January 30, 2025
Detention camps at Guantanamo, keeping a close eye on ICE, trade war looms, and more!
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TRUMP CLAIMS HE WILL SET UP CAMP FOR INDEFINITE DETENTIONS AT GUANTANAMO
Trump set off alarm bells today with an announcement that some of those rounded up by the deportation forces will be held in detention indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, indicating they will put 30,000 people there. This is ominous and frightening, but it is important to recognize there are practical steps that will need to be taken to turn this nightmare into reality. Immigration reporters have suggested the current migrant facility at Guantanamo has the capacity to hold 120 migrants, and 400 in a surge. As new Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem indicated later in the day, the sort of set-up Trump imagines, as with the rest of Trump’s mass deportation and mass detention agenda, will take funding to build and run, and a lot of funding. The American Immigration Council has estimated taxpayers will need to spend almost a trillion dollars over the next ten years to execute their plans. This means a Congress where the majority is currently claiming we have to cut Medicaid and food stamps to pay for tax cuts for billionaires could put up roadblocks, if they choose. Let’s take this moment to again reach out to our members of Congress and tell them we want them to oppose every single penny requested in appropriations for mass deportation and a detention camp archipelago. We can use language from this Resistbot petition or send it directly by texting PJIXGI to 50409.
SHARE REAL INFORMATION AND STOP THE FEARMONGERING ON ICE RAIDS
Trump and his thugs do not yet have the resources necessary for the mass deportations they have promised. To make up for it, they are trying to use fear and propaganda as force multipliers. Every showy, high-attention raid, every video or photo they share of an arrest or a deportation flight is meant to make them seem that much more active and that much more threatening – hopefully encouraging some of the undocumented community to self-deport. The way to fight back, and the way to ensure as little disruption to the daily lives of our friends and neighbors as possible, is with spreading accurate, useful information and making a point of not spreading rumors on social media that do immigration enforcement’s work for them. Here’s how we can help:
Document immigration enforcement activity we witness it, using these tips on how to verify and what information to record from WITNESS and Never Again Action.
Use these tips from United We Dream on how citizens can support the immigrant community while enforcement activity is in progress.
Report raids we see or learn of in our areas to United We Dream’s MigraWatch hotline at 1-844-363-1423 and migrawatch@unitedwedream.org, along with regional or local rapid response hotlines.
If there is no one verifying ICE activity near us, consider starting an ICE Watch program. We can check out this playbook and get training from Siembra.
In the meantime, we can encourage everyone to know their rights in dealing with immigration enforcement. The National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) has now built a Know Your Rights app that is available in 16 languages with resources and the power to read your rights out loud to law enforcement and send a message to an emergency contact. It can be downloaded at this link for Apple and here for Android.
CONGRESS CAN CHECK TARIFF POWER
Trump has pledged he will impose massive tariffs on our three largest trading partners on Saturday, hitting more than 40% of America’s imports. His exact plans are still unclear and he may once again back off at the last moment and claim some sort of victory, but if he doesn’t, the costs of his tantrums are going to come directly out of our pockets. Across-the-board tariffs will raise prices for us on clothes, food, cellphones and other electronics, cars, oil and more. Any retaliatory tariffs imposed by Canada, China and Mexico would then presumably hurt sales of American products. The President has wide authority to impose tariffs unilaterally, but only because Congress has given the White House that power in a series of laws since The Great Depression. If they want to step in and stop the economic wrecking ball from swinging by revoking that power or putting guardrails on its use, they absolutely can. Let’s remind our representatives and senators the constitutional power to impose tariffs ultimately lies with them, and they can stop Trump if they wish… and if they choose not to, we will hold them accountable for the economic consequences of the trade war, too.
RFK JR: DANGEROUS AND UNPREPARED – PHONEBANK TONIGHT
Under normal circumstances, Robert F. Kennedy’s nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services would be on life support after yesterday’s hearing. Senators took him to task for his long history of claiming vaccines are unsafe, including getting kids killed in Samoa; the possibility of his profiting in the future off antivax lawsuits due to efforts while he’s secretary; his spreading of conspiracy theories that Lyme disease was a bioweapon and fluoridating our water lowers IQ; and his attempts to rewrite his own history of antiscience advocacy. They also revealed RFK lacks beginner’s level understanding of the job he is applying for, including the basics of how Medicaid works. In Trump’s America, he still has a clear shot at being confirmed… but at least one swing vote, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), seems very much up in the air. Let’s make sure to place a call to our senators today telling them what we saw was unacceptable and they need to vote no on this dangerous and unprepared nominee, using this script from Indivisible. We can also join MoveOn for a phonebank tonight at 6:00 PM Eastern to reach folks in key states and encourage them to call their senators as well here.
YOUNG PEOPLE AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE
Amid all the other outrages, Trump has shuttered the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. This is a defeat gun safety advocates are not going to take lying down. Brady United is among those recommitting to the fight, including with Team ENOUGH. ENOUGH is a youth-led program whose mission is to educate young voices about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action against it, harnessing the expertise and experience of today’s young people to advance intersectional work across the country. Those interested in taking action on preventing gun violence who are between 13 and 25 years old can join a Team ENOUGH welcome session on Wednesdays to learn more about the different ways we can engage.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
MI - TELL HOUSE SPEAKER HALL TO DO HIS JOB
Nine bills that were passed in the Michigan House and Senate at the end of December - including measures to make health care more affordable for public worker and to prevent public assistance funds from being seized by debt collectors - are being held up by House Speaker Matt Hall. The bills were still being processed by clerks when House control switched from Democrat to Republican, and the new speaker is refusing to present the bills to Governor Whitmer, calling instead for a legal review. Let's read about the bills that are being held back, then let's contact Speaker Hall (phone: 517-373-1784, email: MattHall@house.mi.gov) and tell him that he needs to do his job and present these measures to the governor Let's also be sure to contact our own representatives and tell them to urge Speaker Hall to bring these bills to Governor Whitmer's desk.
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
The Wisconsin state supreme court election April 1st… North Carolina supreme court steal will go to trial… Oregon health care workers on strike… Costco workers contract expires Friday… GOTV for Amazon warehouse union vote continues…
Hi Joe, I have what may be a naive question. Do you find resistbot effective vs. sending our own letters?
I can't find a good tariff resistbot. Do you know of one?