Tell border state U.S. attorneys: Defend the Constitution. Stop enforcing zero-tolerance

The petition to southern border state U.S. attorneys reads: "Donald Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy is cruel and inhumane. It's causing chaos at the border and undermining basic constitutional rights. Refuse to enforce this racist policy and stop prosecuting immigrants without due process." Add your name: The fight to end Donald Trump's war on immigrants is a fight to protect our democracy. When Donald Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy went into effect, many federal courts in border states began enforcing it by conducting mass immigration trials. In Texas, federal courts are prosecuting up to 70 immigrants at once, making it impossible for defense attorneys to speak to each immigrant, let alone gather evidence and properly represent them in court.1 This violates immigrants' basic constitutional rights to due process and effective legal representation. U.S. attorneys can and should use their discretion to safeguard constitutional rights instead of following racist directives that undermine them. Speak out now to demand that all border state U.S. attorneys refuse to prosecute immigrants without due process and stop enforcing Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy. Tell border state U.S. attorneys: Defend the Constitution. Stop enforcing zero-tolerance. Click here to sign the petition. Trump and Jeff Sessions' zero-tolerance policy criminalizes every undocumented immigrant – including asylum seekers – and gives DHS and CBP the power to separate and lock up immigrant families. Border enforcement already ripped an estimated 2,700 children from their families and imprisoned them in cages.2 Massive public pressure forced Trump to address this cruel policy, but his latest executive order created another crisis. Instead of decriminalizing and reuniting immigrant families, Trump expanded family detention. Now, DHS has the power to imprison immigrant families indefinitely.3 That is unacceptable. The Trump regime is treating immigrants like enemies of the state when in fact, the most dangerous threats to our democracy are occupying the Oval Office and leading the Department of Justice. Trump and Sessions' zero-tolerance policy allows Trump's cruel regime to undermine basic constitutional rights so it can tear apart and lock up any community whose presence in the United States threatens the white supremacy at the core of the administration's agenda. U.S. attorneys have the power to stop this attack on immigrants and our Constitution by simply not complying. We need to make sure they use it. Early this week, I joined hundreds of activists from across the country in San Diego, California to expose and publicly condemn U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman for collaborating with Trump's hateful regime and demand that he protect the constitutional rights of immigrants at the border.4 Now, we must keep the pressure on all border state U.S. attorneys and demand that they stop enforcing Trump's racist directives immediately. Tell border state U.S. attorneys: Defend the Constitution. Stop enforcing zero-tolerance. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/usattorneys_resisttrump?t=7&akid=29177%2E3130208%2EUtX33B - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Lindsay Van Dyke and Roberto Daza, "The U.S. is conducting mass immigration trials at the border. Here's what it's like," VICE, June 12, 2018. Dara Lind, "The Trump administration’s separation of families at the border, explained," Vox, June 15, 2018. CBS News, "Trump administration calls for expanded use of immigrant family detention," June 23, 2018. Kate Morrissey, "Protesters blockade federal courthouse, drape banner from hotel; 10 arrested," The San Diego Union-Tribune, July 2, 2018.

SIGN THE PETITION TO ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS TO PROTECT OUR FREE PRESS

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Justice Department has seized the records of a New York Times journalist concerning alleged misdeeds by the president’s campaign. This raises questions about whether the content of the reporting is what drew this unusual level of scrutiny.

What justified such a broad seizure of records?

Donald Trump’s daily attacks on the news media are having a chilling effect on our democracy. It’s up to us to defend the freedom of the press: the Fourth Estate of our democracy.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN the following petition to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the U.S. Department of Justice demanding an explanation of its extreme measures.

To: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions

In 2015, the Justice Department introduced guidelines to “ensure the highest level of oversight when members of the Department seek to obtain information from, or records of, a member of the news media.” The DOJ says it followed these guidelines, but the breadth of the recent seizure of journalist Ali Watkins’s email and phone records raises serious questions about what justified such an extreme measure.

