Five Ways ICE Violates the Constitution; How Speaker Johnson Lets It Happen

Five Ways ICE Violates the Constitution;
How Speaker Johnson Lets It Happen

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• Home Raids Without Judicial Warrants (Fourth Amendment)
• Detaining People Who Already Won Their Cases (Fifth Amendment)
• Blocking Access to Lawyers (Fifth and Sixth Amendments)
• Courthouse Arrests (Separation of Powers)
• Arresting U.S. Citizens (The Ultimate Violation)

House Speaker Johnson’s Justification Problem

Johnson doesn’t deny that these violations happen. He rationalizes them. By claiming that ICE is “doing what the American people demand,” he accepts the abuses and calls them democracy in action.

That’s worse than denial. It tells every federal officer watching that breaking the Constitution is fine as long as the crowd cheers

 

85-year-old French widow of a retired US military veteran detained for 16 days by ICE


Her arrest last month, part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, garnered international attention.

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Her arrest in Alabama unfolded so quickly that she barely understood what was happening. Five men, who identified themselves as immigration officers, banged on her door and windows at 8 a.m. before handcuffing her and placing her in a vehicle, she said. She was still wearing her bathrobe, slippers and pajamas

Ross said she continues to think about the women she met in custody, most of them from South America. Many were mothers separated from their children.

Her experience changed the way she sees the United States and its immigration policies, Ross said. Her husband was a Trump supporter and they used to watch Fox News together. But she was shocked to learn firsthand how immigrants are treated inside immigration facilities.

She used to view the U.S. as a “country of freedom, where people are not arrested based on how they look, and where those who are detained are treated fairly and with respect.” But the women she met did not deserve to be detained, she said. “Their only fault was to be South American.”

As she recovers in France, Ross still thinks about them: “When I left this jail in Louisiana, I told them that if I ever had the chance to speak about them, I would do it, to help them.”