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FROM CDT'S CEO  

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Friends,

Like all of you I’ve been horrified by the violence perpetrated against Minnesotans in recent days, and I wanted to reach out to you directly to share how CDT is thinking about this critical moment.

Since the beginning of January, ICE agents in Minnesota have shot and killed two people who were observing the activities of federal officials ostensibly conducting public business. 

To be perfectly clear: the right to record law enforcement activity is unambiguously protected by our Constitution. It’s one of the plainest examples of the First Amendment’s most essential principles that people in the U.S. need to be able to document, share, and discuss incidents of government overreach and abuse. Federal government officials’ and others’ attempts to lie about the circumstances surrounding the killings, assaults, and arrests of legal observers do not change that fact — they only underscore the Constitutional violation.

But that’s not where the threats to the Constitution end.

In what state officials have described as a “ransom note,” the Department of Justice over the weekend reissued demands for full access to Minnesota’s records on Medicaid, Food and Nutrition Service programs (including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)), and voter rolls containing the most sensitive forms of voters’ private data. Since the earliest days of this administration, CDT has been deeply engaged in pushing back against the consolidation and misuse of data that people entrust to the government. This demand, part of an overblown and misleading claim of widespread entitlement and voter fraud, is an unambiguous attempt to strongarm states into giving up more data about their residents and fits with a longer pattern of efforts to weaponize claims of fraud and waste to hoover up additional information about beneficiaries and disenfranchise eligible voters.

At the same time, ICE is asserting dangerously broad ([link removed]) authority to conduct stops with little to no cause, and even search people’s homes and businesses without a warrant. The administration is pursuing criminal investigations and data demands against politicians who speak out against ICE, and using threats of surveillance and investigation to intimidate observers ([link removed]). The agency has dramatically increased its use of invasive, unvetted, and likely error-prone ([link removed]) facial recognition tools like Mobile Fortify in ways that will chill and endanger people participating in constitutionally protected protests. There’s far too much we don’t know about these tools — although we do know ICE is using them in a uniquely reckless manner ([link removed]) — and Americans deserve clear answers on the use of biometrics and other pervasive surveillance tools. Again, the administration’s refusal to provide transparency only heightens the danger posed to our rights.

At this point it’s clear that ICE cannot be trusted to respect, let alone protect, the most essential rights guaranteed by the Constitution, rights that are the safeguards for our democracy and its people. Its partner in immigration-related abuse, Customs and Border Protection, must also be held to account ([link removed]) and reformed. On that basis CDT is joining with allies to urge Congress to reject further funding for ICE and for CBP without meaningful new oversight and controls.

This is a challenging time for all of us who care about our democracy and our rights. I’m grateful for your support and for the courage and conviction of people who are standing up for their beliefs in Minnesota and across the country.

With gratitude and commitment,

Alex

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