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🧵 At 3pm ET today, I'll be live-posting highlights from the public forum for @lawfaremedia.org. This will some witnesses' very first public appearance and the only one for Brent and Luke Ganger, who do not plan to do any additional interviews. Follow this thread for updates as they happen 🧵👇

This is the second public forum hosted by Sen. Blumenthal and Rep. Garcia as part of their ongoing inquiry into allegations of Department of Homeland Security abuse and overreach. You can watch the first public forum from Dec. 9 here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urg4...

The following witnesses will offer testimony at today's public forum, set to begin in just a few minutes:

The hearing will begin soon. Watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UagE...

Rep. Robert Garcia opens the forum, which he says will look at the "use of violence in immigration enforcement" and calls it "a very important moment for us to understand what is happening across this country." Garcia says we're here because ICE and DHS are "completely out of control."

Garcia is holding up a chart that shows how the Trump administration made "ICE the highest funded law enforcement agency in the history of the United States" and says this funding has been used "to terrorize, disfigure, and in some cases kill" US citizens.

Garcia: "...we've seen people dragged from cars, beaten, gassed, attacked with crowd control weapons, blinded...left with broken ribs, run off the road...[DHS] officers have been ordered to enter homes without warrants" and the "federal government has labeled US citizens domestic terrorists"

Garcia, holding up photos of Trump and top administration officials: "These people, every single one of them, has to be held accountable for the crimes, for the terror, and for the murders that are happening to our own people in this country."

Already seated, listening to Garcia and now Sen. Blumenthal, are two of Renee Nicole Good's brothers, Luke and Brent Ganger. Blumenthal says Good and Alex Pretti, while here in spirit, "should be here in person, but they were murdered. They were murdered by their own government, in cold blood."

Blumenthal, running through a list of proposed reforms, says that the right to seek redress agents violating their rights can be accomplished with four words added to current U.S. code, and adds: "Rights without remedies are empty promises."

Blumenthal: "Some day we should have a truth and justice commission to investigate the systematic failings." For now Blumenthal says he will not support another dime for DHS "unless there is fundamental far-reaching reform and restraint—in effect, a rebuilding—of the agency."

Good's brother Luke Ganger begins by saying, "We're here to ask for your help." They thought perhaps their sister's death would bring about positive change, but it has not. He adds: "These encounters with federal agents are changing the community and changing many lives—including ours—forever."

Brent Ganger shares from the eulogy he wrote for his sister, as his brother puts an arm around him to console him. "Renee's not gone from us," he says.

We are now hearing from Antonio Romanucci, an attorney representing Good's family who also helped secure a record civil settlement for George Floyd's family. He's expanding on Blumenthal's call to add four words to US statute "so federal officers can be sued civilly if their conduct merits it."

Next witness to testify is Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen and Chicago resident who was shot five times by CBP agents in October and was later charged with assaulting the agents who shot her. The U.S. Attorney's Office dropped those charges six weeks later.

Martinez is recounting her harrowing experience: after being shot by CBP agents, she drove a mile to the safety of an auto shop where she called 911, got treatment at a hospital for 7 bullet wounds, then was immediately taken into custody by federal agents.

Martinez: "[I] sat in federal court and watched from 20 feet away as the border patrol agent who attempted to kill me testified at a hearing. Agent Charles Exum—Charles Exum, my attempted executioner was Charles Exum—I hope the government does not consider my use of his name here to be...doxxing."

Martinez ends her testimony with this: "If there's not justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government."

The next witness is Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen and resident of Minneapolis with autism and a traumatic brain injury, who in January was dragged from her car by immigration agents— four blocks away from where George Floyd was killed—then detained without access to medical care or lawyer.

Absolutely despicable what is happening here. I wish I was a constitutional scholar so I could take them down point by point. There is so much wrong with what they are doing, I cannot see any defense. And anyone who thinks this is okay should be deported themselves.

or we could just not use deportation as a weapon at all

The next witness, U.S. citizen and CA resident Martin Rascon, chokes up as he recounts an experience from August when four men in face masks, sunglasses, & baseball caps tried to force into his car, guns pointed at him and his family, ignoring requests to ID themselves before shooting multiple times

You did not at all describe what this man recounted here.

Surrounding his house and breaking in during the night with night vision and goggles & lasers pointed. Horrific .

The final witness is Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and law professor, begins with: "This administration's approach to immigration enforcement falls far short of professional norms. This is not policing. This is not normal. And this is neither professionally nor democratically acceptable."

Stoughton: "We've seen senior officials issue definitive, exonerating conclusions within hours of an incident—far sooner than would be possible with any careful inquiry...These statements signal that any oversight is purely performative, that accountability and outcomes are preordained."