John,

Mahmoud Khalil is still illegally detained, and since his abduction the Trump administration has been detaining and deporting even more immigrants, including students, professors, and workers with valid visas and permanent residency status.

Trump’s administration has:

• Deported Dr. Rasha Alawieh in violation of a judge’s orders. The Brown University professor was blocked from re-entering the U.S. after visiting family in Lebanon.¹

• Kidnapped Rumeysa Ozturk, a PhD student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, taking her to Louisiana in violation of a judge’s orders.² Surveillance video shows masked, plainclothes ICE agents surrounding and handcuffing her in broad daylight before putting her in an unmarked car.

• Revoked the student visa of Ranjani Srinivasan—a Fulbright scholar pursuing a PhD at Columbia University—and Badar Khan Suri, a PhD student and teacher at Georgetown University whose wife is a U.S. citizen.^3,4 Badar is still detained and Ranjani fled the country in fear after ICE came to the student’s home.

• Took and tortured Fabian Schmidt, a permanent resident who’s lived here for 17 years, as he returned from a trip abroad.⁵

• Held Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian with a valid U.S. work visa, for two weeks in “freezing-cold jail cells” with no explanation.⁶

• Tried to deport two brave students who are now suing the Trump administration: permanent resident Yunseo Chung and visa-holder Momodou Taal.

• Deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador’s notorious torture prisons, in violation of multiple judges’ orders.⁷ A brother, father, and husband of U.S. citizens, Abrego Garcia had protected status that prevented him from being sent to his home country of El Salvador, where he could face persecution. ICE admitted to what they called an “administrative error,” but oppose his return to his family.

None of these people have been accused of any crime in association with deportation. Regardless of immigration status, all residents of the United States have constitutional rights like the right to free speech and the right to due process.

Due process protections are meant to block arrests if agents don’t have reasonable suspicion of a crime. Due process requirements include proper notice of an immigration hearing, the ability to advocate and present evidence on one’s behalf in court, the right to a neutral rather than partisan judge, and the right to legal counsel in deportation proceedings.

Trump’s administration is testing out anti-democratic power grabs and violating our due process rights. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he’s monitoring student visa holders’ social media posts and aiming to deport people who criticize the U.S. government. Then they might come for anyone who criticizes Trump, including citizens. We must stop this fascist repression immediately and make sure it doesn’t spread even further.

Please sign to tell Congress, federal courts, and the U.S. Marshals Service: Defend our due process rights from Trump’s attacks, and do your duty to prevent the president’s fascist repression NOW.

Trump keeps violating court orders, including an order to block his deportations of hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador’s notorious torture prisons without any due process. He even threatened to impeach the judge who issued that order. These unprecedented actions undermine one of the most fundamental principles of our democracy: the constitutionally mandated system of checks and balances between branches of government.

The judicial branch (courts) is an important check on the legislative branch (Congress) and executive (president) branch of government. Congress and judges act as checks to presidents’ power. When federal judges block Trump’s unconstitutional actions, they’re doing their duty and their job.

The U.S. Marshals Service is the group designated to enforce federal court orders. Unfortunately, the U.S. Marshals Service reports not only to the courts, but also to Trump’s Department of Justice. Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi has openly defied court orders, lying to the public by claiming that it’s unconstitutional for judges to block Trump’s (illegal) actions. The opposite is true.

If the fascists in power can violate court orders and laws without consequences now, they will come for others, including people speaking out for lifesaving services like Medicaid, people advocating against police brutality, and others who are exercising their free speech rights.

Already, Customs and Border Patrol has denied entry and even detained numerous tourists after checking their phones and finding criticism of Trump—prompting countries like Germany and the UK to issue travel warnings about the United States. And the Department of Homeland Security emailed hundreds of students with visas, stating that their visas have been revoked and threatening them with deportation to countries other than their country of origin.⁸

The time is NOW to speak up and demand all branches of our federal government stop Trump’s fascist attacks and defend our fundamental rights.

Sign to demand the U.S. Marshals Service, federal courts, and Congress act as necessary checks to stop Trump’s fascist violations of the Constitution and defend the constitutional right to due process.

Thank you. Together, we will keep standing up for our rights. As a daughter of immigrants and former immigration lawyer, I will also keep demanding the human right to freedom of movement and pushing for a humane immigration system with real pathways to citizenship.

To our immigrant neighbors: Please know we see you and we will fight to protect you. You deserve to live with dignity and respect in the place you’ve lived and worked for years.

Remember you have rights no matter your immigration status. If an immigration agent comes to talk to you or knock on your door, don’t answer the questions or open the door. ICE has no right to enter your home without a valid warrant signed by a judge, and you have the right to remain silent and to ask for a lawyer. You don’t have to sign anything or hand anything over.

Don’t forget the importance of grassroots pressure: It’s always the people who shift oppressive systems and get us closer to the society we deserve. Change doesn’t start inside the halls of power; the people make it possible.

With you in this fight,

Rashida

1. White House ignores court and invokes Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of Venezuelans
2. “Kidnapped”: 1,000+ Protest After Masked ICE Agents Abduct Tufts Ph.D. Student Rumeysa Ozturk
3. Another Columbia student targeted by ICE says she wasn’t involved in protests
4. Trump is seeking to deport another academic who is legally in the country, lawsuit says
5. Trump Administration’s Latest Kidnapping Victim Being Held at Wyatt
6. I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped.
7. Maryland father sues U.S. officials after being deported to El Salvador prison
8. Hundreds of international students wake up to an email asking them to self deport for campus activism