WASHINGTON — Thirty-seven people died in ICE custody this year, the highest on record. Renee Good, a Minneapolis mother, and Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse, were killed by federal immigration agents in January. Democrats then demanded body cameras, unmasked agents and judicial warrants — but none of it became law. In January, a lot of the people who made those demands will run Congress.
The House was called for Democrats early Wednesday morning, completing the party’s sweep of both chambers. In the Senate, Democrats flipped seven Republican-held seats, including some the GOP had held for decades. One of them was in Maine, where Troy Jackson defeated Sen. Susan Collins. Jackson called for eliminating ICE after a federal agent killed a man in his state.
For migrants and the people who love them, the question this morning isn’t whether the country rejected Trump’s enforcement machine. It’s whether Congress can do anything about it. The answer has two parts, and they point in opposite directions.
The gavel works
Oversight is the one power a House majority holds alone. No president can veto a subpoena, and no filibuster can block a hearing.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., is expected to chair House Oversight. He has spent two years in the minority writing letters ICE ignored, including one co-signed by 21 colleagues protesting the agency’s restrictions on surprise visits to detention facilities. Now he can compel answers. His announced targets are the Good and Pretti killings, use of force against U.S. citizens, detention conditions and no-bid contracts.