This week, Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass) dropped a bombshell bill that would strip ICE agents of qualified immunity after a string of deadly shootings.
Pressley teamed up with Sen. Ed Markey to create the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026, which would expand Pressley’s fight to make federal cops answer for civil rights violations in court. The bill comes on the heels of an ICE agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, in Minneapolis.
In her House floor speech, Pressley called out “rogue federal agents” for terrorizing communities and naming victims like Good, Keith Porter—a father killed by an off-duty ICE officer in L.A.—and Nenko Gantchev, who died in custody after 30 years in the U.S.
In a statement, Pressley shared that she and her community “cannot stand idly by” while “rogue” agents emboldened by the current administration “ravage” communities and “kill our neighbors in cold blood.”
“Our bill sends a powerful message to everyone in America—citizen or not—that when ICE agents break the law, they should and will be held accountable,” she said. “For Renee Good, Keith Porter, Nenko Gantchev, and every death at the hands of federal law enforcement, Congress must end qualified immunity.”
The bill builds on their push, after George Floyd’s 2020 murder, to gut the Supreme Court-created shield that lets officers dodge accountability in similar circumstances.
“When masked ICE agents are allowed to kill and harm people with impunity, we have crossed a dangerous threshold in our nation,” said Senator Markey in a statement.
For a generation tired of endless police impunity stories, Pressley’s move hits hard—especially in the diverse communities of Boston’s neighborhoods, where many immigrant families feel the presence of ICE daily.
