Attorney General Pam Bondi was so furious with six federal prosecutors who announced they would resign rather than prosecute the widow of a Minnesota woman killed by an ICE agent that she fired them before they had a chance to give their notice.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was so furious with six federal prosecutors who announced they would resign rather than prosecute the widow of a Minnesota woman killed by an ICE agent that she fired them before they had a chance to give their notice.
Border patrol agents have no jurisdiction over US citizens. They didn’t have the authority to stop her and try to remove her from her car in the first place so, what they were doing was unlawful from the start. That should disqualify him from using the supremacy clause, before we even get into debate on whether lethal force was justified or not.
Border patrol has jurisdiction within 200 miles of the border or any point of entry including airports and ports. So if they’re operating within 200 miles of the Minneapolis airport, they do have the legal authority to detain citizens. It’s BS, but that fact has stood up in courts for a long time.
ICE isn’t border patrol.
As for whether this was part of their duties, that’s the question and oh boy this is going to be messy in the courts.
Ah, I thought he was border patrol, but he’s ICE, and you’re right. ICE also doesn’t have jurisdiction over US citizens though. I think it’s pretty clear that there was no probable cause to believe she, or her wife, were potentially illegal immigrants, were aiding illegal immigrants, or were impeding the agent’s investigation in any way, given that she was initially trying to wave them to go around her.
If/When we have a functioning DOJ again, Ross is going to prison.
I posted this elsewhere and got a lot of flack, but I’m pretty certain that there was nothing illegal with Ross stopping to see what was going on as that would have been a consensual encounter.
It’s when the 2nd ICE vehicle arrived 30 seconds later that shit went sideways and became a detainment, illegal and murder.
Had he pulled her over that would be another story as the pull over constitutes a detainment, but she was already sitting there. At the start he also didn’t order her to do anything or prevent her from leaving, and didn’t turn on his police lights while stopping, which likely makes the whole thing a voluntary consensual encounter.
Petty much any law enforcement officer can approach/talk to anyone as long as its voluntary and no detainment/search/seizure happens.
Edit: Just as an example, Ross could have seen the vehicle stopped in the road, and decided to see if she needed any assistance. He could have approached the vehicle, and said something like, “Hello ma’am, is everything okay? Do you need any assistance moving your vehicle off the roadway?” If she refused and said no, assuming there is no case for impeding/obstructing, the correct answer would then be, “Okay, I’ll have to call this into the local PD, but you’re free to go. I can’t guarantee what will happen once they arrive though”
This is assuming we ever had a functioning DOJ.