- Pen America

Information: 

Report: Journalist's phone, email records seized by U.S. government

In Targeting Times Reporter, Justice Dept. Backs Trump’s Anti-Press Rhetoric

Ex-Senate Aide Charged in Leak Case Where Times Reporter’s Records Were Seized

Tell DHS: Stop separating families at the border

The petition to Department of Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: “Separating families at the border is inhumane and unnecessary. Stop this cruel practice immediately.” Add your name:

Donald Trump and the racists who are implementing his dangerous immigration agenda are doing everything they can to instill fear in immigrant communities. Right now, they are ramping up their attacks on families by ripping children from their parents at the border. This cruel and inhumane policy is a choice, one made by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen with back-up from Trump's notoriously anti-immigrant Attorney General Jeff Sessions.1 Tell Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: Stop separating families at the border. Click here to sign the petition. Ripping children away from their parents in extremely stressful and traumatic circumstances can cause lifelong damage to a person’s health and well-being. But since October of last year, Nielsen's DHS has separated more than 700 children, including at least 100 under the age of four, from their parents.2 The ACLU recently obtained nearly 30,000 pages of records from DHS and Customs and Border Protection that document systemic neglect and abuse of migrant children during President Obama's administration.3 Emboldened by Trump's racism and xenophobia, Nielsen and Sessions have given CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents even more permission to terrorize immigrants. We have to push back now or there will be more and more cases like these where deportation agents have separated: A Honduran mother from her 18-month-old child for more than 3 months after they presented themselves as asylum seekers to CBP.4 Mother and daughter asylum seekers fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For months, ICE held the 7-year-old daughter in a youth shelter more than 2,000 miles away from where it detained her mother.5 A mother and her two children fleeing gang violence in El Salvador. ICE jailed the 11-year-old and 3-year-old children in a facility built to house unaccompanied minors. Immigration enforcement refused to give the mother any information about her children’s whereabouts for more than a month.6 A father and infant son asylum seekers from El Salvador. ICE claimed that the family lacked identifying documents establishing their relationship even though the father showed agents his passport and son’s birth certificate.7 Tell Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: Stop separating families at the border. Click here to sign the petition. The news of the increased cruelty of family separation is compounded by recent reports that Trump officials have lost track of 1,500 unaccompanied minors who entered the country without adult family members and by CBP's recent murder of Claudia Gonzalez, an immigrant from Guatemala. That's why we're joining with our friends at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, MomsRising, United We Dream, the ACLU and MoveOn for a massive day of action this Friday, June 1, in support of immigrant families. The more voices we have on this campaign, the more powerful our message will be. Click the link below to sign the petition demanding that Nielsen stop separating families at the border: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/no_family_separation?t=8&akid=28727%2E3130208%2EjRqpVz - Heidi Hess, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Aric Jenkins, "Jeff Sessions: Parents and Children Illegally Crossing the Border Will Be Separated," TIME, May 7, 2018. Caitlin Dickerson, "Hundreds of Immigrant Children Have Been Taken From Parents at U.S. Border," The New York Times, April 20, 2018. CBS News, "ACLU report: Records claim border agents neglected, abused migrant kids," May 25, 2018. Jamil Smith, "Trump's Separation of Children and Families Is What You Voted For," Rolling Stone, May 29, 2018. Ibid. Michael E. Miller and Jon Gerberg, "'Where’s Mommy?': A family fled death threats, only to face separation at the border." The Washington Post, March 18, 2018. Kate Morrissey, "Asylum-seeking fathers separated from children by ICE," San Diego Union Tribune, Dec. 4, 2017.

Stop Trump from using the census to discriminate

Tell Congress: "Prohibit the Census Bureau from asking about citizenship or immigration status in the 2020 census. " Add your name:

