The politicization of democracy is one of the most disturbing precedents of Donald Trump’s second presidency, Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said during a livestreamed conversation with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
American democracy and constitutional freedoms never have endured the persistent and widespread attacks witnessed since Trump took office in January, Perryman said during the Oct. 24 event hosted by City Club Chicago.
“There were certain policies that could be politicized or things that people disagreed on, but the right to stand up and say what you think was not something that presidents and members of Congress that were allied with the president tried to come after,” she said.
Among the greatest threats are the president’s mobilization of National Guard and other military forces to squelch protests against his immigration policies in Los Angeles, Memphis and Washington, D.C. Court orders have placed holds on planned deployments to Chicago and Portland, Ore., where protesters already have been met with military force.
Granting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents unchecked power to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens constitutes another grave attack on constitutional law, Perryman and Pritzker said.
“All of us are seeing that rights are being taken away.”
“All of us are seeing that rights are being taken away,” Pritzker said after describing the Oct. 3 detention of Chicago Alderwoman Jessie Fuentes after asking ICE agents if they had the judicial warrant required to arrest someone in a hospital.
“The First, Fourth, Fifth and Tenth amendments are the ones that are actually under attack by this administration, and I’ve never seen this before in my entire life,” he added.
Those amendments guarantee freedoms of speech and assembly, protection from unreasonable search and seizure and from excessive force, the right to due process and limits to federal power.
“And it is going on because the Congress is unwilling to do anything now because they are all lackeys for the president,” Pritzker added.
The administration’s goal in deploying military forces in U.S. cities is an effort to get Americans accustomed to being occupied by their own troops, said Perryman, whose legal advocacy group is leading the charge in federal court against Trump’s deluge of executive orders.
“The abuse of ICE is another place where the president is trying to normalize terror and fear and intimidation,” she said. “It is unconscionable. It shocks the conscience of people across this country, regardless of what their views are about particular immigration policies.”
Just as disturbing is the administration’s ordering of ICE raids in hospitals, schools and churches, she added. Democracy Forward has filed multiple laws against the administration’s policy authorizing such actions in sensitive locations.
“We are representing religious communities, including white evangelical denominations and denominations across the religious spectrum, to keep ICE out of houses of worship because law enforcement activity is preventing not just people targeted by ICE, but everyone who wants to exist in communal worship from being able to do so.”
Plaintiffs in one of the actions include the Alliance of Baptists and multiple Quaker and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America jurisdictions. Another lawsuit representing the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Sikh and Quaker communities resulted in a court order blocking raids in their congregations.
“They don’t want their neighbors taken away and disappeared, so this city has activated like I have never seen it before.”
Never in modern history has the nation seen a president operate in such a manner, Perryman said. “But the other thing that we are seeing that is so historic is the courage of people that are stepping forward and saying, ‘I am going to go file that lawsuit.’”
That’s the route many are taking because the courts are the only branch of the federal government that citizens can rely on, Pritzker said, since Congress refuses to act.
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently stayed a lower court order permitting the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland. The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals blocked the deployment of troops to Chicago, adding that “political opposition is not rebellion.”
In the meantime, the administration is sending large numbers of ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers to Chicago to intimidate those protesting immigration facilities and policies, he said. “This is happening whether we like it or not, and a lot of the lawsuits have to do with ICE and CBP. Individuals are speaking out.”
Pritzker also praised Chicagoans for blowing whistles and video-recording ICE agents as they arrest and detain undocumented immigrants.
“They don’t want their neighbors taken away and disappeared, so this city has activated like I have never seen it before. I’m so proud of the people here and we need that to happen all across the country — and it is happening.”
Pritzker did not discuss the role his own State Police have played in accosting clergy and other peaceful protesters in Chicago.
Perryman said the “terrible, historic, unprecedented things we are seeing” from the administration are being matched by “the unprecedented and courageous things we are seeing” from Americans opposed to the federal government’s actions.
“In this moment with this great overreach, what we are seeing in our work is people who might not be on the same side on a lot of issues actually finding common cause. We’re representing people in cases where we have businesses and unions and folks that used to fight with each other, all pushing back on the same thing,” she said.
“There is an opportunity in this moment for the people to take back what it means to be in a democracy, to rebuild that democracy because this highly politicized, highly partisan, very far-right activity that we are seeing doesn’t represent the vast majority of people in this country.”
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