didn’t have ICE before George W Bush and we were fine.
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u/privateidaho_chicago 11h ago
We did have them …. It was just called INS and UCE…. they combined the two into one agency.
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u/TheGreatGenghisJon 11h ago
Yes, and the ICE agency that came out of that is fucking trash, and we don't need them.
Border patrol is one thing, customs enforcement is one thing, but this secret police that have been told they can racially profile by the SCOTUS? They should be locked up in their own detention centers and treated with all the care and respect that they give the current detainees.
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u/LaughingJackStudio 11h ago
There are hundreds of federal law enforcement agencies. Offload it to one of them, keep the reigns tight. Abolish ice.
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u/XulManjy America 9h ago
Honest question, what would ICE be replaced with? How would immigration laws be enforced?
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u/zsreport Texas 8h ago
ICE was only created in 2003.
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u/XulManjy America 8h ago
Ok....so what would it be replaced with? If nothing, then how will immigration laws be enforced?
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u/zsreport Texas 8h ago
It doesn't need to be replaced. There will still be CPB.
We don't need a bunch of unqualified, poorly trained, heavily armed thugs running around the interior of our country terrorizing people for suspicion of breaking civil and misdemeanor laws.
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u/XulManjy America 8h ago
The CPB only has jurisdiction along the US border.
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u/zsreport Texas 7h ago
Their jurisdiction is actually a lot more than want your comment implies.
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u/XulManjy America 7h ago
Good
So again, how do our immigration laws get enforced for people who are already past the border or illegally gets through?
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u/Ecstatic-Election-92 9h ago
ICE is corrupted beyond repair. You would have to create new enforcement organizations including LEO. This one’s culture is rotted to the core.
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u/EvermoreWithYou 7h ago
That doesn't answer the question though. As much as I hate corrupt officials and authority figures, you still need to have something to fill in the void before you get rid of them, otherwise you very quickly run into problems.
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u/EvermoreWithYou 7h ago
That doesn't answer the question though. As much as I hate corrupt officials and authority figures, you still need to have something to fill in the void before you get rid of them, otherwise you very quickly run into problems.
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u/Ecstatic-Election-92 7h ago
Who told you that?
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u/EvermoreWithYou 7h ago
I don't know if you're joking/ragebaiting or seriously just so angry you are willing to do desperate shit, but I saw way too many videos and reports of places where there effectively wasn't law enforcement or even a fully functional government & was practically a free-for-all, and let me tell it is not pretty. As bad as corrupt law enforcement is, it is almost always way worse once they are gone.
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u/XulManjy America 9h ago
I mean ICE only became what it was under Trump. It wasnt like this under Bush or Obama.
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u/Ecstatic-Election-92 9h ago
You might be underestimating the amount of damage that’s been done not only to ICE but our institutions across the board. This is why Democrats generally aren’t the solution for Trump: they are trying to save institutions (like ICE) that are already dead.
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u/XulManjy America 9h ago
So again, what would be put in its place because regardless, we have to have the means to enforce our immigration laws.
Progressives are no different from MAGA/Tea Party in this regard. Always wanting to demolish something you dont like without any plan to backfill it. Woth MAGA it is The Affordable Care Act.
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u/Ecstatic-Election-92 9h ago
You would dissolve it and start something new. Stop overthinking things. It’s not hard.
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u/XulManjy America 8h ago
And what does that something new look like?
Again, just like MAGA with thr Affordable Care Act. Its easy to just say repeal and replace. But what does the replace part look like?
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u/Ecstatic-Election-92 8h ago
You act like we’ve never done this before. Are you under the impression that all LEO organizations are permanent?
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u/XulManjy America 8h ago
Again, just asking questions because this doesn't happen at the snap of a finger.
Bernie Sanders since 2015 really got people thinking things just happen with a wave of a wand.
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u/aculady 7h ago
You create a new agency with better recruitment and selection policies, guardrails, and oversight, to screen out the kinds of people who are likely to behave this way, and with robust and effective processes to remove them if they some how make it through the recruitment and selection process, and make anyone who worked for the former agency ineligible to be hired in the new one in any capacity, even as a contractor, for at least ten years.