Donald Trump is trying to make the census into a racist voter suppression tool. Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recently caved to pressure from Trump and Trump's racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions and announced that the 2020 census would have a question about citizenship.1 Asking about citizenship weaponizes the census to perpetuate Trump’s war on immigrant communities. Because the inclusion of the question is likely to result in a significant undercounting of those communities, it also gives Trump and Sessions another way to rig elections for Republicans, from the state to the federal level, until 2030. Congress can block this racist, right-wing plan, but they have to act now. We need to make our voices heard loud and clear and demand a census where everyone counts. Tell Congress: Stop Trump from using the census to discriminate. Click here to sign the petition. Sessions asked Ross to include a citizenship question because he said it would help the Department of Justice enforce the Voting Rights Act. Coming from Sessions, a notorious xenophobe with a long history of trying to suppress the vote, such a claim is as laughable as it is appalling. Sessions has repositioned the DOJ so it turns its back on voter suppression and helps promote the myth of voter fraud. Handing him data about citizenship will give him more power to use his office to intimidate voters and attack voting rights in states across the country. During his campaign, Trump called on his racist supporters to monitor polling places and intimidate Black voters.2 When he took office, he brought together many of the country’s worst voting rights offenders to form a voter suppression commission designed to legitimize the voter fraud myth and expand suppression efforts at the national level.3 Now, he is using the census to supercharge his dangerous attempt to undermine our democracy. Congress has to stop him. Tell Congress: Stop Trump from using the census to discriminate. Click here to sign the petition. Trump and his cronies have been trying to sabotage the census for months. The Government Accountability Office has already identified the census as a “high risk area” because of underfunding, canceled field tests and the late introduction of new systems and processes.4 The census also lacks competent leadership. Trump nominated Thomas Brunell, who has supported Republican gerrymandering, opposes early voting and has no relevant experience, for the top operational role at the U.S. Census Bureau. Under pressure, he withdrew the nomination, and there is still not a permanent leader for the work.5 The citizenship question is the latest assault. It is likely to suppress participation, resulting in the undercounting of immigrant communities and communities of color. This undercount will mean less federal funding for services in those communities. Just as importantly, states with large immigrant populations are also then at risk of losing seats in state legislatures, Congress and the Electoral College. In the past few months, 61 members of Congress, civil rights groups and over 160 mayors urged Ross not to include the citizenship question.6 Now that he has taken this dangerous step, the New York and California attorneys general are saying the question is unconstitutional and suing to block it.7 Sens. Hirono, Booker and Menendez recently introduced the Every Person Counts Act. This bill would prohibit the U.S. Census Bureau from asking a question on citizenship or immigration status.8 House Democrats will introduce a companion bill soon.9 We need to fight this extremist attack on our democracy on every front, including in Congress. The more of us who sign, the greater the pressure on Congress. Click the link below to add your name to demand that Congress stop Trump from using the census to discriminate and suppress the vote: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Trump_Census?t=8&akid=28168%2E3130208%2E2-uLUF Heidi Hess, CREDO Action Add your name: Tara Culp-Ressler, "Trump tells his supporters to watch polling places in urban areas," ThinkProgress, Oct. 1, 2016.  Ari Berman, "The Trump Administration Is Planning an Unprecedented Attack on Voting Rights," The Nation, June 30, 2017. U.S. Government Accountability Office, "2020 Decennial Census," accessed March 27, 2018. Danny Vinik and Andrew Restuccia, "Leading Trump Census pick causes alarm," POLITICO, Nov. 21, 2017. The United States Conference of Mayors, "Letter to Secretary Wilbur Ross," Feb. 6, 2018. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, "Jayapal, Chu, Grijalva, Richmond Call on Sec. Ross to Reject Citizenship Questions on 2020 Census," Jan. 17, 2018. Samantha Schmidt, "California, NY sue Trump administration over addition of citizenship question to census," The Washington Post, March 27, 2018. Sen. Robert Menendez, "Menendez, Booker, Hirono Introduce Bill to Prevent Trump Administration from Politicizing Census with Citizenship Question," March 22, 2018. Rebecca Savransky, "Dem lawmaker says she will introduce bill to block 2020 census from asking about citizenship," The Hill, March 27, 2018.

Tell Congress: Stop the unjust War on Drugs - Pass the Marijuana Justice Act

Female prison population is nearly eight times higher than in 1980 due to non-violent drug convictions

Big news for drug policy reform: After California legalized recreational marijuana use, San Francisco followed suit by clearing thousands of marijuana convictions dating back 40 years. This is a step in the right direction – now people won’t be held for crimes that are no longer crimes. 

The outdated policies of the War on Drugs have done little but waste federal resources and harm lives forever. But while some of us are fighting back, others – like Attorney General Jeff Sessions – are doggedly pursuing the same failed policies. His vendetta against marijuana and people who use it goes against public opinion and completely disregards the human consequences of these unjust laws. 

But we can stop him. There’s a new bill in Congress to legalize marijuana under federal law – and remedy some of the injustices of the War on Drugs. We need your help to make sure it becomes law.

Tell your members of Congress to support the Marijuana Justice Act and reform our broken criminal justice system.

How do we know that reform is needed? The data says it all. In 2013 we found that Black people are almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession even though Black and white people use marijuana at comparable rates.

What’s more, 64 percent of Americans approve of legalizing marijuana. But Jeff Sessions' policies go against the will of the people.

Let's tell Congress to pass the Marijuana Justice Act NOW to promote equitable and proportional justice. Antiquated and out-of-touch drug laws – like Sessions’ marijuana policies – have got to go.

