{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://bynum.house.gov/media/press-releases/bynum-joins-demanding-answers-secretary-noem-reports-federal-agent-misconduct", "Bynum Joins in Demanding Answers from Secretary Noem on Reports of Federal Agent Misconduct", "2025-11-03", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "House", "OR", "Janelle S. Bynum", "B001326", "bynum.house.gov", "bynum", "https://bynum.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Oregon City, OR \u2013 Today, Congresswoman Janelle Bynum (OR-05) joined a group of Members of Congress in sending a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, demanding immediate answers on the Department\u2019s growing record of unlawful enforcement actions.\n\nThe letter follows alarming reports and publicly available videos showing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers illegally detaining individuals using excessive and unlawful force. The letter points specifically to incidents in Portland, where federal agents reportedly fired impact munitions into peaceful crowds, discharged chemical spray at nonviolent protesters, and detained U.S. citizens without cause.\n\n\u201cWe have seen an alarming increase in news reports and videos showing federal law enforcement officers under your direction using what appears to be excessive and often grossly unlawful force, behaving unprofessionally, and illegally detaining individuals,\u201d the Members wrote. \u201cMounting evidence increasingly appears to show a systematic pattern of unlawful behavior and gross abuses of the civil rights of Americans by agents under your purview.\u201d\n\nIn the letter, the Members also raise concerns about the Department\u2019s recent expansion of ICE by 10,000 new agents under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, citing reports that some recruits were placed into enforcement roles without completing standardized training or full background vetting.\n\n\u201cIt would be a dereliction of duty if you deployed inadequately trained or unvetted personnel into high-risk operations across the United States,\u201d the Members continued. \u201cThese incidents suggest that DHS and its components are carrying out what amounts to militarized operations on U.S. soil, targeting vulnerable communities.\u201d\n\nThe letter includes 23 specific questions for the Department, requesting detailed written responses by November 10th, 2025, to ensure accountability.\n\nRead the full letter here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Noem,\n\nFollowing reports of illegal immigration enforcement actions by agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), we sent a July 18, 2025, letter to the DHS Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) seeking additional information and requesting an investigation. Since that time, we have seen an alarming increase in news reports and videos showing federal law enforcement officers under your direction using what appears to be excessive and often grossly unlawful force, behaving unprofessionally, and illegally detaining individuals.\n\nThe DHS OIG\u2019s response to our letter indicated that you, as the Secretary of Homeland Security, \u201cwould be in a better position to give [...] an authoritative answer\u201d to our questions and concerns about what increasingly appears to be a systematic pattern of unlawful behavior and gross abuses of the civil rights of Americans by agents under your purview. In light of mounting evidence of abuse from media reporting and publicly available video, we are demanding that your office provide us with those answers directly, as required by the Constitution.\n\nThe passage of H.R. 1 in July of this year has infused DHS with billions of dollars in additional funding meant to expand ICE by 10,000 new agents. Over the same period, DHS and its component agencies, along with several Department of Justice (DOJ) components, appear to have engaged in an alarming pattern of abuse during immigration enforcement actions. In Portland, the City Attorney, Robert Taylor, asserted in recent court filings that federal agents used unjustified force against peaceful protesters, indiscriminately fired impact munitions to disperse crowds, and discharged pepper spray into peaceful demonstrators\u2019 faces. In Chicago, as part of \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d, ICE or CBP agents reportedly rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters to raid an apartment complex, body-slammed and tear-gassed protesters, and indiscriminately detained individuals, including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. We have also seen videos of ICE and CBP agents assaulting non-violent bystanders, spraying what has been described as mace at people who do not appear to pose any risk of violence or harm, and other instances of outrageous and unlawful behavior. These disturbing incidents coincide with recent reporting that ICE has rushed to place new recruits into enforcement roles without completing standardized training or full background vetting. Some of these recruits have even \u201cfailed drug testing, have disqualifying criminal backgrounds[,] or don\u2019t meet the physical or academic requirements to serve.\u201d It would be a dereliction of duty if you deployed inadequately trained or unvetted personnel into high-risk operations across the United States, concerns we raised back in our original July 18, 2025 letter.\n\nTaken together, these incidents suggest that DHS and its components are carrying out what amounts to militarized operations on U.S. soil, targeting vulnerable communities. Occurring alongside ICE\u2019s unprecedented workforce expansion, these actions raise serious questions about your Department\u2019s command oversight, adherence to constitutional safeguards, and compliance with federal civil and criminal rights protections. We need look no further than the growing number of lawsuits brought against your Department and its agents for \u201cextreme brutality\u201d against protesters and members of the press. Indeed, these abuses have already prompted a federal judge to order federal immigration officers operating in Chicago to wear body cameras.\n\nYour Department\u2019s continued silence only deepens public concern that these abuses are being condoned from the top. Therefore, we demand that you respond, as required by the Constitution, to the 23 questions we posed in our July 18, 2025, correspondence no later than November 10, 2025, so that Congress and the American public can understand how you intend to prevent any future abuses from occurring.\n\nSincerely,", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://bynum.house.gov/media/press-releases/bynum-joins-demanding-answers-secretary-noem-reports-federal-agent-misconduct"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7173951491713524, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}