Please do your part today.

We also speak with attorney Alexa Van Brunt, director of the Illinois office of the MacArthur Justice Center, who says victims of ICE violence like Rahman can sue the federal government for violating their rights, ?but they cannot sue the officers in their individual capacity.?

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We begin today?s show in Minneapolis, where at least 50 protesters were arrested outside the Whipple Federal Building this weekend as they marked one month since the fatal shooting of Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother of three killed by an ICE agent on January 7th. The Whipple Federal Building has been a staging ground for federal immigration agents deployed to the Twin Cities, as well as at the heart of ongoing protests against Trump?s raids. Good?s fatal shooting, as well as the killing just days later of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked in the Minneapolis Veterans Health Care System, have sparked nationwide protests in response to Trump?s immigration crackdown.

AMY GOODMAN: Renee Good?s wife Becca Good issued a statement over the weekend, saying, quote, ?You know my wife?s name and you know Alex?s name, but there are many others in this city being harmed that you don?t know — their families are hurting just like mine, even if they don?t look like mine,? unquote.

And this is Annie Ganger, Renee Good?s sister.

ANNIE GANGER: No matter the adversity she faced, Renee always remained so tender and open and was a caretaker and protector. I?d like to acknowledge that this type of violence isn?t new, and how unfair it is that the way someone looks garners more or less attention. And I?m so sorry that this is the reality.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Trump?s deployment of federal agents in Minneapolis and across U.S. cities has continued to raise scrutiny over the violent use of force by the Department of Homeland Security officers, who?ve been involved in the shootings of at least 13 people since September, including of U.S. citizens. At least four of those shootings have been fatal, including Renee Good, Alex Pretti and Silverio Villegas González, a 38-year-old father from Mexico fatally shot by federal immigration agents in a Chicago suburb last year. He was unarmed.

AMY GOODMAN: Last week, the brothers of Renee Good, Brent and Luke Ganger, testified at a hearing held by congressional Democrats. Among others who testified was Martin Daniel Rascon, who was shot at by border agents in California while driving with his family; Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times by a federal immigration agent in Chicago last year; and Aliya Rahman, who was violently dragged out of her car by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis after they smashed the car window. Aliya Rahman will join us live in a minute. But first, this is a portion of her congressional testimony last week.

ALIYA RAHMAN: My name is Aliya Rahman, and I?m a resident of South Minneapolis. I?m a Bangladeshi American, born in northern Wisconsin. And I?m a disabled person with autism and a traumatic brain injury. Not all autistic brains do this, but mine fixates on sounds, numbers and patterns. And while what the world saw happen to me exactly three weeks ago today on video was a terrible violation, it is still nothing compared to the horrific practices I saw inside the Whipple center. So I am here today with a duty to the people who have not had the privilege of coming home, and I offer this data because these practices must end now.

On January 13th, on the way to my 39th appointment at Hennepin County?s Traumatic Brain Injury Center, I encountered a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles, and no signs indicating how to get around it. I had not wanted to pull into a blocked, chaotic intersection, but verbally agreed to do so and rolled down my window after an agent yelled, ?Move! I will break your effing window!? — his first instruction. Agents on all sides of my vehicle yelled conflicting threats and instructions that I could not process while watching for pedestrians. Then the glass of the passenger side window flew across my face. I yelled, ?I?m disabled!? at the hands grabbing at me, and an agent said, ?Too late.?

I felt immersed in a pattern, and I thought of Jenoah Donald, an autistic Black man killed by police during a traffic stop in 2021. I remembered Mr. Silverio Villegas González, who was killed by ICE in his vehicle last year.

An agent pulled a large combat knife in front of my face, which I thought was for cutting me, and later learned was used to cut off my seat belt.

Shooting pain went through my head, neck and wrists when I hit the ground face first and people leaned on my back. I felt the pattern, and I thought of Mr. George Floyd, who was killed four blocks away.

