00:00Are ICE agents immune from being prosecuted, even if they shoot and kill someone?
00:05No, because if they were, we wouldn't be living under the rule of law.
00:10We would be living in a police state.
00:12What does the law say about prosecuting ICE agents who shoot people?
00:15The answer is that the only kind of immunity that federal officers receive is if they
00:20are doing something that is necessary and proper for the fulfillment of their duties.
00:23If you shoot someone...
00:25When you're not under reasonable fear of your own safety or the safety of bystanders,
00:28you are not acting in a matter that's...
00:30It's reasonably necessary or proper to fulfill your duty.
00:32And therefore, the state of Minnesota has...
00:35has the lawful right to prosecute ICE agents for committing crimes, including crime...
00:40of unjustified homicide or even murder.
00:42The Trump administration is doing everything it can to impede the...
00:45investigation.
00:46They have kept witnesses away from the Minnesota police.
00:48They fundamentally refuse to allow...
00:50Minnesota to participate in their investigation, which is not normal because ordinarily the
00:54federal government and the state...
00:55governments cooperate in investigations.
00:57But the reality is that the Trump administration has no legal authority...
01:00whatsoever to impede investigation or prosecution of crimes by federal...
01:05officers.
01:06The most that the federal government can do is make sure that if the charges have to...
01:10do with conduct performed while someone was fulfilling their duties, that the charges are removed...
01:15left to federal court.
01:16It will still be state prosecutors bringing the charges and the law...
01:20in play will still be state law.
01:21The only change is the venue.
01:22The venue will be in federal court.
01:24This is a crucial...
01:25juncture for the rule of law in the United States.
01:27There is nothing more undermining to the rule of law...
01:30than that officers of the state should be able to shoot and kill people...
01:33civilians in cold blood and...
01:35have no accountability for it whatsoever.
01:37So here's what has to happen next.
01:39Minnesota officials should...
01:40go forward and simply announce that they will be investigating these crimes.
01:44They should open...
01:45investigations.
01:46They should call on witnesses.
01:47If the federal government tries to hold off from allowing them to see the witnesses...
01:49they should...
01:50go to state court and get orders specifying that those witnesses have to be allowed to appear.
01:55They should put a case together to the best of their abilities...
01:57and then they should indict if they think that is appropriate.
02:00Only by getting criminal investigations underway now can Minnesota signal as representative...
02:05of the people of Minnesota and more broadly of the United States...
02:08that the rule of law obtains.
02:10no one is above the law and that includes ICE agents.
02:13if people are capable...
02:15of shooting others on the streets and getting away with it...
02:18then we would not have the rule of law.
02:20at all.
02:21There's a simple solution...
02:22and the solution is for Minnesota to act.
02:24If government officials...
02:25can shoot people on the streets and get away with it...
02:27then...
02:28we don't have the rule of law.
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