Rep. Pressley Introduces Legislation to Strip Qualified Immunity from ICE and Border Patrol Agents

Courts granted qualified immunity in 54% of federal appeals and denied it in 26% — across 5,500+ cases over 11 years

Governments paid approximately 99.98% of all dollars recovered by plaintiffs in civil rights lawsuits against police — individual officers contributed almost nothing

The median qualified immunity lawsuit lasts 3 years and 2 months — 23% longer than a typical federal civil appeal — and the doctrine generates an estimated 2,000 extra appeals nationwide

From 1982 to 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on qualified immunity in 30 cases — plaintiffs prevailed in only 2

H.R. 7046 was introduced January 13, 2026, with 9 cosponsors — all Democrats — while a competing Senate bill, S.122, would move in the opposite direction and codify qualified immunity into statute