• ICE and Border Patrol raids aren’t a new problem—they’re just the most visible symptom.
  For decades, federal task forces and deputized local police have used a loophole to ignore state laws and evade accountability.
   
• This loophole leaves victims with no legal remedy for constitutional rights violations.
  Not reduced remedies. Not limited remedies. No remedy at all.
   
• The loophole harms everyone.
  It has swallowed victims across all races, classes, and communities. No social standing, no wealth, no political party affiliation will protect you if a federal badge is abused.
   
• Congress created this problem when it narrowed §1983—and Congress can fix it with four words.
  Simply expanding §1983 to cover abuses “under color of any Federal … law” restores the remedy people had in 1871 and were meant to have all along.
   
• This is not “partisan.”
  Every administration—past, present, and future—can exploit this loophole.
  If you think your political tribe is safe, you are wrong. The tide always turns.
   
• Fixing this doesn’t create double lawsuits.
  Courts already prevent duplicate litigation. The fix merely restores accountability for federal abuses that currently face zero consequence.
   
• We’re living in a constitutional crisis—but it’s 100% fixable.
  Congress just has to do its job.
   

Scroll down and tell your Senators and House Representatives to fix §1983.
Make this the first thing on their minds every morning.
Demand accountability. Protect your rights. Protect future generations.

 For decades, the United States has lived with a civil-rights accountability gap so deep and so dangerous that most people don’t even realize it exists—until it is too late. We see the symptoms now in the violent ICE and Border Patrol raids terrorizing immigrant communities, but the underlying problem has been festering across all forms of policing for generations. What looks like a modern crisis is actually the predictable result of a legal loophole that lets government officers violate your rights without any meaningful consequence.

The loophole exists because 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the civil-rights statute we rely on to sue police and government officials, only applies to those acting “under color of state law.” When the Supreme Court created the Bivens cause of action in 1971—allowing people to sue federal officers directly under the Constitution—it was supposed to fill the gap. Instead, the Court has spent 50 years dismantling Bivens until almost nothing remains. Today, in most circuits, if a federal officer violates your rights, you simply cannot sue them at all.

And now, federal task forces have learned to weaponize this gap.

Local police departments routinely “cross-deputize” their officers as federal agents—sometimes with little more than a one-page form—and courts treat those officers not as state actors but as federal ones. That means the very same local cops you see on your street can step outside state law, step outside state constitutional limits, and step outside state accountability—simply by invoking federal authority when convenient.

The result is law enforcement with federal power and zero federal accountability.

This is not theoretical. We have living examples:

A Michigan college student mugged by plain-clothes officers who never identified themselves—then charged with felonies after surviving a beating so severe bystanders called 911 thinking they were witnessing a murder. When James tried to sue, the federal government argued he couldn’t sue anyone: not the FBI agent, not the local cop deputized as a U.S. Marshal. They argued he had no remedy at all.

A teenage Somali refugee framed by a St. Paul police officer cross-deputized as a federal marshal. Hamdi spent two years in federal prison for a crime that never existed. Courts have repeatedly acknowledged that the officer fabricated evidence—but because she was acting “as a federal officer,” they have held that Hamdi may be entirely barred from suing her.

Families zip-tied, doors kicked in, flash-bang grenades thrown into living rooms, children dragged into the cold in diapers, and a helicopter hovering overhead—all for a raid that ultimately produced zero criminal charges. Residents were beaten, detained without cause, and deported despite having no gang affiliation and no criminal history. And because these were federal officers, victims have almost no path to sue for the violations of their rights.

This loophole doesn’t care about your race, your citizenship, your politics, or your income. It doesn’t matter if you own a home, have a degree, or have “nothing to hide.” If you are in the wrong place when a federal task force—or a local officer wearing a federal hat—decides you're a target, your rights can be violated and you may have no remedy.

This is not a partisan issue. It doesn’t matter whether you trust this administration or fear the next one. The power we leave unchecked today will be weaponized tomorrow. And the truth is simple:

Congress created § 1983. Congress can fix § 1983.

All it takes is adding four words:

“under color of any Federal, State, or Territorial law”

That one change would restore what Americans reasonably believe already exists:
That any government agent who violates your constitutional rights can be held accountable in court.

Not with special privileges.
Not with loopholes.
Not with excuses.

Accountability — the bare minimum in a free society.

Congress could close this loophole tomorrow. And if enough of us demand it, they will. Because the alternative is the system we have now:

RIGHTS without REMEDIES, LAW without ACCOUNTABILITY, and a GOVERNMENT that can mistreat you with impunity.

We don’t have to accept that.
And we don’t have to live with it.
Not anymore.