-Jesselyn McCurdy
ACLU Deputy Legislative Director, fighting for criminal justice reform

*Note from Desktop Activist:  In addition to the injustices towards black people, there has been a profound change in the involvement of women within the criminal justice system over the past quarter century. This is the result of more expansive law enforcement efforts, stiffer drug sentencing laws, and post-conviction barriers to reentry that uniquely affect women. Women now comprise a larger proportion of the prison population than ever before; the female prison population stands nearly eight times higher than its population count in 1980. More than 60% of women in state prisons have a child under the age of 18. - the Sentencing Project

Sign the petition telling the Department of Justice to let states regulate marijuana

medical marijuana helps all these patients

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is preparing an assault on states that have legalized recreational marijuana. That means people who grow, sell, and use cannabis in states where it’s perfectly legal to do so could have their lives ruined by arrest, confiscation of their property, and prosecution. But the tide is turning, and more Americans support legalized cannabis than ever before.(1) Twenty-nine states have legalized medical marijuana, and nine have legalized its recreational use. Fifty-four members of Congress from both parties just sent a letter to President Trump asking him to overrule the DOJ’s decision.(2) If enough of us speak out along with the growing chorus of elected officials who support legalization, we can force Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end his crusade against marijuana. That’s why we’ve joined a broad coalition of organizations and elected officials to tell Sessions that the people have spoken: states should decide how to regulate marijuana. Will you join us? Sign the petition telling the Department of Justice to let states regulate marijuana. Sessions just repealed an Obama-era rule that directed the DOJ not to prosecute cannabis growers, sellers, and users in states that have legalized recreational marijuana. Now federal prosecutors can resume their failed War on Drugs. It’s not 1960 anymore. Decades of evidence show that cannabis is relatively safe, yet federal law treats it the same way it treats heroin -- as a dangerous drug of abuse. That’s why on top of the 29 states that have legalized it medicinally -- 9 of which have legalized it for recreational use as well -- 13 have decriminalized marijuana in attempt to reduce our prison population, which is the largest in the world thanks to the War on Drugs, which has disproportionately targeted communities of color.(3) Americans’ attitude towards cannabis has profoundly changed. For the first time ever, even a majority of Republican voters support legalization. All told, 61% of Americans support legalization and 71% oppose the administration trying to stop state regulation.(4) That support is beginning to extend to politicians. In direct response to Sessions’ announcement, Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) has vowed to block DOJ nominees unless Sessions rescinds his decision, while Representative Tom Garrett (R-VA) is sponsoring a bill to remove marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances.(5) And 54 members of Congress from both parties have signed a letter urging Donald Trump -- who promised to leave marijuana alone while on the campaign trail -- to rein Sessions in. We’re at a critical juncture. Backing up the growing number of politicians and business interests with demonstrable public support could stop Sessions in his tracks. Will you sign the petition and lend your voice to the growing chorus of people who demand legalization? Yes, I'll sign the petition demanding the DOJ let states regulate marijuana! - the Courage team Footnotes: 1. http://news.gallup.com/poll/221018/record-high-support-legalizing-marijuana.aspx & https://www.cbsnews.com/news/support-for-marijuana-legalization-at-all-time-high/ 2. http://www.newsweek.com/members-congress-marijuana-791086 3. http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-population-total & http://www.governing.com/gov-data/state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html 4. Refer to note 1. 5. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/pot-showdown-congress-uniting-to-stop-sessions-war-on-drugs-w515595

BRING ACCOUNTABILITY BACK TO THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

There is an epidemic of police killing and abusing Black and Brown people. And we have an Attorney General hell-bent on making sure these injustices continue for a very long time.

Communities and movements have been fighting for generations to achieve real accountability for prosecutors and police. Not only is Jeff Sessions working to dismantle that progress, he’s crafting initiatives and policies that will make these betrayals of justice even worse.

We live in a world today where we have no reliable data on how many people are shot by police officers each year. Where police can use the same weapons of war our military uses in Iraq and Afghanistan on our streets. Where prosecutors protect police departments, not the communities that elect them, and turn a blind eye to police misconduct.

Prosecutors and law enforcement should be accountable to the communities they serve, but Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department is widening the divide between police and communities and fueling mass incarceration.

We will not accept this. We must take action to ensure real accountability and community safety.

Join us in making five clear demands to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Justice Department must:

*Develop guidelines for prosecutors to shrink racial disparities, bolster accountability, and reduce mass incarceration

*Enforce requirements for data collection and reporting on police-community encounters

*De-militarizing the police

*Stop allowing police departments to profit by seizing property

*Restore community policing programs.

Sign the petition. 

Read the letter I wrote to the Phoenix Chief of Police after the police assaulted protesters at the Trump rally. 

Tell your Representatives to vote in favor of the amendments that would stop Sessions from expanding drug war forfeiture - policing for profit!

