Dispatches

BIDEN AND DEMOCRATS ARE ALREADY FIGHTING TRUMP’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION. Behind the scenes, President Joe Biden’s team has been preparing for his big final weeks in office, regardless of who won the 2024 election, Morgan Stephens noted at Daily Kos (11/11).

“The schedule will be robust and he plans to leave it all on the field,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt told NBC News in September.

During his speech to the nation Nov. 6, Biden addressed some of his administration’s final priorities, including a focus on infrastructure spending, which was a major legislative accomplishment of his presidency.

“We’re going to see over a trillion dollars’ worth of infrastructure work done, changing people’s lives in rural communities and communities that are in real difficulty,” the president said.

In addition to getting infrastructure projects off the ground before Trump takes office, White House advisers said Biden will also work to safeguard freedoms the president believes are under threat, strengthen global alliances, and take steps to reduce costs for Americans.

Getting the rest of the funds and weapons to Ukraine

The White House is working to get funds and weaponry into the hands of Ukrainians by January, according to CNN.

“Democrats in Congress have shared the administration’s concerns that any of the billions in aid to Ukraine that have already passed could be slow-walked or blocked if it isn’t entirely transferred to Ukraine by the time Trump is sworn in,” said the report.

Biden also is expected to move quickly to ensure Ukraine receives all of the $6 billion in security assistance before Trump has the power to stop equipment shipments, according to Politico. This would allow for all of the funding that has been approved through Congress to be sent off before Trump begins his term.

With Biden’s exit, the decision in June to give NATO more control over aid should prove beneficial to Ukraine’s ability to access weapons and funding if Trump were to halt it.

Creating legal protections for climate

Biden’s climate and environmental regulations, particularly those tied to the Inflation Reduction Act, are likely to face strong opposition from the incoming Trump administration. According to CNN, EPA Administrator Michael Regan highlighted that the agency has worked to make its pollution-reducing rules legally robust, with significant climate regulations finalized by April to avoid being overturned via the Congressional Review Act. (That’s what allowed Trump and Congressional Republicans to reverse Obama-era rules.)

As of October, Biden had allocated a vast majority, 92%, of the IRA budget. This means that the contents of the bill to support clean energy projects, pollution reduction, and climate-resilient efforts are underway.

Trump has threatened to rescind any unspent funding from the IRA. However, this is politically risky due to significant private investments flowing into Republican districts. Nearly 78% of investments in new electric vehicle factories and large wind/solar projects have gone to GOP-controlled areas, according to a CNN data analysis.

Appointing judges

As Democrats prepare for a likely Republican trifecta, Biden and Congress are prioritizing getting judicial nominees passed in their lame-duck session before Trump takes office, according to The New York Times. Around 30 nominees are already in progress.

A post-election session of the Senate was set to began Nov. 12, according to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “We are going to get as many done as we can,” Schumer said in a statement.

Some have even suggested that liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is 70, should step aside and allow Democrats to confirm a younger justice before Trump begins his second term, on Jan. 20. For instance, she could make her retirement contingent on the confirmation of her replacement. However, the window of opportunity to make this happen is closing swiftly.

Bonus: Blue-state governors fight back

Democratic governors are preparing to fight Trump. California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently said he’s taking the first step to protect the blue state by calling for a special legislative session.

Other Democratic governors are following suit.

“You come for my people, you come through me,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in a stern warning to Trump on Nov. 7, vowing to protect Illinoisans from Trump’s expected rollback of rights.

Washington Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson prepared for the Trump administration by reading the entire text of Project 2025, according to reporting from Washington State Standard. Ferguson is no stranger to litigating the Trump administration. He sued the Trump administration 100 times as attorney general during Trump’s first term, hitting the Republican on things like the Muslim ban, revoking student visas for international students, and environmental rollbacks.

“I pray that the things we’re talking about don’t come to pass. If this team never has to file a single lawsuit against the Trump administration, no one would be more happy than me,” Ferguson said. “But I’m not naive.”

UNIONS SAY BUILDING WORKER POWER IS ONLY WAY TO DEFEAT TRUMP’S FASCIST RIGHT. The largest labor unions in the United States are ready for a fight, Jake Johnson noted at Common Dreams (11/7).

