Federal attacks against refugees and undocumented immigrants represent an imminent threat to the constitutional rights of all Americans, UnidosUS President Janet Murguia said.
“The government overreach and abuse of power we have seen from the Trump administration is unlawful, unacceptable and un-American, and we would note that the overreach and abuse of power are harming not only our communities but also our country as a whole,” Murguia said during a Jan. 15 virtual press briefing with leaders of numerous civil rights and advocacy organizations.
Janet Murguia
The event was scheduled to coincide with the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday and to demand that Congress use its oversight and funding authority to counter the misinformation and violence that mark President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration efforts.
Many of the comments centered on enforcement actions in Minnesota, although high-profile raids have occurred in multiple cities across the country. Approximately 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been deployed to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and have assaulted protesters at detention centers and fatally shot a U.S. citizen observer.
Authorities also have begun to target Somalis legally resettled in Minnesota for arrest and detention, claiming they are a threat to local communities. Municipal and state officials have refuted those claims.
“The excessive use of force coupled with the distortions and lies used to defend these extreme actions have concerned and outraged many in this nation,” Murguia said. “And now most recently, President Trump and his administration have continuously raised the threat of invoking the Insurrection Act.”
“This is really an effort to create an unlawful attempt to manufacture and provoke unrest.”
The rarely used 1807 law would enable the administration to deploy military forces to Minnesota. Trump threatened to invoke the statute after an ICE agent shot an immigrant during a traffic stop in Minneapolis on Jan. 14 — precisely a week after a federal agent shot and killed American Renee Nicole Good as she watched a protest from her vehicle.
“We believe this is really an effort to create an unlawful attempt to manufacture and provoke unrest, and it must be seen for what it really is: another attempt to undermine and erode our civil rights,” Murguia said.
Marc Morial
National Urban League President Marc Morial described the administration’s actions as “unsettling, chilling, troubling and not supported by the American people.” Altogether, they represent “a state of emergency” for the entire nation.
“What we see is creeping totalitarianism, a move toward a military-style dictatorship. What we see shocks the conscience of all of us and should shock the conscience of every American — people being pulled out of cars, people being chased by law enforcement officers who are not effectively trained and who come to the job not with the commitment to the rule of law, but a commitment to a political agenda.”
The current detention of about 60,000 immigrants in “a 21st-century set of concentration camps” should not be happening in America or in any democracy, he added. “We call out those elected officials, state, local and federal, and ask them to use their voice, use their power, use their influence to stand up to this abuse of power we see in Minnesota.”
Minnesota and Illinois, along with the cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago, recently filed federal lawsuits demanding a cessation of the violent anti-immigrant tactics authorized by the Department of Homeland Security.
And U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois on Jan. 14 introduced articles of impeachment against DHS Secretary Krisi Noem for barring Congress from investigating immigration efforts and for using her position for personal profit, CBS News reported.
Maria Teresa Kumar
“We support Congresswoman Kelly’s filing of impeachment papers for Secretary Noem,” Voto Latino President Maria Teresa Kumar said. “She is not fit for office. There is absolutely no accountability.”
Kumar said Voto Latino is among 74 civil rights groups that have joined forces to push for Noem’s impeachment, especially now that ICE is employing “Gestapo” tactics such as going door-to-door regardless of residents’ legal status.
“It is more akin to, sadly, our rooted history of slave patrols,” she said of the government-approved groups of white men responsible for capturing run-away slaves and preventing slave rebellions in the Antebellum South.
The administration is “not only going after undocumented immigrants, they’re not only going after brown and Black people, they’re going after our allies because they want to make sure that they are tamping down protest,” she said.
The 74-member coalition of faith and civil rights groups also sent a letter to Congress Jan. 15 demanding accountability for the administration’s “lawless” and “terrorizing” immigration policies.
“The horrific killing of Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer last week has shocked the conscience of our country. In recent months, additional incidents — including a shooting involving a Border Patrol agent in Portland and other confrontations resulting in serious injury or death — have underscored urgent questions about when and how federal officers use force.”
The groups also protested the $170 billion being spent to hire 10,000 additional ICE agents. “Underqualified and poorly trained agents now operating under aggressive and unaccountable leadership are sowing chaos, fear, and committing rampant violations of due process,” the letter said.