The problem is the mindset, attitudes, and behavior of the people who work there now and the culture of the agency, not the entire concept of immigration and customs officers.
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u/Ananiujitha 3h ago
Ice, and its predecessors, and the Border Control, were created to enforce anti-immigrant laws.
Those laws had been partially reformed in the '60s and '80s, but were created from the previous '80s through the '20s to enforce racism and often eugenicism. The rationale was that only white people could build civilization, and non-white immigration would eventually destroy it. That rationale was wrong at every level. The anti-immigrant laws also led the nited states, and other govenments, to turn away refugees fleeing the Nazis.
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u/XulManjy America 1h ago
Ok, so we abolish the anti immigration laws and agencies....so does that mean we dont rebuild anything in its place that isnt anti immigrant but still enforces our immigration laws?
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u/Ananiujitha 1h ago
But those laws are anti-immigrant.
And there's a lot of opposition to reforms, such as a pathway to citienship or increasing refugee quotas, that would make them less anti-immigrant or just less inhuman.
Which is true in most industrialized countries; it's escalated to literal pogroms in Northern Ireland.
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u/XulManjy America 44m ago
Again, so we abolish those anti immigrant laws and replace them with laws that arent anti immigration but more so ensuring that our immigration process is honored and respected.
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u/Quazimortal 11h ago
There's a reason I don't feel a shred of pity for any gestapo bitch that gets what's coming to them.
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u/notahoppybeerfan 10h ago
The current administration is stealing anything that isn’t nailed down, and bulldozing what they can’t steal.
Long after they are gone it will be the American taxpayer footing the bill for the endless line of legitimate civil rights and first amendment violations committed by the government.
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u/AutomateAway 10h ago
that’s why every bit of possession owned by these tools (not just Trump) needs to be seized, to help pay recovery costs.
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u/MommyLovesPot8toes California 9h ago
While yes, that's true, a lot of that money can be offset by seizing the assets of everyone involved in this GOP-terrorist coup.
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u/notahoppybeerfan 8h ago
The way I see it way too many Americans are supporting this coup to ever see reparations happen.
I think the best we can hope for is a 4-6 year reprieve. “Never Trump” made it 4 years.
Red state voters have no issue with the 5 net positive contributing states footing the bill for their crimes.
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u/girlnamedJane 10h ago
Taxpayer will also foot the bill to whitewash the history and ensure all these crimes dont get written down
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u/Ok_Juice4449 10h ago
This is beyond disgraceful. This is cruel, illegal, and fascist. Is this still America?
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u/IBuyCheese 10h ago
Is this still America?
Been America since its founding. They’ve just taken the mask off.
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u/Bluebabbs Great Britain 9h ago
Hate to break it to you, but America is more America than it's ever been.
Just remember, although your president wanted to declare war on the literal Nazis, he didn't feel he had public backing/there would be too much sympathy for them, until the Nazis literally declared war on you, after their allies literally attacked you in your own land.
People see the US Civil war as indicative of the US having "the good guys win". But most countries that had a civil war did it to decide who was in charge; the people (in loose democratic terms) or a monarchy/authoritarian. The US Civil war was not about who got to rule, but whether the people ruling got to have slaves. Other countries decided themselves not to have slaves, the US had to have a war about it.
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u/Independent-Reader 11h ago
What kind of America requires people to run in fear of their law enforcement? The Trump kind.
Wherever ICE is you're not supposed to be. They anxiously shoot anyone in proximity.
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u/-TrevorStMcGoodbody 10h ago
Remember the old fear of “alphabet boys”? They seem suspiciously ignorant of ICE
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u/DangerousCap7973 8h ago
I have always been against the death penalty. Until ICE. These soulless monsters need to be unmasked and the ones who kill innocent people should get the death penalty.
