ICE OUT Act

This section would let the Act be referred to as the ICE OUT Act.

This section would amend Section 1979 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1983), the federal civil rights law that lets a person sue someone who violates their constitutional rights while acting under color of law. It would label the law's existing opening text as subsection (a) and would insert the words "of the United States or" immediately before the words "of any State" in that text. Right now this law reaches only conduct taken under color of a state's authority (or a territory's or the District of Columbia's); this change would extend it to also reach conduct taken under color of federal authority, so a person acting under federal law could be sued under this statute as well. The section would then add two new subsections. New subsection (b) would apply to any lawsuit brought under this statute or any other federal law against an officer or agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Customs and Border Protection who is engaged in law enforcement. Under it, if the facts the plaintiff alleges would amount to excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment, that officer or agent could not raise any immunity defense at all. For every other type of claim against such an officer or agent, an immunity defense would be available only if the officer or agent had acted in a manner consistent with rights, privileges, or immunities that the Constitution and the laws had clearly established at the time of the challenged conduct. New subsection (c) would require that, when a court decides whether immunity applies under subsection (b)(2), it must first decide whether the facts alleged would amount to a violation of a right, privilege, or immunity secured by the Constitution, before it decides whether that right was clearly established at the time of the conduct. A court could not skip ahead to the clearly-established question without first resolving whether a constitutional violation occurred.