That much was made clear within hours of Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, an outcome that will soon bring to power a former president who aggressively pursued anti-worker policies during his first four years in the White House despite posturing as an ally of rank-and-file union members.

For Shawn Fain, the fiery president of the United Auto Workers, the struggle for the nation’s working class in the wake of Trump’s victory is identical to the one it faced prior to the election: “unchecked corporate greed destroying our lives, our families, and our communities.”

“It’s the threat of companies like Stellantis, Mack Truck, and John Deere shipping jobs overseas to boost shareholder profits. It’s the threat of corporate America telling the working class to sit down and shut up,” said Fain, who led the UAW through a six-week strike last year that yielded historic contracts with the nation’s three largest car manufacturers.

“We’ve said all along that no matter who is in the White House, our fight remains the same,” Fain added. “The fight for a living wage, affordable healthcare, and time for our families continues. It’s time for Washington, D.C. to put up or shut up, no matter the party, no matter the candidate. Will our government stand with the working class, or keep doing the bidding of the billionaires? That’s the question we face today. And that’s the question we’ll face tomorrow. The answer lies with us. No matter who’s in office.”

While energized by recent victories, the U.S. labor movement is broadly in disrepair, battered by a decades-long corporate assault. Last year, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country’s union membership rate was just 10%, down from 20.1% in 1983.

Union members were hardly unified behind one candidate in the Nov. 5 election: Exit polling shows that members of union households backed Kamala Harris by a relatively narrow margin of 53% to Trump’s 45%.

But organized labor, weakened and divided as it is, still represents “the most promising and powerful tool to turn this all around,” journalist Hamilton Nolan wrote for In These Times (11/6).

Claude Cummings, president of the Communications Workers of America, said “corporate CEOs are intent on dividing us against each other so they can drive down wages and cut corners on safety to boost profits for big investors.”

“Now it is time to reunite around our shared values,” said Cummings. “No matter who is in office, our goals are always the same—to use our collective power to protect our rights, to improve our working conditions, and to give everyone an opportunity to have a union voice on the job.”

In the second Trump administration, unions are likely to face a billionaire-shaped government hostile to organized labor’s rights and aspirations for a more just and equitable society.

While no final decisions have been made, the Washington Post reported that Trump sees former fast-food executive Andrew Puzder—an enemy of unions and opponent of raising the minimum wage—as a top contender for the labor secretary post. Trump selected Puzder for the role in his first White House term, but Puzder withdrew his nomination in the face of bipartisan backlash.

The Post also reported that Trump intends to fire National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo—a champion of workers—on day one and “reverse wins for unions under Biden,” including “a 2023 landmark ruling that forces employers found using illegal tactics to fight labor organizing to recognize unions.” The NLRB ruling has provided a boost to unionization efforts.

PROGRESSIVE VOICES VOW ‘UNPRECEDENTED RESISTANCE’ TO TRUMP 2.0. As voters across the United States grappled with the results of the presidential election, progressive organizers expressed disappointment and devastation but said they were “clear-eyed” about the road ahead: one that will require solidarity and a major mobilization to counter the policies and attacks put forward by President-elect Donald Trump, Julia Conley noted at Common Dreams (11/8).

Anthony D. Romero, executive director of ACLU, did not mince words about the “clear and present danger” Trump poses to U.S. institutions and democratic norms, noting that GOP president-elect is “dead serious” about targeting “the ‘enemy within’—which, for Trump, means anyone who disagrees with him.”

The ACLU fully expects Trump to seek “retribution against his political opponents and deploying federal law enforcement to shut down protests and muzzle dissent,” but Romero emphasized that the 105-year-old organization has a long track record of defending freedom of speech and combating abuses of power, including during Trump’s first term.

“We filed 434 legal actions against the first Trump administration, often winning landmark cases before Trump-appointed judges,” said Romero. “One week into Trump’s presidency, we were the first organization to challenge his Muslim ban. And when the administration sought to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, the ACLU took that fight to the Supreme Court and won. Our litigation also stopped the inhumane practice of separating immigrant families.”

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), one of many groups that have warned a Trump victory would signal a disaster for the planet as scientists warn fossil fuel extraction must end immediately to limit planetary heating as much as possible, said the president-elect can expect to face “unprecedented resistance” from organizers.

