SUPPRESSING FREE SPEECH: THE LARGER, CHILLING SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MAHMOUD KHALIL CASE
The Trump administration’s alarming arrest and detention of Columbia University Palestinian activist and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil raises several troubling, larger implications. Notably, the Trump administration’s effort to deport Khalil rests solely on a determination by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “No judge. No jury. Just Marco Rubio,” said America’s Voice legal advisor David Leopold. Details of the case further highlight the administration’s plan to “use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress” free speech, as Khalil’s attorney said, with “border czar” Tom Homan flatly stating that ICE will “absolutely” target green holders. This has chilling implications that impact the freedoms that we all hold dear. “Whether or not you agree with Mr. Khalil’s opinions, the troubling question is if he can be deported based on an arcane Cold War era law, then who is next?” Leopold continues. “A green card holder protesting global warming, access to healthcare, or reproductive rights? Or simply a noncitizen who opposes a Trump policy? Nor should those of us who are U.S. citizens take comfort in our legal privilege. If the Trump administration normalizes what it’s doing to Khalil it will succeed in chilling the speech of all Americans.” Read more here.
WIDENING THE NET TO DEPORT THEM ALL
It’s not only the chilling arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil. The Trump administration has intensified its unsparing detentions and deportations in order to lay the groundwork for broader random mass purging and continued attacks on our values, including resurrecting cruel and unnecessary family detention, targeting tourists, replacing the CBP One app with a “Self-Deportation” app, and, contrary to claims that the “worst of the worst” are being targeted, going after law-abiding immigrant neighbors – including their U.S. citizen children. NBC News reports that a U.S. citizen child recovering from brain cancer was deported to Mexico along with her undocumented parents – who had no criminal record – and several of her U.S. citizen siblings. The administration’s “escalating and extreme actions include their relentless effort to purge immigrants, block refugees, and sow fear, but also include the use of the unchecked executive power of the state to wield immigration law and related threats as a weapon to chill dissent and free speech,” said AV Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. “This ever widening net of who might be targeted is by design. Fear and cruelty, as always, are the point.” Read more here.
TRUMP’S ‘INVASION’ ASSERTION IS A ‘LEGALLY AND FACTUALLY UNFOUNDED’ CONSPIRACY
This week, leading Senate and House Democrats joined with the ACLU and the Brennan Center for Justice to issue a letter to Trump condemning his administration’s reliance on the “legally and factually unfounded” and dangerous “invasion” conspiracy theory as the justification to trample on “civil liberties and the constitutional separation of powers” and to advance the administration’s extreme immigration agenda. As NBC News reported, the letter “could be a precursor to legal action” and notes that an “invasion” under the Constitution requires armed hostility by another state or foreign country. “The United States is not being invaded, it is not at war with migrants, and you must uphold our duly-enacted immigration laws,” the letter states. “Let’s be clear that those truly threatening our democracy and orchestrating political violence are not immigrants,” commented Cárdenas, “but the ascendant right-wing movement that has embraced white nationalism and nativism to remake America in the MAGA image, all while trampling on core American democratic values, our civil liberties, the peaceful transfer of power, and even the Constitution.” Read more here.
TRUMP’S RELENTLESS ATTACKS AGAINST – EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE
In her weekly column, America’s Voice consultant Maribel Hastings writes that Trump’s second administration truly gives no respite. “Each day is a new attack against something or someone. And the worst part is that U.S. Americans, including those who voted for him and are now affected by his policies, are practically paralyzed not knowing how to respond, or simply taking this serious threat too lightly despite Trump’s obvious autocratic leanings.” She writes that the alarming arrest of an activist for his free speech echoes the McCarthyism of the last century, with critics noting that his threatened deportation strikes at the very heart of freedom of speech and assembly. “And his policies to raise tariffs on products from his main trading partners, Canada and Mexico, have contributed to the stock market tanking and threats of a recession,” Hastings concludes. “Trump is, without a doubt, a dangerous, destabilizing agent who gives no respite.” Her column was also published in several outlets, including La Opinión, Radio Bilingüe, and La Tribuna Hispana. Read her column in English here and Spanish here.
CRUEL AND UNNECESSARY FAMILY DETENTION WILL BE A BOON FOR PRIVATE PRISON CEOs
The reimplementation of migrant family detention by the Trump administration means more cruelty — and more money for private prisons. Under the resurrection of the practice – which is already in action in Texas – prison companies and corporate executives that donated big sums to help reelect Trump are already being rewarded with massive federal contracts. CoreCivic’s president, for example, gave $300,000 to a joint fundraising committee between the Trump campaign and the RNC. Now following Trump’s return to power, CoreCivic has won a federal contract worth $180 million to detain families for ICE. The Biden administration did the right thing by ending family detention, a costly and unnecessary practice that has been condemned as “cruel and inhumane” for exposing kids and parents who had the courage to seek out better lives to abuses and subpar conditions that no mom or dad would want for their child. There are cheaper and far more humane alternatives to detention. But those do nothing to benefit top GOP donors. Private prisons and their top executives will now get to fill their pockets — and children will pay the price. Read more here.
TRUMP’S ESCALATION
The Trump administration continues to intensify its ugly attacks on immigrants and refugees – just look at some of the headlines. We cannot let cruelty win. Click here to watch and share our video and help defend immigrant and refugee communities.
YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS
This week saw developments in the ongoing DACA case as well as policy changes that affect the lives of many Dreamers. On the legal front, the 5th Circuit’s January decision regarding DACA is now in effect. According to UWD, this ruling would mandate first-time applications be adjudicated across all 50 states. However, another part of that ruling would also remove work permits from Texas DACA recipients. But as of right now, the administration has issued no guidance and the case must still go back to Judge Hanen to determine when and how it takes effect. “We are waiting to see how the Trump admin will respond,” UWD said, and urged beneficiaries and prospective applicants to talk to a lawyer first. Read more here. This week, the administration also proposed a rule that strikes a blow to public health and harms communities by rolling back DACA recipients’ ACA coverage. “This cruel attempt to undo a hard-won victory for immigrant youth would reimpose unnecessary obstacles that for years kept DACA recipients disproportionately uninsured, preventing many of them from getting lifesaving medical care,” said NILC president Kica Matos. “As the counsel for DACA recipients and organizations in Kansas v. United States, we are carefully evaluating how this proposed rule will impact ongoing litigation. But make no mistake: we remain steadfast in our commitment to our clients.” Read more here.
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