Donald Trump’s abuses of power will not go unchecked.

I recently got back from Louisiana, where I visited the ICE detention center where Rümeysa Öztürk — one of my constituents — and Mahmoud Khalil are being unjustly detained.

It was a physically and emotionally grueling and depleting day. However, it has only strengthened my resolve to fight for Mahmoud, Rümeysa, and all who are there who question if God has forgotten about them, if the world has forgotten about them. We will not. We cannot.

This past week has also taught me that no one is safe from Donald Trump’s dictatorship:

First, they started going after student protestors like Rümeysa. All she did was write an op-ed the administration didn’t like, but by making baseless claims that she was supporting terrorists, they revoked her student visa.

They’re also randomly abducting hundreds of Latino men. One of them is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland dad who they admitted to deporting by mistake.

I’m not going to mince words here: Kilmar was not just deported. He was sent to a gulag in El Salvador.

Let me be clear. No part of this is legal.

Trump was even recently caught on a hot mic saying, “homegrowns are next.”

And when the White House Press Secretary was asked if they’ll deport American citizens, she didn’t deny it.

Look, I’m not amplifying this to be an alarmist but, because this is not normal.

If you’re seeing this news unfold and thinking, “Am I going crazy?” You’re not, and we need to keep loudly objecting to this.

We need to keep calling Republicans in Congress, continuing to raise the alarm.

Because any one of us could be next. For practicing free speech. For reading a banned book. For having a miscarriage. For being Black. For being gay. For being trans.

Our freedoms and our destinies are tied. We’re seeing it play out in real time. Now’s our time to lock arms with one another and stand firm against the cruelty of this administration.

We will leverage every single avenue and tool available to us — we will be exhaustive.

So I am ten toes down, fighting for my district and this country every day. You deserve someone who fights for you in Washington like you are family — because you are.

My visit to Louisiana was not about optics, but about oversight and accountability. We're sending a message to Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their Republican co-conspirators that Congress is watching, and we will not allow these abuses of power to go unchecked.

To amplify our message and to fuel our resistance, please chip in $25 or any amount if you can today. This campaign relies on small-dollar grassroots donors like you, and you make it stronger.

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Onward,

Ayanna