re: I just got back from ICE facilities in Louisiana

 

THANK YOU SENATO MARKEY! 

WE SUPPORT YOU! 

FREE SPEECH IS A BEDROCK OF DEMOCRACY!

THE CASTRATED STATE DEPARTMENT CAN'T FEED HUNGRY PEOPLE OR PAY US 

FARMERS DUE TO USAID FUNDS CUT, BUT THEY CAN MONITOR SOCIAL MEDIA???

IT'S CALLED FASCISM!

Yesterday I visited two ICE detention facilities in Louisiana, where I met with my constituent Rümeysa Öztürk, as well as Mahmoud Khalil.

Rümeysa and Mahmoud were arrested by ICE and taken to this facility for deportation. They are legal US residents who have not been charged with crimes and made no violations of their terms of residency. Their only charge was exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. They must be released now.

This isn’t about immigration or about national security — it’s repression, it’s authoritarianism, it’s unconstitutional. And we must fight back.

Please, take just 60 seconds to sign our petition demanding the release of Rümeysa, Mahmoud, and all of those who are wrongfully held in detention by the Trump administration >>

ADD YOUR NAME

I was happy to speak with Rümeysa annd Mahmoud and hear that despite everything, they are in good spirits. But this experience has been traumatic for them and a hardship for their families and communities.

Rümeysa Öztürk came to Tufts University to continue her studies, and while there she helped write an op-ed critical of the university’s response to the pro-Palestine protests. That one op-ed was enough for the Trump administration to send masked ICE agents to abduct her from the street and secretly send her away to Louisiana, without any explanation of why she was being imprisoned or access to her lawyer.

And both Rümeysa and Mahmoud were taken to these ICE facilities in Louisiana, more than a thousand miles from their homes, because Trump wanted them under the jurisdiction of a far-right judge who wouldn’t challenge his plan to deport them despite their First Amendment protections.

The Trump administration is weaponizing our immigration system to crack down on free speech. It’s unAmerican and I will not stand for it.

I and other members of Congress are doing everything we can to shine a light on Trump’s cruel, authoritarian, and unconstitutional actions, but the best way we can fight back is with continued grassroots action.

We must keep building our movement for democracy, decency, and a better way forward. We have to keep applying pressure on this administration and demanding accountability from the halls of Congress to the streets of every city and town in this country.

Join me in standing up to this corrupt and lawless administration. Sign on to our petition right now demanding that DHS release those who are wrongfully held in detention. Our movement is growing in strength each and every day, and your signature helps us keep that momentum going.

ADD YOUR NAME

Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil may be the first to go through this horrible ordeal, but they certainly won’t be the last. Trump’s State Department has already revoked hundreds of student visas in the last two months, and they’ve announced plans to monitor the social media of millions of legal U.S. residents to lay the groundwork for deportation.

It’s time to speak out, take action, and do everything we can as the Trump administration continues down this path of eroding free speech and basic rights.

In solidarity,

Ed Markey

 

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