Lawmakers slam Ice after US military veterans are arrested, injured

Some of the most decorated military veterans in Congress say they are outraged after a report in the Guardian revealed US military veterans have been arrested or injured amid protests over Donald Trump’s deportation campaign and his push to deploy the national guard to American cities.

“I went to war three times for this country to defend the right of Americans to say things I may not like,” said Representative Jason Crow, a Democrat from Colorado and former army ranger who was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Iraq as a platoon leader with the 82nd airborne division. “Now is the time for every American to speak out.”

Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois who received a Purple Heart after her helicopter was shot down over Iraq, said: “No one – especially those who have already sacrificed so much for this country – should ever be assaulted, detained or thrown in solitary confinement for peacefully protesting government overreach”.

The Guardian has identified eight instances in which military veterans have been prosecuted or sought damages after being detained by federal agents. Two of those individuals were arrested in late September protesting outside a Chicago-area Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility.

One, 70-year-old air force veteran Dana Briggs, was charged with assault after a video of an incident showed Ice agents advancing on the elderly veteran and knocking him over. The other, Afghanistan war veteran John Cerrone, was tackled by a group of Ice agents, another video shows. Cerrone was detained, held for nine hours in solitary confinement and charged with disorderly conduct.

The justice department says Briggs committed assault when he “made physical contact with an agent’s arm while the agent attempted to extend the safety perimeter”. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said Cerrone had picked up a teargas canister fired by an Ice agent and thrown it back earlier in the day.

Duckworth countered that “the Trump administration’s meritless claims justifying the need for such excessive force simply aren’t supported by evidence, and even federal judges are recognizing they are not credible or ‘tethered to facts’”.

Illinois Democrat Richard Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate judiciary committee, said: “Any improper use of force by federal law enforcement against Americans, including service members and veterans, undermines our democracy and is a betrayal to our military families who sign up to risk life and limb to protect our nation.”

Republican lawmakers contacted by the Guardian declined to comment or did not respond to the Guardian’s inquiries.

In Portland, video shows an agent grabbing Afghanistan war veteran Daryn Herzberg by the hair and slamming his face into the ground multiple times while saying, “You’re not talking shit any more are you?” according to a Federal Tort Claims Act complaint filed by his attorney.

Herzberg, who has not been charged with a crime, was hospitalized and is seeking $150,000 in damages.

A DHS spokesperson said Herzberg, a former marine sergeant who was honorably discharged in 2012, “is well known for acts of violence outside the Ice facility” and had “used fake blood to falsify injuries”. His attorney denied the allegations.

Representative Maxine Dexter, a Democrat who represents Portland, said military veterans “are literally putting their lives on the line to protest”.

“We are seeing unjustifiable and excessive force at the Portland Ice facility,” said Dexter, a physician who practiced for eight years at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals. She noted that on 4 October, an 84-year-old demonstrator sustained a concussion when she was rushed and knocked to the ground by federal agents during what the Oregonian newspaper described as a “peaceful protest.”

The woman’s husband, also 84 and a Vietnam war veteran, was also pushed to the ground, the Oregonian reported. According to the newspaper, he was leaning on his walker and wearing his Vietnam veterans cap when federal officers pushed him.

“Free speech and peaceful protest are fundamental rights in America,” said Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. “Few understand this better than the brave men and women who have given so much to defend these rights and freedoms for all of us. Trump’s goal is to incite violence to further his authoritarian grip and quash our fundamental rights. We must all continue to speak out against his un-American power grab and stand up for one another.”

Dexter said she hoped the Trump administration would “lower the temperature” so that the issues that currently divide Americans can be debated without violence.