LOS ANGELES – The Center for Immigration Law and Policy’s faculty and staff made statements in response to the recent DHS murders in Minnesota and other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tactics.

Please attribute the following quote to Hiroshi Motomura, the Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law and Faculty Co-Director of CILP:

“The fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good earlier this month in Minneapolis horrified millions of Americans and people around the world, as they witnessed the gratuitous violence that federal immigration agents used against protestors and bystanders, and as they heard the lies that senior Administration officials used to excuse and even justify it. DHS must immediately stop these egregious abuses, and there must be a full and independent investigation into current DHS policies and into the deadly force that DHS uses to quell protests. Until this happens, none of us can feel safe.”

Please attribute the following quote to Talia Inlender, Deputy Director of CILP:

“The Supreme Court’s decision to allow DHS to unleash roving patrols in Los Angeles last summer in blatant disregard of the Fourth Amendment led to the extreme civil and human rights violations DHS is now perpetrating in Minneapolis and other cities across America. Videos showing agents dragging a U.S. citizen from his home in freezing temperatures; accosting parents and children outside schools; and pepper spraying protestors filming on public streets do not depict isolated incidents. It is incumbent on the courts—and most importantly the Supreme Court—to stop enabling these gross violations of our constitutional rights.”

Please attribute the following quote to Monika Langarica, Senior Staff Attorney at CILP:

“ICE and Border Patrol’s deadly brutality in the streets of Minneapolis has again laid bare the cruelty and lawlessness of this administration’s immigration policies—from violent arrests based on nothing more than the color of a person’s skin to the taking of children to the killing of people engaging in their constitutionally-protected right to protest. We join the chorus of other organizations that have called on Congress to refuse to fund ICE and Border Patrol and revoke the funding it previously allocated, which the agencies are using to instill fear and perpetuate violence in our communities.”

Please attribute the following quote to Ahilan Arulanantham, Professor from Practice and Faculty Co-Director of CILP:

“The agents who shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, along with others responsible, must be charged for their crimes. Those charges can and should be brought by state officials, as the Trump administration obviously cannot be trusted to conduct an impartial investigation given the lies about the victims that President Trump, Secretary Noem, Stephen Miller, and others have spread. While many interventions from different actors will be needed to repair the massive damage to our legal system caused by the events of the last few weeks, there is no substitute for accountability. Here that requires the killers be tried for murder.”

Founded in 2020, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law expands the law school's role as a national leader in immigration law and policy, generating innovative ideas at the intersection of immigration scholarship and practice and serving as a hub for transforming those ideas into meaningful changes in immigration policy.    

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