“Trump 2.0 is going to get twice the fight from the protectors of our planet, wildlife, and basic human rights,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of CBD. “We’ve battled Trump from the border wall to the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and in many cases we’ve won. This country’s bedrock environmental laws stand strong. We’re more prepared than ever to block the disastrous Trump policies we know are coming.”

Romero and Suckling’s defiant tones were echoed by reproductive rights organizations that have spent the past two years fighting the nationwide effects of Trump’s first term, which resulted in the right-wing supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, clearing the way for 21 states to impose abortion bans and extreme restrictions that have had deadly consequences for at least four women.

Despite those bans, said Destiny Lopez, acting co-CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, “more than one million abortions occurred in the United States in 2023.”

“The anti-abortion movement, with Trump and [Vice President-elect JD] Vance’s support, are poised to ban every single abortion going forward,” said Lopez. “We’re clear-eyed about what’s coming. Guttmacher will meet this moment—alongside our state, national, and global partners—and mobilize all our resources to counter these attacks in pursuit of a strong, vibrant democracy that protects and upholds all of our rights.”

On Nov. 5, voters in seven of 10 states with abortion rights amendments on the ballot voted to protect reproductive freedom—initiatives that were strongly supported by groups such as the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR).

CRYPTO INDUSTRY’S $40 MILLION DEFEAT OF PRO-WORKER SEN. SHERROD BROWN CALLED ‘OBSCENE.’ The Republican Party’s capture of the U.S. Senate was made possible in part by massive spending from the nascent but increasingly influential cryptocurrency industry, which pumped more than $40 million into a successful effort to topple pro-worker progressive Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, in favor of luxury car dealer Bernie Moreno, Jake Johnson noted at Common Dreams (11/7).

Crypto industry spending helped make Ohio’s closely watched Senate race the most expensive in the state’s history. Moreno’s campaign was boosted by around $40.1 million from the super PAC Defend American Jobs—part of what OpenSecrets described as the “triad” of allied pro-crypto groups pouring cash into the 2024 election.

The Washington Post noted that Moreno “founded a blockchain firm called Ownum in 2018” and “has long immersed himself in blockchain technology, a registry of ownership that essentially underpins all cryptocurrency.”

A spokesman for Fairshake, another member of the crypto PAC triad, took credit for Moreno’s victory in a statement after the election was called in the Republican’s favor and condemned Brown’s support for regulating the industry. Fairshake received tens of millions of dollars in donations from the cryptocurrency exchange giant Coinbase—some of which may have been illegal spending, according to the watchdog group Public Citizen, given that the company is a federal contractor.

“Sherrod Brown was a top opponent of cryptocurrency and, thanks to our efforts, he will be leaving the Senate,” said Fairshake’s Josh Vlasto. “Senator-elect Moreno’s come-from-behind win shows that Ohio voters want a leader who prioritizes innovation.”

Crypto executive Tyler Winklevoss boasted in a social media post, “The crypto army is striking!”

“Sherrod Brown—crypto public enemy, Elizabeth Warren co-conspirator, and Gary Gensler crony—was just ousted by Bernie Moreno for Ohio Senate,” wrote Winklevoss, the co-founder of Gemini.

Labor reporter Steven Greenhouse wrote Nov. 6 that it is “obscene” that Brown lost his seat because “the billionaire-backed crypto industry donated $40 million to his right-wing opponent.”

“Sherrod Brown is one of the most pro-worker, pro-middle-class members of the U.S. Senate,” Greenhouse added. “He truly fights for workers.”

While the Ohio Senate contest was “the biggest single target of crypto money this cycle,” as CNBC put it, the industry spread its money widely, backing both Republicans and Democrats in races across the country—underscoring its attempt to gain influence over future regulatory fights in Congress.

Overall, crypto groups spent more than $130 million in support of candidates for federal office this cycle. A tracker created by the Stand With Crypto Alliance estimates that 263 “pro-crypto candidates” were elected to the House and 18 to the Senate Nov. 5.

Former President rump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris was also seen as a win for the industry, with Bitcoin’s price spiking to a new all-time high on Nov. 6. During his campaign, Trump vowed to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet.”

