TRUMP ABDUCTS MARYLAND DAD AND SPOUSE OF U.S. CITIZEN WITH PROTECTED STATUS
The Trump administration continues to escalate its ruthless effort to expel immigrants, abducting a Maryland dad and sending him to a Salvadoran mega-prison even though he was granted protected status by a federal judge under Trump’s first administration. In deporting Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the husband of a U.S. citizen and dad of a disabled U.S. citizen child, the administration didn’t follow any process or respect his due process rights. It simply disappeared him from his home and community. But despite the administration admitting that the father was wrongfully deported thousands of miles away, U.S. officials are refusing to bring him back and reunite him with his loved ones. It’s a stark reminder of why due process is no mere technicality, as America’s Voice Legal Advisor David Leopold reminds in his recent Washington Post op-ed. “It mandates that no individual, including noncitizens in the United States, be deprived of life, liberty or property without a fair and just process. It is enshrined in the Constitution as a safeguard against arbitrary executive power … The Trump administration has used its first few months to target the due process rights of immigrants. If left unchecked, its efforts will threaten the broader rights and liberties of us all.” Read more here.
REP. TAKANO: INVOCATION OF 1798 WARTIME ACT ‘IS A RELIC OF FEAR BORN OF SOME OF OUR WORST IMPULSES’
On Thursday, AV hosted a virtual press event as part of its broader “At What Cost” campaign, focusing on the 1798 wartime act and its wrongful invocation by the Trump administration. Experts also centered on Trump’s request for an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, which seeks to overturn a decision by Judge James Boasberg that blocked further deportations under the act, emphasizing how despite being designed for wartime situations, it’s being wrongly invoked to deport vulnerable populations. The event featured Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA); Naureen Shah, Director of Government Affairs, Equality Division at the ACLU; Bill Ong Hing, Professor of Law and Migration Studies, University of San Francisco; David Leopold, Chair of the Immigration Practice at UB Greensfelder LLC and America’s Voice Legal Advisor; and America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. In his powerful remarks, Rep. Takano said that the 1798 wartime act “cloaks itself as an important way to protect Americans, but in reality it is a relic of fear born of some of our worst impulses. My family’s story is not just history—it is a warning of how dangerous this act can be. When the government casts aside due process and targets communities based on fear rather than fact, the consequences are devastating. It starts with non-citizens, but it never ends there.” Read more here.
TRUMP’S DUE PROCESS ATTACKS THREATEN THE FREEDOMS OF ALL AMERICANS
Compare and contrast David Leopold’s recent op-ed defending due process rights with recent remarks from White House advisor and anti-immigrant architect Stephen Miller. As Leopold reminded in his must-read op-ed, those being detained and potentially or actually deported by the administration include graduate students protesting about Gaza and supposed gang members who, as Leopold writes, have actually turned out to be a makeup artist, a professional soccer player, and asylum seekers seeking better lives here. But in despicable comments this past weekend, Miller tweeted that “if every foreign trespasser gets to have their own federal trial prior to removal then there is no liberation. There is no restoration. The invasion will be made complete.” Restoration to what? As Vanessa Cárdenas told the New York Times this weekend about the Trump administration’s different treatment of white Afrikaner refugees compared to other refugee populations: “There’s no subtext and nothing subtle about the way this administration’s immigration and refugee policy has obvious racial and racist overtones … While they seek to single out Afrikaners for special treatment, they simultaneously want us to think mostly Black and brown vetted newcomers are dangerous despite their background checks and all evidence to the contrary.” Read more here.
TRUMP-GENERATED CRISIS HERE. HOW DO WE RESPOND?
In her weekly column, America’s Voice consultant Maribel Hastings writes that the barrage of extreme and even unconstitutional executive orders from Trump are meant to overwhelm us. “Perhaps that’s why a large segment of the country doesn’t realize the dangerous and historic moment we are facing. How anti-immigrant policies, and removing people from the country without due process, are just the tip of the iceberg, colliding directly with everyone’s individual liberties — undocumented people and citizens alike.” In recent days, Trump has even claimed that he’s exploring “loopholes” in order to unlawfully stay in power for a third, unconstitutional presidential term. “Those who still believe that we are not descending into a dangerous spiral do not seem to understand what is happening,” she continues. “Trump is implementing the extremist Project 2025 of the Heritage Foundation, which many categorized as ‘fake’ or ‘an exaggeration.’” Many of these proposals are already in progress or are on the horizon, Hastings says. “This is already happening. The crisis is among us. The question is how the U.S. population will respond.” 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.
JAPANESE AMERICAN SURVIVORS OF U.S. INTERNMENT CAMPS WARN ‘HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF’
Japanese American communities are warning that “history is repeating itself” following Trump’s invocation of 1798 wartime law to help carry out his mass detention and deportation agenda. Not only is his unlawful proclamation a dangerous expansion of executive power – no president has ever sought to use this law in this manner until now – the 1789 wartime act was used as the basis to justify the internment of Japanese Americans in U.S. internment camps during WWII. During a press event in L.A.’s Little Tokyo, Kyoko Oda, president of the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition and a survivor of the Tule Lake Segregation Center, “reflected on the fear immigrant families experienced being separated,” The Orange County Register reported. “I hate the fear that is rampant, hurting people just like in (the 1940s),” she said. “I oppose the [1798 act] because it reopens deep wounds and inflicts new ones.” Experts and advocates further warned that the administration’s expanded immigration crackdown is just the tip of a very dangerous spear aimed at the heart of American democracy and the freedoms of all Americans. “We’re no longer in the place where we’re bracing,” said Asian Law Caucus’ Carl Takei, a speaker at a press event in San Francisco’s Japantown. “This is the point where fundamental aspects of our freedoms are very clearly at risk.” Read more here.
LEADERS ARE STANDING UP FOR MARYLAND DAD AND DUE PROCESS
Numerous leaders are standing up for Maryland dad Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and condemning the Trump administration’s attacks on the due process rights of all individuals here. “This is a blatant violation of Due Process and the U.S. Constitution, which still governs here,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). “And he was not your only ‘error.’” We cannot let Trump dismantle our rights and freedoms. Click here to watch and share our video standing with Maryland dad Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.
YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS
On César Chávez Day, 5,000 union members, community members, and allies gathered in Delano to honor the late United Farm Workers (UFW) leader and to march in solidarity with immigrant workers. “Con Estas Manos / With These Hands” highlighted the importance of immigrant workers and was the largest mobilization of union workers on behalf of immigrant rights so far this year, UFW said. Speakers stressed the need to honor the legacy of César Chávez by standing in solidarity with the essential workers who feed us, and ensuring the protection, dignity, and rights of all workers who keep vital industries alive and have been critical to our economy’s growth. At least half of the nation’s roughly 2.4 million farmworkers are estimated to lack legal immigration status. In California, that number could be as high as 75%. Among attendees was California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who shared his personal connection to the march and union rights. “Being here is like coming home for me,” he said. “I grew up with my parents working for United Farm Workers, and I know the fight is not about the grapes or the lettuce, but it’s about the people.” Chávez’s son, Paul, said that his dad “showed us that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things. His life serves as a blueprint for change, demonstrating that when we organize, persist, and stand together, we win.” Read more here.
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