The Shadow Hearings On ICE Are A Compelling Must Watch

Democrats heard from brave witnesses who described firsthand their own trauma, grief and demand for action and accountability.

They won’t show these on Fox, but yesterday Democrats held “shadow hearings” on ICE’s crimes. Because Republicans control all congressional committees and refuse to hold ICE to account, it’s heartening to see Democrats stepping up. They’re pushing out the truth about what’s happening, while refusing to wait for the GOP to recover its principles or its spine.

The panel of Democratic lawmakers heard witnesses describe harrowing stories of ICE violence and abuse. It also heard from Renee Good’s brother who described what her loss has meant to his family.

These aren’t easy stories to hear, but they are necessary. ICE has gone rogue and is now full of lawless agents who believe themselves unaccountable. It’s our job to ensure that accountability still comes, and that we preserve a clear and public record of what they have done and the crimes they have committed.

He shot her five times, then she was arrested and charged

It’s become a frighteningly familiar pattern. A woman is shot in her car by a federal agent, who then lies about the incident and blames the victim, followed by a coordinated cover-up.

Yesterday, Marimar Martinez told the lawmakers and the nation,

I’m born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where I learned the values of resilience, community, respect, love, and hope. On October 4, 2025, those values were tested when my life was nearly taken by my own government.

On that date, a federal agent fired five shots into her body. She’s fortunate to be alive. But instead of investigating and prosecuting the agent for attempted murder, prosecutors indicted Martinez. Just as they later did with Renee Good and Alex Pretti, DHS tried to smear her as the perpetrator rather than the victim of violence. They claimed, falsely, that she had rammed her car into the agents and that they had fired upon her in self defense.

Officials labeled her a “domestic terrorist” for standing up and trying to warn her neighbors about ICE presence in the area. Sound familiar?

Martinez is a teacher, and on that day her life was suddenly turned upside down. “On Friday I was teaching the young children at the Montessori school and we were singing and dancing,” she recounted. “And on Saturday, my own government was calling me a domestic terrorist, and I was in federal detention centers with the bullet holes all over my body.”

The entire official narrative about Martinez was a damnable lie, and federal prosecutors knew it—which is why they later dismissed the case in a stunning turnaround. As CNN reported,

Martinez had been accused of closely pursuing Customs and Border Protection agent Charles Exum and hitting his car on October 4. But Martinez’s defense attorney, Christopher Parente, alleged the opposite, saying it was actually the agent who sideswiped Martinez. Parente said, “This case was going to be a winner at trial regardless.”

“These agents were lying about what happened,” he added following the dismissal. “Miss Martinez never rammed anybody. These agents hit Miss Martinez. These agents jumped out and shot Miss Martinez, a US citizen whose only crime was warning her fellow community members that ICE was in the neighborhood.”

In granting the dismissal, the federal judge noted troubling aspects of the case. U.S. District Court Judge Georgia Alexakis highlighted that agent Exum’s vehicle was moved 1,000 miles away after the incident and that he had texted messages bragging about the shooting.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability who co-chaired the shadow hearings, highlighted those texts. “I fired 5 rounds, and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys,” Exum had written.

Martinez movingly used her time to speak for the slain victims who could not be there to tell their own stories. “I am Renee Good. I am Alex Pretti. I am Silverio Villegas González. I am Keith Porter. They should all be here today.”

You can watch Martinez’s remarks here:

They dragged an autistic disabled woman from her car

Aliya Rahman is a Bangladeshi American born in Wisconsin. She is a resident of Minneapolis and a disabled American with autism. She has a traumatic brain injury that has required extensive medical care.

Rahman told lawmakers yesterday that, on January 13th, she was on her way to see her doctor when she was caught in the middle of an ICE action and found herself in a traffic jam with no signs indicating how to get around it.

She did not want to pull into a blocked intersection but complied, rolling down her window to try and understand what they wanted. One yelled, “Move! I will break your f’ing window.” That was the first instruction she received.

Then came conflicting instructions from the other agents, which she could not process while watching for pedestrians. “Then, the glass of the passenger side window flew across my face,” she recounted. “I yelled, ‘I am disabled!,’ at the hands grabbing at me and the agent said, ‘Too late.’”

One agent waved a long knife before her face, which she feared would be used against her. Instead, he cut her seatbelt. Moments later, Moments later, her face hit the ground and agents pressed their weight onto her back. Rahman was then carried facedown through the street by her cuffed limbs.

While Rahman decried her own abuse and treatment that day, she emphasized that it was nothing compared to the mistreatment she witnessed inside the Whipple Center—the ICE detention facility where she was taken.

“I am here today with a duty to the people who have not had the privilege of coming home. And I offer this data because these practices must end. Now.”

Rahman’s remarks to lawmakers is below:

A family’s grief

Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, held a powerful 3 minutes and 26 seconds moment of silence in honor of Renee Good. This represents the time during which DHS officers let her bleed out after she was shot.

Luke Good, Renee’s brother, also spoke at yesterday’s shadow hearing. He relayed how his young daughter had processed the loss of her aunt.

“I was talking to my 4-year old last week when she noticed I was not doing well,” Good told lawmakers. “She knows that her aunt died and that somebody caused it to happen. She told me that there are no bad people and that everyone makes mistakes. She has Nee’s spirit.”

He spoke of the effect his sister had on everyone around her. “When Renee walked in a room, things felt lighter, even on cloudy days. She had a way of showing up in the world that made you believe things were going to be okay. Not because she ignored the hardship, but because she chose optimism anyway. She chose to look for what was good, what was possible, and what was worth loving.”

And he conveyed his own family’s pain at her loss, made all the harder knowing that the people responsible for her murder continue their horrific policies and operations unchecked:

“The deep distress our family feels because of Nay’s loss in such a violent and unnecessary way is complicated by feelings of disbelief, distress, and desperation for change.

Our family took some consolation thinking that perhaps Nay’s death would bring about change in our country. And it has not.

This is not just a bad day or isolated incidents. These encounters with federal agents are changing the community and changing many lives forever.

You can view his remarks here:

Rep. Robert Garcia is a force to be reckoned with

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), already a national hero for his tireless work exposing the Epstein files, is now actively bringing ICE crimes to light. He is pressing for the accountability the Good family—and others—have been denied.

During the hearing, Garcia displayed a photo of six officials—Donald Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan and Greg Bovino—declaring, “Every single one of them has to be held accountable for the crimes … for the terror, for the murders.” Speaking to federal agents everywhere, Garcia added, “You don’t get a license to kill, and there’s no absolute immunity.”

My goal with this piece is to highlight and amplify the stories of the victims and the urgency of their call for action. (Thank you, Lawrence O’Donnell of MS NOW, for also uplifting these hearings on your show.)

I hope you will share these stories, too. All of us should hear the truth, and all of us must demand an end to ICE’s violence and abuse and real justice for its victims.