Your Rights Are On The Line

When Republicans pushed through the Laken Riley Act with the claim that it would make Americans safer by ensuring violent criminals are deported, many Americans cheered. They had been convinced by the fearmongering propaganda that gangs of violent illegal immigrants were swarming across the border, putting every American at risk.

It doesn’t matter that as migrant crossings were hitting historic peaks, violent crime rates across the nation were seeing historic decreases, or that migrants commit crimes at a much lower rate than American citizens. People were made to be afraid, and scared people want the danger to go away no matter the cost.

The cost is our civil rights—specifically, the right to due process. The Laken Riley Act made it so that any non-citizen in the US can be indefinitely detained for being accused of a crime, even if they are here legally. No proof, investigation, or trial is necessary.

Since that bill was signed into law:

• A union apprentice here legally was deported to a notorious El Salvador prison that houses extremely violent criminals.

• A woman with a legal visa was, and still is, detained on claims of speaking in support of terrorism simply because she spoke in support of Palestinians. No evidence of ties with, or support for, terrorists has been produced.

• Numerous individuals have been detained for long periods without cause.

• Americans have been caught up in ICE raids and have even received threatening letters telling them to self-deport or face the consequences.

This is only the beginning. It will get worse.

Growing up, I often heard multiple versions of the saying, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” If we truly believe in the right of free speech, we must protect it for everyone, even when we disagree with how others use it. All rights should be considered this way.

That sentiment has disappeared with the MAGA movement. There is no pushback from the right to Trump shaking down news corporations, attacking law firms that had any involvement in cases against him, or deporting people because he doesn’t like their use of free speech. Those were all tests. America failed.

Tyrants, dictators, and authoritarians don’t go after all of your rights at once. They start slow, targeting marginalized groups—the people who can’t defend themselves. They use fear to erode your empathy and belief in the rule of law.

Even now, the Trump administration refuses to follow court orders from lower courts and the Supreme Court, which ruled 9-0, nearly unheard of with today’s partisan court, that the wrongfully deported union apprentice needs to be brought back to the US. Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, also refuses to help Trump’s defiance. This is another test, and so far, it is another failure.

If the American public apathetically looks the other way while Trump defies the highest court in the land, he will defy it again. Trump has declared that protests he doesn’t like can be treated as illegal. He is attempting to tell universities what they can and cannot teach. Trump has said he wants to be a dictator, that he could use the military against civilians, and even that he could terminate the Constitution.

On April 9th, Trump signed orders directing the Department of Justice to open investigations into two Americans who defied him. These weren’t signed in a secret bunker, but out in the open, transmitted to the American public through television and live streaming.

The first was Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security who wrote an op-ed and later a book detailing Trump being unfit for office. The second was Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who committed one of the worst crimes in the mind of Donald Trump, disputing that the 2020 election was stolen. This isn’t hyperbole. It is what Trump is angry about, and it is the vengeance he seeks on his detractors. The executive order against Krebs stated explicitly:

“Krebs, through CISA, falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines.”

Trump didn’t stop with just signing the orders. He also stated that he felt they may be guilty of treason, a high crime that can carry the punishment of execution. As Taylor responded on Twitter: “Dissent isn’t unlawful. It certainly isn’t treasonous.”

It has been five days since Trump signed the executive orders targeting those two men, twenty days since Rumeysa Ozturk had her visa revoked and was detained by ICE for using free speech, a month since the union apprentice, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported to a horrible prison, and multiple months since Trump first targetted CBS for a 60 Minutes interview involving his political opponent Kamala Harris. America as a nation has not risen up to defend our rights, to defend our free press, our freedom of speech, our right to assembly.

There is still hope. There have been marches and gatherings, town halls and events. There is a growing outrage and a desire to resist the attacks on our democratic foundations, but we still need more. Maybe Trump’s statement that he wishes to send American citizens to that notorious El Salvadorian prison will be the spark our nation needs. I fear it won’t be.

An almost cliché quote is “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” But that isn’t what Edmund Burke said. He said:

“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

It isn’t enough to speak up; we must speak up as one. We need millions of voices shouting out together, and defending one another. That is how tyranny is defeated. Our rights are more important than our differences.

https://reason.com/2025/04/14/trump-flagrantly-targets-political-opponents-in-executive-orders/

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/tufts-student-rumeysa-ozturk-ice-detained/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_Kilmar_Abrego_Garcia