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🧵 At 3pm ET today, I'll be live-posting highlights from the public forum for @lawfaremedia.org. This will some witnesses' very first public appearance and the only one for Brent and Luke Ganger, who do not plan to do any additional interviews. Follow this thread for updates as they happen 🧵👇

This is the second public forum hosted by Sen. Blumenthal and Rep. Garcia as part of their ongoing inquiry into allegations of Department of Homeland Security abuse and overreach. You can watch the first public forum from Dec. 9 here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urg4...

The following witnesses will offer testimony at today's public forum, set to begin in just a few minutes:

The hearing will begin soon. Watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UagE...

Rep. Robert Garcia opens the forum, which he says will look at the "use of violence in immigration enforcement" and calls it "a very important moment for us to understand what is happening across this country." Garcia says we're here because ICE and DHS are "completely out of control."

Garcia is holding up a chart that shows how the Trump administration made "ICE the highest funded law enforcement agency in the history of the United States" and says this funding has been used "to terrorize, disfigure, and in some cases kill" US citizens.

Garcia: "...we've seen people dragged from cars, beaten, gassed, attacked with crowd control weapons, blinded...left with broken ribs, run off the road...[DHS] officers have been ordered to enter homes without warrants" and the "federal government has labeled US citizens domestic terrorists"

Garcia, holding up photos of Trump and top administration officials: "These people, every single one of them, has to be held accountable for the crimes, for the terror, and for the murders that are happening to our own people in this country."

Already seated, listening to Garcia and now Sen. Blumenthal, are two of Renee Nicole Good's brothers, Luke and Brent Ganger. Blumenthal says Good and Alex Pretti, while here in spirit, "should be here in person, but they were murdered. They were murdered by their own government, in cold blood."

Blumenthal: "Some day we should have a truth and justice commission to investigate the systematic failings." For now Blumenthal says he will not support another dime for DHS "unless there is fundamental far-reaching reform and restraint—in effect, a rebuilding—of the agency."

Good's brother Luke Ganger begins by saying, "We're here to ask for your help." They thought perhaps their sister's death would bring about positive change, but it has not. He adds: "These encounters with federal agents are changing the community and changing many lives—including ours—forever."

Brent Ganger shares from the eulogy he wrote for his sister, as his brother puts an arm around him to console him. "Renee's not gone from us," he says.