I was carried face down through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled. I now cannot lift my arms normally. I was never asked for ID, never told I was under arrest, never read my rights and never charged with a crime.

AMY GOODMAN: That?s a portion of last week?s congressional testimony by Aliya Rahman, who?s joining us now in Minneapolis. And in Chicago, we?re joined by Alexa Van Brunt, director at the Illinois office of the MacArthur Justice Center, attorney for Aliya Rahman.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Aliya, let?s continue with you. This testimony is horrifying. I?m so sorry, what happened to you. If you can tell us what happened next? They smashed the passenger side of the window? They put — took this knife by your neck and cut off the seat belt and dragged you out? If you can continue with your reaction to what was happening and then where they took you next?

ALIYA RAHMAN: Yeah. Thank you, Amy, for asking that question and for having us, because what people saw in that video is, of course, horrifying and shouldn?t happen, and it?s a violation of rights, but what happened after the video is the thing that really sits with me. You know, what I saw in that detention center was truly horrific, and the weight of an experience like that really leaves you with the duty.

From the point you?re asking about, you know, I hit the ground a couple of times. The second time was face first, and I felt agents on my upper body, my back and neck. Shooting pain starts going through my head and neck and wrists. As we know, I already had a brain injury and had told them I was disabled before they did that.

And when I get to the Whipple center, this kind of dynamic of having a complete disregard for any human?s humanity or living body was absolutely continued. Absolutely. You know, the first thing you see — first thing I saw, anyway, arriving at Whipple is lines of Black and Brown people chained together, being marched in the cold. I become one of these people outside in this outdoor loading dock, as we are absolutely dehumanized, taunted and not given medical care at any point, for me, not given disability accommodations, like walking aids that I need. I can certainly talk about more of either of those things.

But, you know, I was taken out of that place unconscious. And I believe that I lived because I had a cellmate who was willing to put herself in danger to bang on the door after I was unconscious. It was well over an hour from the first time we said this is an emergency, because my speech had started to slur and my vision had blurred. And one of the last things I heard on that cell floor was my cellmate begging for medical care, and somebody outside saying, ?We don?t want to step on ICE?s toes.? And when I opened my eyes at the emergency room, they told me I was being treated for assault wounds.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Aliya, again, we?re so sorry for this horrific experience of all that you endured. So, you did — did you, in fact, receive any medical care? And then, also, did you have access to any legal advice? Were you able to access an attorney? Were you told that you were entitled to one?

ALIYA RAHMAN: I did not receive any medical care while I was conscious. When I arrived at the Whipple center, I was already injured. I cannot lift my arms now normally. I don?t know how long that will be with me. You know, my body will heal, or it won?t.

But it?s important to me to fulfill a duty to folks like Mr. Mondragón, who you just mentioned, right? It is completely consistent with my experience to hear that the story of these folks, that he ran into a wall head first, is not true — of course, it can?t be — because these people do not regard human bodies as attached to humans.

And so, no, I arrived injured, and I wasn?t given a medical screening. And, you know, from the second — you all can hear it in the video — from the second they first put their hands on me in the car all the way through transport to the Whipple center, from the moment I arrived at Whipple center, I was asking for disability accommodations, like, ?Did anybody bring my cane?? I asked for a lawyer. I asked, ?Am I being charged with something?? I was not given a phone call. I was not able to speak to a lawyer. I was not told that I was charged with anything.

I was lifted from my chair by my injured shoulders when I asked for a cane, and prodded in the back and said, ?Walk. You can walk. You can do it,? all the while having to worry that I?m going to fall down and hit my head again. I finally found a wheelchair. I was placed in it, after a good long time of asking for this and being told, ?We don?t know if we have wheelchairs here.? Like, that is not an answer to that question. At a federal facility, you should know if there?s a wheelchair there.

