ICE Officers Should Be Held Accountable. These Law School Students Know How.
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StudentNation
/ February 9, 2026
ICE Officers Should Be Held Accountable. These Law School Students Know How.
Over 2,600 students and legal academics have signed a letter calling on Congress to close a loophole to allow individuals to sue federal officers for violating the Constitution.
Amelia Dal Pra
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Observers film ICE agents on February 5, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(Stephen Maturen / Getty)
At a moment when lawless conduct by federal immigration agencies is facing increased public scrutiny following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, a coalition of law students is demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials be held to account for their violence across our nation.
What started as a late-night idea, inspired by an opinion essay by Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and professor Burt Neuborne, has become a nationwide movement. I worked with a group of Berkeley Law students, including my peers Zadie Adams, Isaiah Paik, Shree Mehrotra, and Kaylana Mueller-Hsia, and professors to write and circulate a letter to Congress calling for a federal equivalent of Section 1983 that would close a long-standing loophole and allow individuals to sue federal officers for constitutional violations.
Currently, Section 1983 allows individuals to sue state or local officers for constitutional violations, but not federal officials. A federal version of Section 1983 would allow people to hold federal officers accountable when their rights are violated. Our proposed bill preserves the original meaning of Section 1983 by eliminating qualified immunity, a doctrine that lets many officials escape accountability for constitutional violations. When Congress enacted Section 1983 in 1871, the law contained no qualified immunity defense; the Supreme Court created it more than a century later. We seek to mirror the original meaning of Section 1983 and extend those same accountability standards to federal officers.
Within days of starting this initiative, students across Berkeley and other law schools—such as the University of Minnesota, New York University, and Texas A&M—got involved and spread the word. As we shared the letter with our professors and law student networks, we were elated by how many others joined our call, shared it with their peers and colleagues, and pushed for others to sign on to the letter.
Within one week, our letter received over 2,600 signatures from legal academics, law students, and law student organizations across 109 law schools. This included 22 law student governments, …
This affects the entire country.
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ICE Officers Should Be Held Accountable. These Law School Students Know How.
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Current Issue
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StudentNation
/ February 9, 2026
ICE Officers Should Be Held Accountable. These Law School Students Know How.
Over 2,600 students and legal academics have signed a letter calling on Congress to close a loophole to allow individuals to sue federal officers for violating the Constitution.
Amelia Dal Pra
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Observers film ICE agents on February 5, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(Stephen Maturen / Getty)
At a moment when lawless conduct by federal immigration agencies is facing increased public scrutiny following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, a coalition of law students is demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials be held to account for their violence across our nation.
What started as a late-night idea, inspired by an opinion essay by Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and professor Burt Neuborne, has become a nationwide movement. I worked with a group of Berkeley Law students, including my peers Zadie Adams, Isaiah Paik, Shree Mehrotra, and Kaylana Mueller-Hsia, and professors to write and circulate a letter to Congress calling for a federal equivalent of Section 1983 that would close a long-standing loophole and allow individuals to sue federal officers for constitutional violations.
Currently, Section 1983 allows individuals to sue state or local officers for constitutional violations, but not federal officials. A federal version of Section 1983 would allow people to hold federal officers accountable when their rights are violated. Our proposed bill preserves the original meaning of Section 1983 by eliminating qualified immunity, a doctrine that lets many officials escape accountability for constitutional violations. When Congress enacted Section 1983 in 1871, the law contained no qualified immunity defense; the Supreme Court created it more than a century later. We seek to mirror the original meaning of Section 1983 and extend those same accountability standards to federal officers.
Within days of starting this initiative, students across Berkeley and other law schools—such as the University of Minnesota, New York University, and Texas A&M—got involved and spread the word. As we shared the letter with our professors and law student networks, we were elated by how many others joined our call, shared it with their peers and colleagues, and pushed for others to sign on to the letter.
Within one week, our letter received over 2,600 signatures from legal academics, law students, and law student organizations across 109 law schools. This included 22 law student governments, …
ICE Officers Should Be Held Accountable. These Law School Students Know How.
This affects the entire country.
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ICE Officers Should Be Held Accountable. These Law School Students Know How.
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Magazine
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Current Issue
Activism
/
StudentNation
/ February 9, 2026
ICE Officers Should Be Held Accountable. These Law School Students Know How.
Over 2,600 students and legal academics have signed a letter calling on Congress to close a loophole to allow individuals to sue federal officers for violating the Constitution.
Amelia Dal Pra
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Observers film ICE agents on February 5, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(Stephen Maturen / Getty)
At a moment when lawless conduct by federal immigration agencies is facing increased public scrutiny following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, a coalition of law students is demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials be held to account for their violence across our nation.
What started as a late-night idea, inspired by an opinion essay by Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and professor Burt Neuborne, has become a nationwide movement. I worked with a group of Berkeley Law students, including my peers Zadie Adams, Isaiah Paik, Shree Mehrotra, and Kaylana Mueller-Hsia, and professors to write and circulate a letter to Congress calling for a federal equivalent of Section 1983 that would close a long-standing loophole and allow individuals to sue federal officers for constitutional violations.
Currently, Section 1983 allows individuals to sue state or local officers for constitutional violations, but not federal officials. A federal version of Section 1983 would allow people to hold federal officers accountable when their rights are violated. Our proposed bill preserves the original meaning of Section 1983 by eliminating qualified immunity, a doctrine that lets many officials escape accountability for constitutional violations. When Congress enacted Section 1983 in 1871, the law contained no qualified immunity defense; the Supreme Court created it more than a century later. We seek to mirror the original meaning of Section 1983 and extend those same accountability standards to federal officers.
Within days of starting this initiative, students across Berkeley and other law schools—such as the University of Minnesota, New York University, and Texas A&M—got involved and spread the word. As we shared the letter with our professors and law student networks, we were elated by how many others joined our call, shared it with their peers and colleagues, and pushed for others to sign on to the letter.
Within one week, our letter received over 2,600 signatures from legal academics, law students, and law student organizations across 109 law schools. This included 22 law student governments, …