AFTER $16 BILLION ELECTION, NONPROFIT TRACKING MONEY IN POLITICS LAYS OFF 1/3 OF STAFF. Journalists and other critics of how money influences U.S. politics expressed alarm and disappointment in response to Friday reporting that shortly after the nation’s latest election, the research nonprofit OpenSecrets had to lay off a third of its staff, Jessica Corbett noted at Common Dreams (11/8).

Citing a current staffer, Politico’s Daniel Lippman revealed that OpenSecrets “laid off 10 employees ... due to financial difficulties” and “much of the research team were among the casualties, which constituted around a third of the group’s total headcount.”

According to the Politico Playbook, executive director Hilary Braseth wrote in an email to supporters that “OpenSecrets remains committed to its mission—serving as the trusted authority on money in American politics—but our task has become more difficult as groups have opted to fund a partisan outcome rather than nonpartisan democratic infrastructure.”

She said in a subsequent email to Playbook that the layoffs were “a necessary first step to make our organization sustainable,” and that she had “no doubt that our team will continue to produce the high-quality data that the public has come to rely on.”

With a mission “to serve as the trusted authority on money in American politics,” OpenSecrets envisions a country in which citizens “use data on money in politics to create a more vibrant, representative, and responsive democracy.”

In response to the layoffs, numerous reporters took to social media to share how they have used what National Public Radio media correspondent David Folkenflik calledthat “an invaluable resource for many a journalist and researcher—utterly nonpartisan but a source for transparency about money in politics now under financial threat.”

In an election-day analysis, OpenSecrets’ Albert Serna Jr. and Anna Massoglia detailed how about $16 billion “went to influence federal elections and another $4.6 billion was raised by state candidates, party committees, and ballot measure committees for 2023 and 2024 elections.”

The pair also highlighted Nov. 5 that this cycle “has broken the record for outside spending,” with about $4.5 billion from independent groups such as super political action committees; dark money accounted for over $1 billion in total contributions to organizations like super PACs; top donors had outsize influence; and donations to support or defeat various ballot measures have also set “several records.”

WALL STREET GIDDY OVER MERGER BOOM AS TRUMP EXPECTED TO FIRE LINA KHAN. Wall Street is “foaming at the mouth,” as one leading business magazine put it, at the prospect of a corporate merger frenzy following Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election—a win that’s set to spell the end of antitrust champion Lina Khan’s popular tenure at the helm of the Federal Trade Commission, Jake Johnson noted at Common Dreams (11/8).

Trump’s second administration, which is likely to be stacked with billionaires and corporate-friendly officials, is expected to take aim at merger and acquisition guidelines issued last year by Khan’s FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice after decades of relentless corporate consolidation.

David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at the Wall Street behemoth Goldman Sachs, predicted Nov. 8 that under Trump’s incoming administration, “the regulatory posture of the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division that during the past four years challenged many proposed business combinations will likely be more relaxed.”

That could result in a 20% increase in merger activity in the next year.

Raul Gutierrez, the head of mergers and acquisitions at the investment banking firm Truist Securities, echoed Kostin’s assessment, telling Bloomberg that “you should be able to see larger transactions move forward” under the incoming Trump administration.

“Some of these had been put on hold given the current antitrust stance,” said Gutierrez, “and I think you’ll see a greater willingness to test agencies out once the administration takes over.”

Khan’s term officially expired in late September, but she’s expected to stay on at the FTC until Trump is inaugurated in January and chooses a replacement. While Vice President-elect JD Vance has praised Khan, “Trump and his allies are likely to get rid of anyone associated with the Biden administration’s antitrust battles with the big Silicon Valley tech companies,” The New York Times reported.

US POSTAL WORKERS FIGHT MASSIVE SERVICE CUTS. Thousands of US Postal Service jobs are at stake under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s modernization plan, which would close 200 mail processing plants and funnel all mail to 60 mega-plants. Postal workers are organizing to stop the plan, Alexandra Bradbury noted at Labor Notes (10/30).

Workers are battling an overhaul of the US Postal Service (USPS) that would cost thousands of jobs and slow the mail for half the country.

In the name of efficiency, a letter mailed within Cheyenne, Wyo., would travel to Denver and back. And if you miss a package, your local post office would no longer have it. It might be 45 minutes away …

Postal workers are the nation’s biggest union workforce — 585,000 strong, split across four unions. They’re half women, 30% Black, and 16% veterans.