And when I was placed in it, the man who was supposed to wheel me to interrogation paused for a second to take the time to say, ?Hey, you were driving, right? So your legs do work.? And you really have to think about a sentence like that, because that does not help anybody complete their job faster, if their job is related to immigration or public safety. It does help you complete your job if the point is to dehumanize and terrorize people into not speaking. Obviously, you know, that didn?t work in my case. I?m here. I?m not going to stop talking.

But, no, I hear your question as a general of: Were any of your rights respected? Were your medical needs respected? The answer to that is no. And I think we have lots of testimony from folks inside these places that?s consistent with that. And I?m very confused why we haven?t immediately investigated these places and interviewed everyone who?s been through them.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Aliya, you said that they referred to the people at Whipple, at the detention center, as bodies, not people?

ALIYA RAHMAN: Absolutely, before that even. When I was placed in that SUV after the videos where you all can see me yelling, ?I have a brain injury, I am disabled, I am autistic,? asking for help around that, the answer I got was laughter and the driver radioing in, ?We?re bringing in a body.? And, you know, I really had to ask myself, ?What is going to happen to me before I get there, if that?s what they?re saying??

And when I get there, you hear this word yelled. There are lines of people being marched. There are confused staff. Those agents had no concept of how to do the tasks that they were assigned, unless that task is dehumanization. They were really yelling things like they?re bringing in bodies, seven or eight at a time. There is no place to put them. They could not find an interrogation room for me, because people kept saying, ?There?s already a body in that one. There?s already a body in that one.?

And again, I think human beings are not born calling each other bodies, so you have to ask, ?How did we get that way?? And I read a lot of books. Anybody knows, who studies history, what happens when you have folks who are now treating these humans as bodies, and you have no reason to believe you?re going to make it out alive from a place where they?re already calling you a body.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I?d like to bring in, Aliya, your legal counsel, Alexa Van Brunt. Now, Alexa, you know, this testimony, what Aliya experienced, is really horrifying, also her descriptions of what she saw when she was arrested wrongfully. What kind of legal recourse does she have?

ALEXA VAN BRUNT: Thank you so much for asking that question. It?s been a major topic of discussion by advocates and by Congress and by lawyers. And it?s a really timely and important discussion to have, because there are limits to the kind of legal recourse people have at this stage against ICE agents, against federal agents who violate their rights.

Aliya and others can file a Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit, which is essentially a lawsuit against the federal government for violating their rights. And that is one way to get into federal court, and it?s an important form of accountability. But they cannot sue the officers in their individual capacity. They cannot name those officers in a lawsuit, because we do not have the same forms of legal redress for federal officers that we do for state officers, for a law enforcement officer at the county level or the city level who violates your rights. And that?s the result of many years of legal cases from the Supreme Court and other court cases limiting accountability for federal officers under the Bivens doctrine, as, you know, is often talked about these days.

But on a positive note, a lot of state legislatures have started to discuss ways to hold federal officers accountable, including where I?m based, in Chicago, in Illinois, passing laws called state Bivens laws, that permit people whose rights have been violated, like Aliya, to file actions against those who?ve violated their rights, the federal officers. So, these state laws hold some promise, but it would be really, really a very beneficial thing for everyone if Congress could change the laws so that federal officers can be held accountable themselves in a court of law.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, thank you very much, Alexa Van Brunt — 

ALEXA VAN BRUNT: Yeah, of course.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: — attorney for Minneapolis resident Aliya Rahman. Last month, ICE smashed her car window, dragged her out and detained her. Thank you, Aliya Rahman, for joining us.

When we come back, President Trump is refusing to apologize after posting a video that depicted the Obamas as apes. He only deleted it after bipartisan outcry. We?ll speak with the NAACP. Back In 30 seconds.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: ?Sin Masticar,? ?Without Chewing,? by the Puerto Rican singer and songwriter iLe, performing in our Democracy Now! studio.

Join Amy Goodman, Juan González, Nermeen Shaikh, special guests and the entire Democracy Now! family to celebrate 30 years of global independent news in NYC on Monday, February 23, 2026