PROTEST ABDUCTIONS AND AT APRIL 5 EVENTS
ACTION #1: Please contact your US Representative and Senators and ask them to demand that law abiding, legal U.S. residents that have been abducted and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) be released immediately and that these illegal arrests stop. In addition, ask them to demand that the individuals abducted be allowed to contact lawyers and loved ones. ICE has been quickly moving them around the U.S. to make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to contact lawyers and loved ones. In addition, the movement has (presumably intentionally) frustrated attempts by judges to establish jurisdiction and to order ICE to release or justify the detention of these individuals and to order that they not be deported. [1]
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts student, and Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student, are two examples of law abiding, legal U.S. residents abducted and detained by ICE. No evidence against them was presented and there was no due process.
There are others, and maybe many others; I’m not sure that it’s known how many. However, Secretary of State Rubio recently stated, “It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day.” [2] These individuals are political prisoners and this behavior by the Trump administration mimics what dictators do to intimidate and eliminate all opposition. This is what Russia and China do. They replace the rule of law with the rule of fear. This has never been done in the U.S. in my lifetime. This is a repugnant repudiation of the rule of law, which is a cornerstone of democracy.
You can find contact information for your US Representative at http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and for your US Senators at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.
Note that many offices only accept messages on a voice mail system. In most cases, you can call outside of regular business hours and leave a message.
ACTION #2: If you can, join the big, nationwide HANDS OFF! protest planned for Saturday, April 5. Go to Indivisible to find an event near you. Let’s make this a huge event! Please spread the word! If you can’t attend, consider supporting it in other ways, e.g., a donation to pay for buses transporting people to the events, spreading the word, etc.
ACTION #3: Contact your US Representative and ask him or her to support and vote for Senate Bill S.1077, the 2025 District of Columbia (D.C.) Local Funds Act. This bill would reverse a $1 billion cut to D.C.’s budget that was made by the federal budget bill recently passed by Congress (the infamous Continuing Resolution). It cut the D.C. budget even though no federal funds are involved. These funds are local D.C. tax revenues that have already been collected and budgeted. If not reversed, D.C. would be forced to cut funding for teachers, police officers, fire fighters, other emergency staff, public transportation, health services, and even retirees’ pensions. The bill has already passed the Senate. [3]
[1] Murphy, S., 4/2/25, “US officials defend the detention of Tufts PhD student. Also say federal judge in Boston lacks jurisdiction,” The Boston Globe
[2] Solomont, A., 4/1/25, “Jewish community must stand up to Trump’s targeting of international students,” The Boston Globe
[3] Hubbell, R., 4/1/25, “Disrupting ‘business as usual’,” Today’s Edition Newsletter (Disrupting "business as usual" - by Robert B. Hubbell)