House Democrats unveiled a new tool this week to help Americans document and report alleged abuses by federal immigration officials.
In late October, House Democrats announced plans to launch a platform for people to submit claims of misconduct by officials carrying out the Trump administration’s bigoted anti-immigrant crackdown. Their announcement came in response to the Trump administration’s successful pressure campaign to get tech platforms to block ICE-tracking apps, amid its targeting of people and organizations (including news outlets) that document U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.
The new “Oversight Immigration Enforcement Dashboard” includes a form to file complaints about misconduct by ICE officials, officials working for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and any other officials carrying out immigration enforcement.
“The Trump Administration is lying, including under oath, about possible misconduct among federal immigration enforcement activities,” the dashboard site reads. “Oversight Democrats are demanding the Department of Homeland Security investigate each of the incidents listed in this Dashboard.”
The website says committee staff have “reviewed hundreds of instances of alleged possible misconduct,” but that “only incidents verified by reputable media outlets or referenced in litigation are included,” adding that “social media videos without corroboration are not.”
The Trump administration has argued that efforts to monitor immigration enforcement activity or to prevent ICE agents from wearing masks put agents in danger. The new dashboard addresses those concerns, stating that the “Dashboard records possible misconduct after it occurs; it is not a live or location-based tracking tool … We are not tracking officer movements, highlighting officer names or private information, or putting anyone at risk.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.