Justice for Lorenzo. Justice for Johan. Justice For All. An ICE Out Day of Action Saturday.
Plus supporting the families of ICE victims, Troy Jackson will be the standard-bearer in Maine, tracking AI money in our elections and more
☎️ Join VoteRiders to reach at-risk voters! Virtual letter-writing session TOMORROW at 7PM ET ☎️
TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ
Responding to ICE terror with a national day of action Saturday, a new campaign to abolish ICE, and material support for the families of their victims
On Capitol Hill: Record $1.5 trillion war budget heads to House floor, Federalist Society extremist set to be confirmed to Sixth Circuit by Senate
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
A NATIONWIDE DAY OF ACTION, AND WHAT COMES AFTER
From Houston to Biddeford, Maine to St. Augustine to rural Georgia, ICE is leaving plenty of blood on the streets this month. And from the individual agents to the institution itself, no one is being held responsible for it. It’s unacceptable. And we’re not going to stand for it.
This Saturday, the Disappeared in America coalition (which includes Public Citizen, the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, The Workers Circle, Detention Watch Network and the League of United Latin American Citizens) is holding a national day of action, demanding justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, justice for Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, and justice for all the victims. We’re bringing folks together to demand transparent, independent investigations; protection for the witnesses detained in ICE facilities; accountability both for individuals and institutions; and real steps to stop these killings from happening over and over. We want ICE out for good and our neighbors safe.
🪧 Vigils are already scheduled in more than 175 communities nationwide, and we’re still growing. Let’s find one near us to attend here, and we can find tools to host or register our own actions here. 🪧
END THE ICE AGE KICKOFF
The work to abolish ICE will go far beyond this weekend. The Detention Watch Network, Immigrant Defense Project, and Immigrant Legal Resource Center are launching a new campaign to “end the ICE age,” providing roadmaps to take action at the local, state and federal level to shut down the detention centers, get these masked thugs out of our communities and redirect their funding to strengthen families and neighborhoods instead of breaking them up. ✊🏻 They’re holding a kickoff call for this effort TONIGHT at 8PM ET. Let’s sign up to join them here. ✊🏾
MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR THE FAMILIES LEFT BEHIND
Finally, we need to show up for the folks most directly impacted by these tragedies. We’ve previously encouraged folks to support the families of Lorenzo and Johan, but there are plenty more people who need our help.
The eyewitnesses to ICE’s murder of Lorenzo, including his brother Victor, Daniel Tirado Pantoja and Jose Trinidad Rojas, are being held by ICE. They have managed to get their stories out to the public, but they remain in danger of being deported or retaliated against. 💵 Let’s donate to help their families navigate the process and pay the bills with their breadwinner gone – we can support Daniel’s family here and Jose’s family here. 💵
Jesus Manuel Arenas-Silva died while being transferred between ICE camps in Georgia last week, the 22nd person to lose their life in their custody this year. His sister has said agents did not provide him with necessary medications, in what would be an all-too-frequent episode of medical neglect. His family is seeking funds to return him to be buried in his birth country of Venezuela. 💵 We can donate to support them here. 💵
Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran died when he was hit by a tractor-trailer while fleeing ICE in St. Augustine, Florida. He was legally in the country on a work visa and according to his wife planned to return home to Mexico on Saturday. His family is also asking for support for repatriation and funeral expenses, as well as to help care for the two children he leaves behind. 💵 We can find details on how to donate here. 💵
The deportation machine is also rolling over those who fight it. Last week GEO Group employee Bandon Booth shot an activist named Emma Landis at a protest outside an ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado. In a rare occasion of fast accountability, he has been arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and felony menacing, and thankfully Emma is recovering well – she’s even returned to protest. But she’ll be out of work while she recovers and the medical bills are piling up. 💵 We can donate to support Emma on the road ahead here. 💵
IT’S JACKSON VERSUS COLLINS WITH THE SENATE IN THE BALANCE
The people have spoken. Grassroots organizers quickly activated and made their preferences clear as they selected delegates to pick the new Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, with folks pledged to progressive and former state senate president Troy Jackson taking 481 out of 500 available spots. His major rivals have now dropped out and rallied behind him, as have former colleagues whom he clashed with. While the convention will still go on this weekend, we can safely call Jackson the presumptive pick to replace the disgraced Graham Platner and take on Susan Collins.
Jackson stands on the platform that primary voters overwhelmingly supported: Medicare for All, taxing the billionaires, abolishing ICE and ending military aid to Israel. Two polls taken earlier this month indicated Jackson should be a strong candidate, giving him 48-49% of the vote and a five-point lead over Collins.
We’ve also received a painful reminder of the cost real people pay for having someone like Collins in office. In the wake of ICE’s murder of Johan Sebastian Guerrero, she expressed no regret over her central role in pouring tens of billions into the deportation machine without restraints, and cited her efforts to obtain more funding for body cameras which weren’t worn and training which didn’t help. She boasted of convincing the Department of Homeland Security to cease doing traffic stops, a change that was rolled back the very next day.
But Susan Collins has $11 million in the bank, a huge head start and a record of convincing voters to ticket-split. We also have no idea how Graham Platner’s exposure as a rapist may continue to shadow this race, but we can certainly assume it won’t be an asset.