 

Tonight the U.S. House will vote on crucial amendments that would help stop the expansion of civil forfeiture that was recently announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

This corrupt practice – also known as “policing for profit” – allows police to seize and keep cash, property, and other assets from people who are merely suspected of being involved in a drug law violation.

It’s time to fight back. Tell your Representatives to vote in favor of the amendments that would stop Sessions from expanding drug war forfeiture.

Earlier this year, Sessions announced a new policy directing law enforcement agencies to increase the use of civil forfeiture. This unfair practice is a shameful relic of drug war hysteria and has been used to take billions of dollars from people who were not convicted of a crime.

And like other drug war programs, it’s disproportionately used against people of color and those who cannot afford to hire lawyers to get their property back.

Now we need your help to convince the House to stop Sessions from giving law enforcement agencies even more power to take innocent people’s property and run.

Send an email to your Representatives right now. And follow-up with phone calls to your Representatives. Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected with their offices. You can say:

As a constituent, I’m calling to urge my Representative to vote in favor of civil forfeiture amendments to H.R. 3354 that is being voted on today. Please vote yes on amendments Walberg/Cohen #46, Raskin/Sensenbrenner #67, and Amash/Sanford #70. These amendments would help stop the expansion of civil forfeiture and ensure that innocent property owners are protected. Please vote in favor of these amendments because civil forfeiture is an unfair practice that should not be expanded. Thank you.

- Grant Smith, Drug Policy Alliance


If you have time also contact Rep. McSally by phone, fax or e-mail.

Tucson Office:
Phone: (520) 881-3588
Fax: (520) 322-9490


Washington office:
Phone: (202) 225-2542
Fax: (202) 225-0378

https://mcsally.house.gov/contact

Urge members of the Intel Committee to press Sessions on some key points....

click to enlarge 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is testifying in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee at 2:30 ET TODAY -- following testimony last week from fired FBI Director James Comey that raised some serious questions about Sessions and his “problematic” possible involvement in the ongoing Russia investigation…

Call members of the Intel Committee to make sure they press Sessions on some key points:

Urge these senators to demand Sessions explain:

• What was his involvement with the Russia investigation before his recusal?
• Are there safeguards in place to maintain his separation from the investigations from which he’s recused himself?
• Why, in light of his previously stated recusal, did he feel he could be part of recommending the firing of Director Comey, who was leading the Russia investigation?

Senate Intelligence Committee Members listed below -- if you can only make a few calls, please prioritize Democrats, who are more likely to follow through on your request.

Richard Burr (R-NC), Chair - (202) 224-3154

Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chair - (202) 224-2023

Democrats:

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) - (202) 224-3841

Ron Wyden (D-OR) - (202) 224-5244

Martin Heinrich (D-NM) - (202) 224-5521

Angus King (I-ME) - (202) 224-5344

Joe Manchin (D-WV) - (202) 224-3954

Kamala Harris (D-CA) - (202) 224-3553

Republicans:

James Risch (R-ID) - (202) 224-2752

Marco Rubio (R-FL) - (202) 224-3041

Susan Collins (R-ME) - (202) 224-2523

Roy Blunt (R-MO) - (202) 224-5721

James Lankford (R-OK) - (202) 224-5754

Tom Cotton (R-AR) - (202) 224-2353

John Cornyn (R-TX) - (202) 224-2934

- People for the American Way

Attorney General Jeff Sessions pursues harsh sentences for people charged with nonviolent drug offenses

Attorney General Jeff Sessions called on his prosecutors to pursue harsh sentences for people charged with nonviolent drug offenses. Sessions’ memo rescinds policy instituted by former Attorney General Eric Holder, which avoided draconian mandatory minimums for many drug offenses.

This is a disastrous move that will increase the prison population, worsen racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and do nothing to reduce drug use or improve public safety. We won't let Sessions take our country back to the 1980s by escalating failed drug war policies.

Sign our petition to the Department of Justice urging them to rescind this memo immediately. It’s time to adopt smart drug policies instead of resurrecting the failed tactics of the past.

We warned you about Sessions when he was nominated for Attorney General, and throughout his confirmation hearings. We knew he’d be a nightmare for drug policy and criminal justice reform.

The memo Sessions issued today leaves no doubt that he and the Trump administration are going to escalate the drug war. We are doing everything in our power to stop them. But we need your help.

Demand the Department of Justice rescind this memo. Stand against this attempt to return to failed drug war policies that don’t work – add your name to our petition right now.

Jeff Sessions’ push for long mandatory minimums will destroy the lives of countless people, and tear apart families and communities.

Together, we must fight back against the “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” mentality that made the United States the number one incarcerator in the world.