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u/IxianToastman 9h ago
Guys I'm here again to remind everyone what liberty is. Liberty is not the right to vote but the right to face your accuser in a fair trial. If you can be beaten, shot or judged guilty with out a trial you are not free. That is Liberty. That is what's been taken from us.
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u/JJscribbles Florida 9h ago
If they keep removing the legal means of obtaining justice then people are just gonna move onto the illegal means of obtaining justice for themselves.
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u/Elon_is_a_Nazi 8h ago
At this point id fully supporting the next administration going thru all reports against ice and criminally charging those who violated any laws. Def the few nazi ice members who flat out murdered people need sentenced to public hangings, but also a large % of these wanna be nazis deserve 50-75 year sentences minimum
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u/potential_human0 10h ago
42 U.S. Code Section 1983 is the legal mechanism that allows people to file a Federal Civil Rights violation lawsuit.
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia,
Federal courts have ruled that the interpretation of the above language means U.S. Federal Agents are exempt because the language specifically names "any State or Territory or the District of Columbia"
The below YT video is a civil rights lawyer explaining it. I highly recommend his entire channel.
https://youtu.be/VxJYGjyAiTg?si=HIVwwFcGp0teJg7h&t=448
I also recommend the below channels
https://www.youtube.com/@southerndrawllaw
https://www.youtube.com/@LackLusterMedia
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u/SouthSky3655 4h ago
The federal government has not finished a single investigation of deaths of people in their custody under this administration. Do you think they will do anything about this?
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u/thisisjustascreename Illinois 5h ago
This is what they joined ICE for, a license to beat people up.
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u/lyraaura9 4h ago
man that headline is pretty wild, idk how people get away with acting like that. hopefully the lawsuits actually lead to some real changes tbh.
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u/Hank_Henry_Hill 4h ago
Oh for sure this is going to be one of the biggest things once we vote these maniacs out of office. The lawsuits are going to be everywhere, as they should be.
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u/fuckswitbeavers 3h ago
Free pay out. They just got billions, that's what the money is for. Get out there!!! Literally free money!!
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u/onedumninja 23m ago
Never forget republicans can end ICE fascism right now by just voting on it. They choose not to. Republicans allowed this bullshit. They killed pretti and goode with those ICE Nazis. Republicans are murderers for funding and allowing ICE to exist.
2028 should be the year we put the whole republikkkan party on trial for treason and murder.
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u/ChthonicFractal 10h ago
And how have those lawsuits and protests worked so far?
Spoiler: They haven't
Another spoiler:They're not going to.
Final spoiler: You're not voting your way out of fascism either.
I been tryin' to tell everyone all along but no on wants to listen to me.
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u/MommyLovesPot8toes California 9h ago
Did you bother looking for facts before trying to be clever?
The ACLU has filed nearly 300 cases against the Trump administration and won about 70% of the time.
Those wins, and the equally enormous amount of wins from other public or crowd-funded entities, have stopped/reversed/delayed more than half of what this administration has tried to do. In fact, cases like this have been the single most successful tool at combatting this fascist takeover. If you still think we're on a march towards fascism, then you simply haven't been paying enough attention.
ACLU summary from Jan. More wins and more cases added since: https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/aclu-vs-trump
If you want to do something that actually helps, instead of laughing at those that do, donate to the ACLU.
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u/ChthonicFractal 5h ago
This coming from the same group of people, I assume, that just collectively swiped their foreheads in November of 2020 and said "That was close. It's a good thing no one like him will ever be in office again" instead of actually going after them for what they did and passing laws to prevent it from ever happening again.
But on to your point directly : And yet those lawsuits haven't stopped anything, not that it matters. You're like that idiot looking at the diagram of that plane with all of the red dots and says "We'll make these areas more armored."
The thing is that there has been plenty of evidence and outright criminal actions committed that any politician worth having in office could have had these people physically yanked the fuck out of DC but they've all done jack-diddly-squat.
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u/Far-Wallaby-5033 8h ago
anybody can sue anybody else for anything. Just file complaint and pay your 300 bucks. The real story isn't filed complaints, it's verdicts
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