Flipping the seat is central to our path to taking control of the Senate, and we’ve got a candidate we can believe in again. Let’s put in the work. 🙋🏻♀️ We can sign up to volunteer for Troy’s campaign here, and we’ll keep you all posted as phonebanks, textbanks, postcarding and other opportunities to help come on the schedule! 🙋🏾♀️
BUSY WEEK ON CAPITOL HILL CONTINUES: HOUSE ADVANCES HUGE MILITARY BUDGET, SENATE TO PUT ANOTHER EXTREMIST ON THE BENCH
The House GOP finally managed to advance this year’s National Defense Authorization Act to the floor yesterday after weeks of stumbling. We’ll next wade through more than 320 amendments to the legislation before it gets a final floor vote. The heart of the legislation is authorizing $1.5 TRILLION in defense spending - a 40 percent increase from last year when the average taxpayer contributed more than $4,000 for war, and the highest military spending level in American history, beating out World War Two. It’s more than what we spent last year on Medicaid, SNAP, the child tax credit, highways, the Department of Education, school lunches, and FEMA combined. 🗣️ Let’s use this script from 5Calls to let our members of Congress know we object to this obscene military budget and weigh in on key damaging provisions in the legislation. 🗣️
On the Senate side, we saw a cloture vote Monday on Trump’s nomination of Benjamin Flowers to a lifetime appointment on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He advanced on straight party lines, with 17 (!) members not voting. A 39-year-old Federalist Society extremist, Flowers has compared gender-affirming care to the eugenics movement, defended abortion bans subjecting doctors to felony charges, downplayed Trump’s role in January 6th and backed rejecting 150 years of precedent upholding birthright citizenship. He could get a final vote as soon as today.
We’re unlikely to be able to block him, but it’s worth periodically reminding our senators that we are paying attention to their votes on judicial nominees – and letting our networks know exactly what kind of people the Republicans want on the bench. 🗣️ Let’s reach out to our senators and urge them to say no – we can find call scripts and an email tool via our friends at the Americans of Conscience Checklist here. And let’s share this summary of Flowers’ rap sheet via Patrick McNeil on social media to spread the word. 🗣️
In other news, the House passed a procedural barrier to advance the budget resolution for the reconciliation package funding Trump’s war, which is expected to go to the floor tomorrow (tell them to say hell no if you haven’t already), and the Senate Intelligence Committee approved Jay Clayton’s nomination as DNI on party lines, setting up a floor vote as early as next week (which should succeed, but still merits our attention). The House also pushed forward a continuing resolution to fund the government through the midterms (more on that later this week.)
HOW TO SUPPORT CANDIDATES WHO SUPPORT AI SAFEGUARDS
“AI chatbots have been accused of flirting with children, discouraging people in distress from seeking help, and even offering instructions on how to plan a mass shooting—and billionaire AI CEOs are doling out millions to kill any safeguards that would stop this,” says Colin McGlynn, AI Policy Advisor to Demand Progress. These billionaires are doing that through the multi-million dollar super PAC “Leading the Future,” which is pumping dark money into the midterm elections to elect candidates who oppose AI regulation and defeat candidates who support it. In response, Demand Progress has developed an AI Money Watch tracker. The tracker uses Federal Election Commission filings to “show how much Leading the Future is spending on elections across the nation and lets Americans spread the word on Twitter and Instagram. The website also flags which candidates have been endorsed by Leading the Future.” Let’s read more about AI Money Watch, and let’s spread the word and consult the tracker before we vote!
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS… IN COMIC FORM
We need to be using all sorts of tools and formats to ensure everyone knows and is prepared to exercise their rights in the face of a regime bound and determined to run roughshod over them. The folks at the New York City public schools have prepared a comic with a series of vignettes based on real events that illustrate the rights and protections available to us all. They’ve accompanied it with pages with links and resources to help individuals learn more about their rights in New York City. ⚙️ Let’s spread the word about this free, downloadable resource, which can be adapted for other communities with permission of NYCPS. ⚙️
👀 KEEPING AN EYE ON… 👀
NEWS: Trump administration to withhold an additional billion dollars in Medicaid funding from California, Minnesota - urge state officials to put standard debt collection tactics to work to stop them from hijacking these funds
NEWS: U.S. measles cases surpass last year’s total, reach level not seen in 35 years - join American Families for Vaccines to help turn the tide
NEWS: Justice Department reportedly investigating Rep. Cory Mills - help unseat him
Vigils nationwide SATURDAY to honor Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero and other ICE victims and demand justice - find one near us or host our own
VoteRiders holds letter-writing power hour TOMORROW, textbanking to at-risk voters July 28th and 30th
Looking for more ways to get engaged in the midterms? Here’s a full list!
Upcoming fights on Capitol Hill: Nomination of Todd Blanche for AG hangs in the balance in the Senate; continued pressure to block Trump’s slush fund and self-pardon with Rep. Raskin introducing new discharge petition; House stymied on vote cutting disability compensation for 1.5 million veterans; Senate still hoping to ram through giveaway to crypto bros before August recess; Senate GOP continues work on drafting farm bill that would preserve SNAP cuts; Congress still struggling with warrantless wiretapping authority; Senate to consider agriculture appropriations bill that cuts food assistance for newborns and pregnant women; Senate working on surface transportation funding bill that would punitively jack up fees on EVs; push for Senate to reject extremist Benjamin Flowers and all Trump judicial nominees; call on all reps to block military action against Greenland and Cuba
The Trump regime is trying to crush dissent and pro-immigrant advocacy - stand with targeted activists including VC Defensa, the Prairieland defendants, the Spokane 3, University of Michigan pro-Palestine organizers, the Minnesota 15, and lawyers for unaccompanied migrant children
Hotel workers in Seattle, warehouse workers in California and transit workers in Mississippi are on strike, refinery workers in Indiana are locked out - show solidarity!
We will not stop demanding justice for Kohen Wiley - keep pressing Senatobia officials to release body cam, dash cam and Walmart surveillance footage of his killing
Temporary protected status for Haitian, Syrian refugees expires Monday - let’s support our neighbors
National week of action against automatic license plate readers August 16th-22nd