Democratic Governors Can Order the Arrest of ICE Agents. What Are They Waiting For?

Even failed prosecutions would force federal agents to think twice before breaking down doors.

Bottom Line Up Front B.L.U.F.

Here’s what you can do today:

Call your governor or attorney general and say exactly this: “Federal agents are committing state felonies including burglary, kidnapping, and assault. File criminal charges now. If local law enforcement refuses to do their jobs then they can be fired or arrested. We elected you to protect us. Do it. If you don’t take this seriously then expect us to begin contacting all of your donors to ask if they are aware of your compliance.”

Author’s Note: I released this previously and have since updated the article to include more details on the Supremacy Clause and methods for encouraging action to defend public safety, Constitutional rights, and human rights.

Republicans prosecute doctors for providing healthcare. They usually lose in court. But doctors stop providing care anyway. That’s the point.

Democrats could use the same strategy against ICE agents who break into homes without real warrants, if they can muster the courage. The legal authority exists and the infrastructure is ready. Now it is our duty to demand it from the people who hold that power.

Here’s what you need to know: Federal agents are committing state felonies every day. Breaking and entering. Kidnapping. Assault. When they kick down doors without judicial warrants, when they detain citizens without probable cause, when they point guns at children, these are crimes under state law. And Democratic governors have the power to prosecute those crimes.

They just need to understand an absolutely essential point.

Winning isn’t the point. Fighting is.

This is asymmetric legal warfare: using the courts to fight back when you’re outgunned. Republicans mastered it years ago. They prosecute doctors in Texas knowing federal courts will eventually overturn the convictions. Doesn’t matter. The prosecutions achieve their goal: doctors stop performing abortions rather than risk arrest.

The same dynamic would work here. When ICE agents face potential state prosecution for breaking down doors, they’ll start getting real warrants signed by real judges. When pointing guns at families could mean assault charges, they’ll think twice. When detaining U.S. citizens could mean kidnapping prosecutions, they’ll check IDs more carefully.

The goal is creating institutional friction, making every raid slower, more cautious, more legally careful. Every agent wondering “Could I get arrested for this?” is an agent who might not trample someone’s rights. Federal agents will claim Supremacy Clause immunity, basically arguing that states can’t touch them because they work for the federal government. They are wrong. That immunity only protects lawful acts. Nobody is above the law. The more states realize this, the more we can fight back against the Republican hostile takeover.

The Supreme Court made this clear in In re Neagle in 1890. Federal officers must be acting within their authority AND their actions must be “necessary and proper.” When they exceed either boundary, they become common criminals under state law.

The critical fact is that ICE’s administrative warrants, Forms I-200 and I-205, are signed by ICE officers, not judges. They’re glorified paperwork. Federal courts have repeatedly ruled these don’t authorize home entries. ICE’s own training materials admit agents “must obtain voluntary consent” before entering homes with these papers.

So when ICE breaks down a door with only administrative paperwork, that’s burglary under California Penal Code 459. When they haul away citizens without probable cause, that’s kidnapping under Penal Code 207. When they point weapons at unarmed families, that’s assault under Penal Code 245.

Factually, Trump can’t pardon state crimes. The president’s pardon power only covers federal offenses. State prosecutions are completely beyond MAGA reach.

Every prosecution, even one that ultimately fails, forces change. ICE agents would need personal lawyers. Federal defense attorneys won’t automatically represent them on state charges. That’s thousands of dollars from their own pockets, or the law enforcement union, win or lose. During prosecution, agents become cautious. Operations slow. Every agent wonders if they’re next. Supervisors second-guess tactics. The entire machinery of deportation grinds slower.

Discovery proceedings, the part where ICE has to hand over internal emails and training documents, would expose their real policies. What are they telling agents behind closed doors? What corners are they instructing them to cut? Public scrutiny changes behavior even without convictions.

Media coverage shifts the narrative. Instead of “ICE enforces immigration law,” headlines read “ICE agents arrested for breaking and entering.” Public opinion matters, even to federal agencies.

This isn’t theoretical. When the Ninth Circuit initially allowed Idaho to prosecute an FBI sniper after the Ruby Ridge incident in 1992, the case dragged on for years. The agent was never convicted, but FBI rules of engagement changed dramatically. The threat of prosecution worked.

The precedent goes back even further. History proves that “failed” prosecutions can still achieve their goals. Before the Civil War, Northern states in the 1850s prosecuted federal marshals who captured escaped slaves. Wisconsin arrested marshals and charged them with assault and kidnapping. These prosecutions were eventually overturned by federal courts, but that wasn’t the point.

The prosecutions made federal slave-catching operations nearly impossible in some states. Marshals needed military escorts. Many refused to operate in hostile territory. The “failed” prosecutions raised the cost of enforcement so high that they helped precipitate the political crisis that ended slavery.

That’s the model here. Make immigration raids so legally fraught, so personally risky for agents, so politically expensive for the administration, that the entire apparatus of illegal public intimidation tactics becomes unsustainable.

The current situation demands this kind of action. Three American children, ages 2, 4, and 7, were deported to Honduras while their parents begged for help. The 4-year-old has Stage 4 cancer. ICE put a dying American child on a deportation flight rather than verify citizenship. Job Garcia, a U.S. citizen with a PhD, was arrested for filming an ICE raid at Home Depot. His crime? Exercising First Amendment rights. Federal agents threw him in a van for holding up a phone.

These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re patterns of lawlessness that demand state intervention. Job Garcia has a PhD and they threw him in a van for filming. George Retes served in Iraq and they detained him for three days. You think your citizenship protects you? It doesn’t. You think your veteran status matters? It doesn’t. When federal agents can break down doors without real warrants, none of us is safe.

This is how tyranny takes hold. Not all at once, but arrest by arrest, raid by raid, while we tell ourselves it’s happening to “them,” not us. Well, look around. The “them” already includes American veterans and American citizens exercising First Amendment rights. Who’s next? Anyone who protests? Anyone who votes wrong? Anyone reading this?

When federal agents operate without accountability, states must step in. That’s federalism. That’s the system working as designed. That’s how we stop authoritarianism before it swallows all of us.

If Republicans will prosecute teachers for having books, if they’ll arrest doctors for providing healthcare, if they’ll charge parents for supporting their trans children, all while knowing they’ll likely lose in court, why won’t Democrats prosecute federal agents for actual crimes with actual victims?

The resources to begin this fight exist right now. California alone has everything needed to begin tomorrow: $50 million allocated for immigration legal defense, 4,500 lawyers in the Attorney General’s office, clear statutory authority to prosecute burglary, kidnapping, and assault, documented victims ready to testify, and video evidence of violations.

Thirteen Democratic attorneys general already declared federal agents must follow state law. Now enforce it.

States could even form an interstate compact for coordinated prosecution. Imagine California, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts simultaneously filing charges against ICE agents who violate state law. Federal agents couldn’t just avoid “hostile” states anymore. They’d face prosecution risks across half the country. The Constitution explicitly allows interstate compacts. Use them.

Every prosecutor knows this truth that sometimes you file charges not because you’ll win, but because the defendant needs to know they can’t act with impunity. Republican prosecutors understand this. They’ve weaponized it against the rest of America for decades. They turned “losing” prosecutions into winning strategies.

We don’t have time to waste. Call every state and local official you can. Use the script. Contact them every day until they respond. Share this strategy. Document everything. Contact their top donors. Every politician can choose to fight for the people or become politically radioactive.

No more strongly worded letters.

Fighting at all is a victory, and we aren’t interested in losing when the stakes are this damn high.

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America’s Personality Disorder

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References

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