When the leader of a country threatens political opponents with criminal prosecution for simply doing what they were elected to do, that country is not a functioning democracy.

And that is exactly what is unfolding right here in the United States as we speak. Here’s what’s going on:

• During Donald Trump’s first term, immigration agents infamously carried out an inhumane policy of separating families and ripping babies out of the arms of their mothers. (As of January of this year, an estimated 1,000 families had still not been reunited.)

• In response, legislation was passed giving members of Congress the right to inspect federal immigration facilities — with or without advance notice.

• On May 9, three members of Congress — Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver, and Rob Menendez, all from New Jersey — visited a federal immigration facility near Newark to conduct just such an inspection.

• Again, these members of Congress were acting completely within their legal authority. Yet, numerous armed and masked agents from multiple immigration enforcement entities pointlessly and forcefully confronted the representatives, manhandling them and eventually even arresting Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, who was also trying to tour the facility.

• Then, on May 19, the United States Department of Justice — which is supposed to be independent and politically neutral, but which has been weaponized under the direction of MAGA lunatic and Trump loyalist Pam Bondi — filed charges against Rep. McIver over the visit.

• Bizarrely, the charges were announced not through any official channel but via a post by acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba — yet another Trump sycophant who has been given a high-level job in the DOJ — on X, the “social media” platform known as Twitter until Elon Musk bought it and ran it into the ground.

• Habba — who is evidently unfamiliar with the concept of irony — said, “No one is above the law — politicians or otherwise.”

It should go without saying, but to be crystal clear:

Threatening sitting members of Congress with prosecution for the “crime” of exercising their legal duties and opposing Trump’s unlawful deportations is a sign — a giant, flashing, blaring sign — that Trump’s fascistic impulses must be taken seriously and must be defeated.

To every member of Congress:

The Trump regime is threatening a sitting member of Congress with prosecution for the “crime” of exercising her legal duties and opposing Trump’s unlawful deportations. Each and every one of you should assert your legal authority and highlight the absurdity of the threat to one of your colleagues by visiting federal detention facilities all across America during next week’s congressional recess.

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For justice,

- Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen
 
 
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