PFAW Member,
As we continue to celebrate Independence Day this holiday weekend, it's shocking to see the vision Trump Republicans have for America.
Trump's America is one that has turned its back on our nation's long and rich immigrant history at every opportunity – choosing instead to lock up children and families in cages and force them to endure squalid living conditions. This brutality towards immigrants is not only standard procedure for Trump; it's quickly becoming official Republican immigration policy as few in his party are willing to condemn the administration's actions or lift a finger to do anything about them.
Thankfully, we still have patriots like the thousands of people – including hundreds of PFAW supporters – who showed us what democracy and the American Way look like when they rallied this past Tuesday in at least 175 cities across the country to stand up to the administration's abhorrent treatment of immigrants – even if some of their members of Congress won't.
Here are some other important updates on the work that your amazing support continues to make possible:
SCOTUS Hands Down Its Decisions on the Census and Gerrymandering
We're fighting hard against the Republican effort to weaponize the 2020 census and drive immigrant communities further into the shadows by blocking their attempt to require respondents to disclose their citizenship status.
Despite the Supreme Court rejecting the Trump administration's rationale for including the citizenship question on the Census, the administration has since responded in a ruthless manner, first with the Commerce Department and DOJ stating they would abandon their legal battle to get the citizenship question on the census and begin printing census questionnaires without the question; only to later be undercut by Trump who assured the administration would proceed by exploring all options to include the question in the Census, including potentially issuing an executive order.
While PFAW members who had called in to our Supreme Court end-of-term telebriefing featuring Senate Judiciary Committee member, Senator Richard Blumenthal, on Tuesday were among the first people to hear that the government was going to abandon plans to include the question, the future of this hard fought battle remains unclear.
PFAW and our members will continue fighting hard to mobilize grassroots opposition to this attack on our democracy and we'll keep fighting for a fair census.
While we await the final outcome on the Census, on the question of gerrymandering, we got an unmitigatedly bad decision. The Supreme Court, thanks to the addition of Justice Kavanaugh to the conservative bloc, gave the green light to partisan gerrymandering – no matter how extreme or anti-democratic. This makes our work to elect progressive majorities in state legislatures all the more urgent, since the party that controls state legislative majorities following Election 2020 will control the redistricting process for districts that will last for the following 10 years! And we know how eager Republicans are to abuse this power to rig the game to their advantage – now with the blessing of the 5-justice right-wing majority on the Supreme Court.
PFAW's work to build progressive power from the ground up and have a major impact in state legislative races will be on full display this fall in Virginia, where the balance of power in the General Assembly can be tipped from red to blue by flipping just TWO SEATS in each chamber.
Vote the Courts 2020 & Taking Back the Senate
We already have staff on the ground in the early presidential caucus states of Nevada and Iowa, where we're making sure the issue of the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary stays front and center among the Democratic presidential hopefuls. (Iowa also has one of our top-tier Senate races with vulnerable Joni Ernst on the ballot.)
We're mobilizing volunteers on the ground to keep asking presidential candidates about their views on the importance of the courts and we're also waging campaigns to hold accountable the GOP senators who have enabled Trump and Mitch McConnell's assault on our federal judiciary at every turn.
Right Wing Watch
For those who have read PFAW's Right Wing Watch for years, the horrific treatment of immigrants at the hands of the Trump administration is shocking, but sadly not surprising. It's outrageous that such human rights abuses could be committed on our soil, by our government, in our name, but nativism and anti-immigrant hate have festered and grown on the Far Right a long time. Trump didn't create the problem. He's the result of it.
Netroots Nation
PFAW's experts will be in Philadelphia next week for the annual Netroots Nation gathering of progressive activists.
- Right Wing Watch editor Adele Stan will add her remarkable insight to a panel discussion on the U.S. Right and the Rise of Authoritarianism Around the World.
- Political Director, Lizet Ocampo will be moderating a panel about young women of color winning elections, where panelists will discuss the role that racism and sexism played throughout their elections.
- PFAW's Senior Director of Outreach and Partner Engagement, Diallo Brooks, will be joining a panel discussion on how progressives can transform the courts and win in 2020.
While we reflect on the significance of our nation's independence and Americans' freedoms and rights this holiday weekend, let us continue to prepare for the fights that lay ahead of us and those we've currently yet to win.
Thank you for standing beside us and for all that you do.
Best,
Michael Keegan, President
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