{"id":199219,"date":"2026-02-04T18:13:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/congressional-democrats-vow-justice-for-us-citizens-harmed-by-immigration-agents-you-deserve-peace-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:13:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:13:02","slug":"congressional-democrats-vow-justice-for-us-citizens-harmed-by-immigration-agents-you-deserve-peace-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/congressional-democrats-vow-justice-for-us-citizens-harmed-by-immigration-agents-you-deserve-peace-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressional Democrats vow justice for US citizens harmed by immigration agents: \u2018You deserve peace\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

No Republicans attended Capitol Hill forum of US citizens detailing their experiences being harmed by federal agents
US politics live \u2013 latest updates<\/a>
Democrats on Capitol Hill offered apologies and promises of accountability on Tuesday amid often harrowing testimony from people who had experienced violent encounters with federal agents engaged in Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s immigration crackdown.
With Republicans<\/a> conspicuously absent, the forum of senators and representatives heard from Luke and Brent Ganger, the brothers of Renee Good<\/a>, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)<\/a> officer in Minneapolis on 7 January as she tried to drive away from agents.
Luke Ganger said he and his brother were there \u201cto ask for your help\u201d and suggested the sense of loss his family felt had been deepened by subsequent events in Minneapolis, where Alex Pretti<\/a>, also aged 37, was shot dead by two border patrol agents on 24 January.
\u201cThe deep distress our family feels at Renee\u2019s loss in such a violent and unnecessary way is complicated by feelings of disbelief, distress and desperation,\u201d he said.
\u201cIn the last few weeks, our family took some consolation, thinking that perhaps [Renee\u2019s] death would bring about change in our country. It has not. The completely surreal scenes taking place are beyond explanation.
\u201cThis is not just a bad day or a rough week or isolated incidents. These encounters with federal agents are changing the community and changing many lives, including ours. I still don\u2019t know how to explain to my four-year-old what these agents are doing when we pass by.\u201d
His daughter, Ganger added, \u201cknows that her aunt died and that somebody caused it to happen\u201d.
He said the death of his sister had brought his family closer, although they had different political viewpoints.
The brothers\u2019 testimony was followed by that of Marimar Martinez<\/a>, Aliya Rahman and Martin Daniel Rascon, three US citizens who each described traumatic experiences at the hands of agents while they were in their cars.
Martinez, from Chicago, recalled how she was shot five times by a border patrol agent, who later circulated images as she lay wounded in hospital to colleagues as \u201ctrophy\u201d pictures. The agent then accused her<\/a> of assaulting a federal agent and of ramming his vehicle with her car, resulting in criminal charges that were subsequently dismissed<\/a>.
The agent who shot Martinez was identified in the hearing as Charles Exum. Texts that he sent to colleagues were shown to the assembled gathering in the Dirksen Senate office building. One read: \u201cI fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.\u201d Members of Congress at the hearing called for him to be arrested and prosecuted.
Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California, told Martinez: \u201cThe entire country needs to hear your story. I am angry on your behalf, Miss Martinez.\u201d
Rahman, who said she suffers from autism and a traumatic brain injury, described how agents violently pulled her from her car after she was caught in a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles as she tried to reach a medical appointment at the Hennepin county brain injury center in Minneapolis on 13 January.
\u201cI yelled \u2018I\u2019m disabled\u2019 at the hands grabbing me. One of them said \u2018too late\u2019,\u201d she said.
\u201cAn agent pulled a large combat knife in front of my face, which I thought was for cutting me, and later learned was used to cut off my seat belt.
\u201cShooting pain went through my head, neck and wrists when I hit the ground face-first and people leaned on my back. I was carried facedown through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled.
\u201cI now cannot lift my arms normally. I was never asked for my ID and never told I was under arrest.\u201d
She was later taken to a detention center, where \u2013 she said \u2013 agents referred to those being detained as \u201cbodies\u201d.
Later in the hearing, Rahman put her arm around her fellow witness Rascon, from San Bernardino in California, as a comfort as he struggled to deliver testimony describing his experiences at the hands of ICE and the border patrol after an agent opened fire on the car he was traveling in with family members last August.
Robert Garcia, a California representative who is the top Democrat on the House of Representatives oversight committee, said the nature of the testimony was difficult to hear.
\u201cI\u2019m so sorry that the stories are horrific, and I promise you that every single one of us, whether it\u2019s the House or the Senate, we will hold all of those that caused you harm accountable,\u201d he said. \u201cYou all deserve justice and you deserve peace. And it\u2019s horrific that anyone in our country has to go through what you have all been.\u201d
Richard Blumenthal, a senator for Connecticut, who led the hearing along with Garcia, called the testimony \u201ca defining moment and a moral moment\u201d.
He used words once aimed at Joseph McCarthy, the 1950\u2019s red-baiting Republican senator for Wisconsin, to excoriate Kristi Noem<\/a>, the homeland security secretary, and other administration members involved in the immigration raids. \u201cHave you no sense of decency?\u201d he said. \u201cHave you no sense of shame?\u201d
Alex Padilla, a senator for California who was wrestled to the ground<\/a> and handcuffed by two federal agents last year when he tried to ask Noem a question at a press conference, lamented the absence of Republicans from the forum.
\u201cWhy is it just Democrats<\/a>?\u201d he asked. \u201cLet\u2019s not let our Republican colleagues off the hook. Under normal circumstances, regardless of who\u2019s in the majority, when a tragedy has happened, congressional committees conduct our job to provide oversight. The Republican colleagues refused to.\u201d<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Republicans attended Capitol Hill forum of US citizens detailing their experiences being harmed by federal agentsUS politics live \u2013 latest updatesDemocrats on Capitol Hill offered apologies and promises of accountability on Tuesday amid often harrowing testimony from people who had experienced violent encounters with federal agents engaged in Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown.With Republicans conspicuously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":199220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-199219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}