The Feds Keep Prosecuting Protesters Against ICE — and Losing |
The Trump administration is on a losing streak against some of its loudest critics, as federal cases targeting opponents of aggressive immigration enforcement fall apart in courts nationwide.
In the span of a week, prosecutors failed to bring convictions in two high-profile cases in Los Angeles federal court. In the first, a jury acquitted Bobby Nuñez, a tow-truck driver who hooked an ICE vehicle and was charged with stealing government property. In the second, a judge dismissed the case against Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a TikToker who was facing assault and property damage charges after a confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, due to concerns that officials had violated his civil rights. (In the October 21 confrontation, an ICE agent shot him.)
“These arrests are a form of retaliation by the government,” said Matthew Borden, an attorney representing protesters, journalists, and legal observers in a lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stemming from protests in Southern California over the past year. “When you have a real judge and a real jury looking at the evidence, it just falls apart.”
“When you have a real judge and a real jury looking at the evidence, it just falls apart.”
The two cases come on the heels of a spate of failed federal charges prosecutors filed against protesters in Chicago, including one in which Border Patrol agents shot Miramar Martinez during a roadside confrontation in October and later charged her with assault. In November, a protester in Washington D.C. was acquitted after a two-day trial stemming from on assault charges he faced for throwing a sandwich at a border patrol agent.
“They’re moving at a pace that they’re not used to, and they’re not doing the legwork up front,” said Christopher Parente, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago representing Martinez, whose case was dismissed last month.
Federal court is typically not a friendly place for defendants. U.S. Attorneys are known for being choosy about the cases they bring, so cases that make it to a grand jury for indictment are often........