Thousands of their jobs are at stake under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year “Delivering for America” modernization plan, which would close 200 mail processing plants and funnel all mail to 60 mega-plants called regional processing and distribution centers (RPDCs), each with a football field–sized parcel sorting machine — a series of conveyor belts, scanners, and chutes that can sort five thousand packages an hour.

USPS is chasing its competitors Amazon, United Parcel Service (UPS), and FedEx, which already have bigger and more automated facilities like the UPS Worldport hub in Louisville, Ky., the size of 90 football fields, where a package touches human hands only twice — on its way in, and on its way out — traversing 13 minutes of conveyor belts in between. …

Wyoming has only two mail plants, and both are slated to be downgraded, so all the mail (and many of the jobs) will travel out of state to the nearest RPDC. It used to be that local mail could get there overnight, said mail handler Ricci Roberts, president of the Cheyenne branch of NPMHU Local 321.

Now it will take at least two days, but more likely three or four, she says, as letters travel to Denver and back. There will be no way to separate local mail, because her plant will lose its AFCS machine — the one that sorts raw letters, cancels the stamp, and adds the barcode, all at a speed of 36,000 items an hour. They’ll keep their DBCS machine, which sorts incoming mail (at a similar clip) to get it ready for carriers to deliver. …

The first RPDCs have already opened, with disastrous results. Machines malfunctioned; the plants were seriously understaffed; the schedule was chaos; managers had no idea what they were doing. Mail piled up, and on-time delivery rates plummeted.

Local news outlets and congressmembers sounded the alarm on mail delays. In Richmond, Virginia, colon cancer screening tests for 870 veterans sat so long in the plant that they expired. A museum reported it was missing $300,000 in membership renewal checks.

In Atlanta, trucks waited three or four hours for their turn at jammed loading docks; the line got so long it backed up onto the highway. In Houston, an anonymous worker tipped off the press that the new sorting machine wouldn’t fit in the new building.

USPS says these are just growing pains. But it has had to slow down, faced with protests and congressional pressure — especially over how mail delays could an election. In May, DeJoy announced he would pause any further plant consolidations until the new year. In September, USPS canceled the downgrading of another eight plants besides Buffalo.

GOP PREPARES TO SHRED RULES TO GIVE TRUMP HIS RADICAL CABINET. Donald Trump said he wants the Senate to allow him to make recess appointments, a constitutional provision that allows a president to circumvent the Senate’s advice and consent function to install his choices without a Senate vote, Emily Singer noted at Daily Kos (11/11).

“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” Trump wrote in a post on X (11/10). “Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!”

Trump shouldn’t need to do recess appointments.

First, recess appointments are supposed to be for temporary appointments, not full-blown Cabinet members, as Trump is demanding.

Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 67 that recess appointments should be “nothing more than a supplement… to make temporary appointments during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.’’

Second, Republicans will be in the majority when Trump is sworn in, with at least 52 votes. Senate nominees need a simple majority for confirmation, after the Senate nixed the filibuster for presidential nominees. Because of that, Republicans should be able to get Trump’s picks through—even with a few defections from their own party.

So the fact that Trump is demanding the Senate allow recess appointments is a likely sign that he knows that his picks are so extreme that even a GOP Senate wouldn’t confirm them.

For example, Trump has said he wants Robert Kennedy Jr. to take a leading role in the country’s health—a terrifying prospect as Kennedy is an anti-vaxxer who also wants to get rid of fluoride in the country’s water systems, something that could lead to a rise in dental decay and infections in children.

Trump is also reportedly eyeing Kash Patel to head the CIA, NBC News reported. Patel is a conspiracy theorist and MAGA loyalist who wants to shut down the FBI and target anyone who was involved in the probe into Trump’s collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign.

The three Senate Republicans running to replace Mitch McConnell as leader all quickly came out to say they support Trump’s demand to make recess appointments—a bad sign for anyone hoping that the Senate would serve as a backstop to Trump’s dictatorial impulses.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who is seen as a long shot for the role, was first out the gate to back Trump, writing on X: “100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn suggested recess appointments won’t be his first route, but expressed openness to allowing them.

