Civil asset forfeiture is a grotesque civil rights abuse that permits local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to seize money and other assets from citizens without so much as a shred of evidence demonstrating that the seized assets were the product of or used in the furtherance of a crime. One need not be charged with a crime to have their cash seized by law enforcement during a traffic stop or at an airport, and most citizens who find themselves deprived of the property are never charged with any crime. Lower income people are disproportionately affected, and a growing body of research suggests that that practice has little to no impact on crime. Civil asset forfeiture is big business, with state and federal government agencies seizing nearly $70 billion between 2000 and 2020.

Several states have outlawed or significantly curtailed civil asset forfeiture only to see the federal government play a game of three card monte where the cash is turned over to a federal agency which then remits a portion of the ill-gotten funds to the seizing agency in a so-called “equitable sharing” scheme. When the public engage in such slight of hand its called money laundering, structuring, fraud, or racketeering. When the federal government does it, it’s a legal if patently unconstitutional affront to the presumption of innocence; the right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects from unreasonable searches and seizures; and to our constitutionally guaranteed right to substantive and procedural due process.Representatives Raskin (D-MD) and Walberg (R-MI) have recently introduced H.R. 1525, the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act (F.A.I.R.), to reform civil asset forfeiture. This important legislation would eliminate the perverse “policing for profit” incentives permitted under existing law while making other changes to federal civil asset forfeiture that would prohibit administrative seizures in favor of judicial forfeitures. The legislation would level the playing field for citizens by ensuring access to legal counsel for those whose property has been seized.

Civil asset forfeiture is a shameful practice for which there is virtually no support outside of the law enforcement agencies that benefit from such seizures. It’s time to end the practice of policing for profit in America. I call on our congressional delegation to reach across the aisle in a bipartisan fashion to support H.R. 1525 to put an end to this legalized government theft.

-Matthew A. Williams

26478 GA-3

Ochlocknee, Georgia 31773