One of Renee Good’s brothers described the family’s heartbreak as twofold during an emotional Tuesday hearing — the pain from her death at the hands of a federal agent compounded by the fact that it has not led to any real changes on the ground in Minneapolis, her home.
Luke Ganger, a brother of the 37-year-old mother and Minneapolis resident, said the family had initially taken consolation in thinking that her death might have led the Trump administration to rethink its aggressive tactics in carrying out its mass-deportation campaign.
“The completely surreal scenes taking place on the streets of Minneapolis are beyond explanation,” Luke Ganger said. “This 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.”
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Luke Ganger testified alongside his brother, Brent Ganger, and the family’s attorney, Antonio Romanucci, on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, in a push for legislation to allow lawsuits against federal agents.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California invited Good’s brothers and other victims of federal agents’ excessive uses of force to testify at their second hearing highlighting immigration officers’ violent tactics against American citizens.
“We’re here because the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and, of course, broader agencies across DHS are completely out of control, and because Congress has a responsibility to step in when constitutional rights are being violated,” Garcia said.
The hearing started after the House voted to end the partial government shutdown, kicking off a two-week sprint for lawmakers to negotiate changes to immigration enforcement in exchange for Department of Homeland Security funding. The battle on Capitol Hill came in response to national backlash over the killings of Good and Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old intensive-care nurse who two federal agents shot on Jan. 24 in Minneapolis.
Senate Democrats called for the unmasking of agents and for them to wear body cameras, part of a litany of demands they are requesting in return for their vote on DHS funding.
But Tuesday’s hearing also showed Democrats’ disagreements over how to best rein in the Trump administration’s immigration agents.
Some, like Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are pushing for higher standards and measures to ensure greater accountability. Others, including Reps. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, argued that DHS and ICE were beyond repair and that the agency needed dismantling.
“What are we negotiating for? What is it that we’re trying to get? Because we know that they already will ignore the law,” Crockett said.
Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times by an immigration officer in Chicago in October, said during the hearing that she wanted to be a voice for those killed by agents.
“I know that by being a survivor, it is my duty to be here today to let you elected officials know what is happening on the streets of our country, because silence is no longer an option,” Martinez said. “This needs to stop now. Why do we continue to wait for more public executions when we have already seen the evidence on our TVs and computer screens?”
Martinez is one of the people the Department of Homeland Security has accused of attacking agents — only for federal prosecutors or judges to later dismiss the charges. Although body camera footage of Martinez’s shooting will likely be released to the public, the U.S. attorney’s office is still opposing the release of text messages that Charles Exum, the Border Patrol agent who shot her, sent to his wife and co-workers, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Blumenthal noted during the Tuesday hearing that in Exum’s texts, he appeared to brag about shooting Martinez five times, leaving her with seven bullet wounds.
“I would say to him: Have you no sense of decency? Have you no sense of shame? And I would say the same to Kristi Noem,” Blumenthal said.
The heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and Citizenship and Immigration Services are set to testify before the Senate and House Homeland Security committees next week.
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