“It is unacceptable for Senate Ds to blockade President @realDonaldTrump ‘s cabinet appointments. If they do, we will stay in session, including weekends, until they relent,” he posted on X. “Additionally, the Constitution expressly confers the power on the President to make recess appointments.”

And South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the leading contender to replace McConnell, also suggested he’d be okay with recess appointments.

“We must act quickly and decisively to get the president’s nominees in place as soon as possible, & all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments,” , he wrote on X: We cannot let Schumer and Senate Dems block the will of the American people.”

Even if Trump wants to make recess appointments, it’s unclear if he’d be able to.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that the Senate has to be in a true recess for 10 full days in order for a president to make a recess appointment.

“Of course, now that Congress is effectively a year-round operation, the Recess Appointments Clause has become all-but anachronistic,” legal expert Steve Vladeck wrote in a piece examining whether Trump truly could make recess appointments. “The last time either chamber adjourned before mid-December was 2002. The Senate instead began using ‘pro forma’ sessions in the mid-2000s—at least partly to prevent President George W. Bush from making recess appointments.”

However, given the fact that the current Supreme Court has ruled that Trump is above the law, never put it past them to change the rules to allow Trump to get his way.

TRUMP SPOKESPERSON AFFIRMS DAY 1 PLANS FOR MASS DEPORTATIONS. President-elect Donald Trump is set to begin his promised mass deportation of undocumented immigrants as soon as he takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, even as rights groups are mobilizing to stop him, Olivia Rosane noted at Common Dreams (11/7).

Trump national press secretary Karoline Leavitt toldFox News Nov. 5 that “the American people delivered a resounding victory for President Trump.”

“It gives him a mandate to govern as he campaigned, to deliver on the promises that he made, which include, on Day 1, launching the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants that Kamala Harris has allowed into this country,” Leavitt said.

Trump has pledged to conduct the largest deportation in U.S. history, with running mate and now Vice President-elect J.D. Vance promising 1 million deportations each year. The plan would likely rely on mobilizing federal agencies, the military, diplomats, and Republican-led states while using federal funds to pressure uncooperative states and cities into complying.

The stocks of private prison companies like GEOGroup and Core Civic rose significantly after Trump’s win, and private contractors had already been discussing ahead of the election how to build enough detention space to accommodate Trump’s plans.

A study released by the American Immigration Council in October found that a massive, one-time deportation program of the estimated 13.3 million migrants in the country without legal status would cost the government at least $315 billion while a 1-million-a-year approach would cost $88 billion a year for a total of $967.9 billion. It would also shrink the nation’s gross domestic product by between 4.2% and 6.8%, not to mention the massive human cost to immigrant families, as around 5.1 million children who are U.S. citizens live with an undocumented family member.

The council also warned that such a program would likely threaten the well-being of all immigrants and increase vigilantism and hate crimes.

“As bad as the first Trump administration was for immigrants, we anticipate it will be much worse this time and are particularly concerned about the use of the military to round up immigrants,” Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who fought the first Trump administration on family separation and other policies, toldThe Washington Post. “As always, we will go to court to challenge illegal policies, but it is equally essential that the public push back, as it did with family separation.”

Exit polls show that 56% of U.S. voters favor offering immigrants already in the U.S. a pathway to citizenship, while Data for Progress found that survey respondents did not favor deportation for 7 out of 9 categories of people who might be caught up in a mass deportation scheme.

The ACLU has urged cities and states to take steps to protect their undocumented residents ahead of January 20.

“They should prepare for mass deportations because those will wreak havoc on the communities,” Noreen Shah, director of government affairs at the ACLU’s equality division, toldNewsweek. “It will mean kids who go to school and their parents are gone and not there to pick them up at the end of the day.”

In particular, legal groups are gearing up for Trump to potentially evoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which authorizes the country to deport noncitizens of a hostile nation. It has only been used three times, most recently to detain Japanese Americans during World War II.

“Many fear that a second Trump administration would seek to use this law to justify indefinite detention and remove people from the country swiftly and without judicial review,” Shah told Reuters.

The Brennan Center for Justice has called on Congress to repeal the act.

“This law was shameful and dangerous back when it was created 200 years ago,” the center’s Marcelo Agudo wrote in October. “It’s even more so today. It must be repealed or overturned.”

From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2024

Populist.com