Reverberations at a More Violent Level this Colorado Day

Exactly one year ago I heralded a true American hero in an essay that I titled “Ralph Carr’s Warning Reverberates this Colorado Day.” One year later, the reverberation is exponentially stronger.

As Colorado’s governor, Carr spoke passionately against the internment of Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He said of them:

They are as loyal to American institutions as you and I. Many of them have been born here–are American citizens, with no connection or feeling of loyalty toward the customs and philosophies of Italy, Germany and Japan. ... I am not talking on behalf of Japanese, of Italians, or of Germans as such when I say this. I am talking to ... all American people whether their status be white, brown or black and regardless of the birthplaces of their grandfathers when I say that if a majority may deprive a minority of its freedom, contrary to the terms of the Constitution today, then you as a minority may be subjected to the same ill-will of the majority tomorrow.

One of the prompts to my essay was the case of George Retes, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran whom the previous month ICE brutally arrested and detained for no legitimate cause. Wikipedia maintains an ongoing list of “Immigration detentions of U.S. citizens in the second Trump administration.” Most of the entries on that page are people whom ICE savaged on the basis of their resemblance and/or proximity to actual targets of their actions or who simply fit target demographics. Others have been individuals, including elected officials, who became objects of abuse when they stood up for the rule of law. On that last aspect, consider a brief that the Brennan center published last November titled “ICE Wants to Go After Dissenters as well as Immigrants.” Below are the first four paragraphs:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has embarked on a spending spree, signing contracts worth up to $25 million for a smorgasbord of spy technology: social media monitoring systems, cellphone location tracking, facial recognition, remote hacking tools, and more.

It’s nothing new for ICE to use these to find people to deport, a practice that raises a host of concerns, including heightened surveillance of immigrant communities and the wide-ranging capture of Americans’ personal data.

What’s new is that the federal government now openly says it will use its supercharged spy capabilities to target people who oppose ICE’s actions. Labeled as “domestic terrorists” by the administration, these targets include anti-ICE protesters and anyone who allegedly funds them — all of them part of a supposed left-wing conspiracy to violently oppose the president’s agenda.

This serious threat to free speech and privacy rights protected by the First and Fourth Amendments is not hypothetical, as administration officials are making no secret of their intentions.

Read on in the piece for the Brennan Center’s observations. Study as well the testimony that the Cato Institute’s David J. Bier delivered this past June 9 before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses. Below are some key excerpts in which he spoke not only of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but of agents of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) broadly.

Although immigrants and Americans thrive when constitutional rights are protected, abusive immigration policy is threatening the Constitution. Courts have found this administration has likely violated at least the First, Fourth, Fifth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments, and the writ of habeas corpus.

DHS’s Unconstitutional Conduct

DHS agents invade homes without judicial warrants. They arrest and detain legal immigrants, United States citizens, and others without evidence of a violation of law. They detain Americans largely based on their perceived race, ethnicity, or other demographic characteristics. They detain and deport legal immigrants for their speech, and they assault and shoot Americans who protest or record all the abuses.

DHS agents shot US citizen Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse peacefully protesting, ten times.⁷ After the shooting, officials immediately labeled him a terrorist for merely lawfully possessing a firearm while protesting—a repudiation of the Second Amendment and of Supreme Court precedent holding that the government cannot presume a threat from a holstered firearm alone. ⁸

Agents have arrested dozens—possibly hundreds—of people, falsely accusing them of assaults, only for charges to fall apart under scrutiny. In Chicago alone, arrests tied to Operation Midway Blitz resulted in just two convictions, compared with 24 dismissals or acquittals.⁹ Of the 163 assault cases, 38 percent ended in dismissals or acquittals as of December 2025 versus 23 percent guilty pleas, with the rest pending.¹⁰ A Wall Street Journal review focused solely on the 83 cases that DHS had chosen to post on social media found that most cases had not even resulted in charges at all, pointing to a much more serious problem than charges alone indicate.¹¹ The cases that have moved forward have repeatedly revealed false statements and lies by agents.¹²

Mr. Bier proceeded to demonstrate with examples that DHS violates the First, Fourth, Fifth, Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments as well as both the principle of Habeas Corpus and direct court orders. The excerpt below explains the image at the top of this essay, which appeared in Bier’s written testimony.

Agents threaten the people whom they interrogate with arrest on the streets if they refuse their “papers-please” demands.⁴⁶ The picture below is of a boy in Minnesota being interrogated about his citizenship walking home from the store with a snack. DHS agents arrested him and took him away.⁴⁷

Numerous US citizens, including Mubashir Khalif Hussen and Mahamed Eydarus, were detained or interrogated because they looked Somali or were speaking Somali.⁴⁸ Mubashir was taken to an ICE facility, even though he offered to show ID. When he was finally released, he was told to walk two and a half hours through the snow to his home.⁴⁹ In a lawsuit, dozens of US citizens and legal residents detail violations of their rights, interrogations, detentions, and arrests based on their appearance.⁵⁰ DHS agents routinely ignored documents and used force against them.⁵¹ These behaviors are not surprising given the orders from the White House to use profiling to increase arrests in May of last year.⁵² Even an off-duty Brooklyn Park Police officer was detained by ICE.⁵³

Today is the 150th anniversary of the state of Colorado. Last month Americans observed the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In this milestone year and in the face of extraordinary attacks upon our country’s founding ideals and the very rule of law that the framers through the Constitution sought to preserve and protect, consider the proposals that Bier made at the conclusion of his testimony. Engage with those who support the administration and its Congressional allies and ask them to explain what if any objection they may have to these proposals. And in this enormously consequential midterm election year, support candidates who uphold the vision of the founders and framers.

The Real Amnesty and the Path Forward

It is not amnesty when immigrants follow procedures set up by Congress for them to get vetted and get on the right side of the law. Indeed, doing so reduces chaos and restores the rule of law.

Instead of targeting peaceful legal immigrants, Congress should end the real amnesty—immunity for DHS agents—by allowing Americans to vindicate their rights in court. Specifically, Congress should:

• Order the administration to prioritize serious criminal threats for removal;

• Prohibit wearing masks and require federal agents to identify themselves;

• Ban racial profiling and require federal agents to obtain warrants for specific individuals based on probable cause of a violation of law prior to making arrests;

• Reinforce current law that prohibits interrogating United States citizens about their immigration status;

• Require Border Patrol to patrol within a 10-mile radius of land borders;

• Create a private right of action for violations of constitutional rights by federal agents;

• Explicitly prohibit qualified immunity defenses for constitutional violations;

• Prohibit threats or arrests in retaliation for First Amendment-protected activity;

• Explicitly permit states and localities to investigate crimes committed by federal agents;

• Allow states to sue the federal government for violations of their residents’ rights; and

• Permit nationwide injunctive relief by courts for policies that violate federal law.