Democrats on Capitol Hill demanded apologies and promises of accountability Tuesday amid often harrowing testimony from people who experienced violent encounters with federal agents involved in Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
With Republicans conspicuously absent, the forum of senators and representatives heard from Luke and Brent Ganger, the brothers of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was shot dead by an Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis on January 7 as she tried to get away from agents.
Luke Ganger said he and his brother were there “to ask you for help” and suggested that the sense of loss felt by his family was deepened by the subsequent events in Minneapolis, where a protester, Alex Pretti, also aged 37, was shot dead by two border patrol agents on 24 January.
“The overwhelming grief our family feels at losing Renee in such a cruel and unnecessary way is compounded by feelings of disbelief, grief and desperation,” he said.
“For the last two weeks, our family has been relieved, thinking that maybe May’s death will bring a change to our country. It didn’t.
“This is not just a bad day or a difficult week or isolated incidents. These encounters with federal agents change the community and change many lives, including ours.
Her daughter, Ganger added, “knew her aunt died and there was a reason for it to happen”.
He said his sister’s death has brought his family closer together, even though they have different political views.
The brothers’ testimony was followed by that of Marimar MartinezAliya 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 he was shot five times by a border patrol agent, who later circulated the images while he was wounded in the hospital to colleagues as “trophy” photos. The agent accused him of assaulting a federal agent and crashing his car into his car, resulting in criminal charges that were later dismissed.
The agent who shot Martinez was identified at the hearing as Charles Exum. The texts he sent to colleagues were displayed at the gathering at the Dirksen Senate office building. One read: “I fired 5 rounds and he had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.” Members of Congress at the hearing called for his arrest and prosecution.
Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California, told Martinez: “The whole country needs to hear your story. I’m angry for you, Miss Martinez.”
Rahman, who says he suffers from autism and a traumatic brain injury, described how agents violently pulled him from his car after he was caught in a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles as he tried to reach a medical appointment at the Hennepin county brain injury center in Minneapolis on January 13.
“I shouted: ‘I’m crippled’ to the hands that held me. One of them said ‘it’s too late’,” he said.
“An agent pulled a large combat knife in front of my face, which I thought was for cutting me, and later it turned out that it was used to cut my seat belt.
“Shooting pain went through my head, neck and wrists when I hit the ground first and people were leaning on my back. I was carried facing the street by my arms and legs while screaming that I have a brain injury and am disabled.
“Now I can’t lift my arms normally. I was never asked for my ID and I was never told I was under arrest.”
He was later taken to a detention center, where – he said – the agents pointed at the detainees’ “bodies”.
After the hearing, Rahman held fellow witness Rascon, from San Bernardino in California, in his arms as a comfort as he struggled to deliver testimony describing his experiences at the hands of ICE and border patrol after an agent shot up the car he was traveling in with family members in 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 hard to hear.
“I’m very sorry that the stories are terrible, and I promise you that each of us, whether it’s the House or the Senate, we will give all the reasons for your harm,” he said. “You all deserve justice and you deserve peace. And it’s terrible that anyone in our country has to go through what you all have.”
Richard Blumenthal, a senator from Connecticut, who led the hearing with Garcia, called the testimony “a defining moment and a moral moment”.
He used words once directed at Joseph McCarthy, the 1950s red-baiting Republican senator for Wisconsin, to vilify Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and other members of the administration involved in the immigration raids. “Have you no sense of decency?” he said. “Have you no sense of shame?”
Alex Padilla, a California senator who was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by two federal agents last year when he tried to question Noem at a press conference, lamented the absence of Republicans at the forum.
“Why only Democrats?” he asked. “We cannot let our Republican colleagues off the hook. Under normal circumstances, regardless of the majority, when a tragedy occurs, congressional committees are tasked with providing oversight. Republican colleagues refuse.”