Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-09-03 Wednesday

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Democracy Now! Wednesday, September 3, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. First, I want to address the president's unhinged remarks a few minutes ago, begging me to call him. No, I will not call the president asking him to send troops to Chicago. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker strongly rejects Trump's threat to send the National Guard to Chicago. Federal agents are already massing at a military base nearby. We'll speak with Democratic Chicago Congress member, Chui Garcia. Then, in a slew of legal developments, a federal judge has ruled Trump broke the law when he deployed the National Guard to stop immigration protests in Los Angeles. A conservative federal appeals courts block the president from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans.

And Defense Secretary Pete Higsef has authorized some 600 military lawyers to serve as immigration judges. We'll get an update. And we'll speak with New York Times contributor, Gene Guerrero, about her new essay, The Border is Invading America. then to the case of a military veteran who's been charged with conspiracy for joining a protest against ICE. It's seen as a test case on how far the Trump administration will go to punish dissent. We'll go to Spokane, Washington. I'm Dajun Maval Wall and the FBI sent 10 agents to arrest my son at 6 a.m. on July 14th for non-violently protesting against ICE in Spokane, Washington last June.

My son is an Afghanistan veteran. who held a top secret security clearance and has never had any kind of arrests or criminal record. He also helped rescue 40 Afghan refugees after the U.S. withdrawal, half of whom were minors. This is the state of the country under the Trump regime. Both he and his son are retired National Guard. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

Officials in Gaza say Israel's killed 113 Palestinians over the last day, including 33 people seeking food. Al Jazeera reports in Israeli drone strike killed several children who are in line for water in Al-Mawesi, which has been designated a safe zone. This comes as Israel intensifies its attack on Gaza City, where Israel's attempting to forcibly remove the city's entire population of over one million. people. On Tuesday, mourners gathered at El Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to hold prayers for those killed in Israeli strikes. They had gone out to get clothes. We fled our homes with nothing. They went to get clothes and to get food from their homes, to bring clothes for their children and to get food for themselves because of the situation. We are sitting in tents. We fled with nothing. And look now,

they came back as martyrs. And most of the martyrs are either from the Zakeem crossings because they were getting aid, or from when they went to bring clothes, a blanket, or a mattress to sleep on. Israel has begun mobilizing 60,000 reservists for its push into Gaza City. Here's Ayel-Zamir, the chief of staff of the Israeli Armed Forces, speaking with reservists. We are preparing for the continuation of the war, continuation of fighting. We are going to enhance and deepen our operation, and that's why we called you. Meanwhile, hundreds of Israeli Army reservists say they will not report for duty if they're called to serve in the Gaza City offensive. At a Tel Aviv news conference, Sergeant Max Kresh said, quote, we are over 365 in counting soldiers who served during the war and have declared we will not report for duty when called again, unquote.

Meanwhile, protesters in Jerusalem took over the roof of the National Library Building overlooking the parliament, calling for an end to the war. Israel's Army radio reported 13 protesters were arrested. We came here today to demonstrate in front of the House of the Parliament, to demonstrate and to tell them to bring our hostages back home and to end the war. We need our soldiers back home. We need our hostages back home. Now, it's been too long for them to stay there.

Stop the war now. Belgium will recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly this month, according to the country's foreign minister, comes as France, Britain, Canada, and Australia have all announced they were also prepared to recognize the state of Palestine at the UN General Assembly. Belgium also plans to impose 12 sanctions on Israel, which include a ban on all products from illegal settlements in the West Bank and a review of public procurement policies with Israeli companies. This comes as the Trump administration faces growing criticism for suspending visas for Palestinian passport holders,

including for Palestinian officials set to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly. President Trump said Tuesday, the U.S. attacked a boat in the southern Caribbean, killing 11 people. Trump claimed the boat was carrying drugs from Venezuela but offered no proof of the claim. The Pentagon recently sent warships to the region after Trump secretly authorized the use of military forces. in Latin America under the guise of the war on drugs. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly warned Trump is seeking regime change in his oil-rich country. This is Maduro speaking Monday. Mr. President, Donald Trump, you must be careful because Marco Rubio wants to

stain your hands with blood, South American, Caribbean, Venezuelan blood. They want to drag you into a blood Beth, to tarnish the Trump name forever with a massacre against the Venezuelan people, with a terrible war across South America and the Caribbean. This would be a full-scale continental war. They want to stain Donald Trump's hands with blood. In immigration news, U.S. Federal Appeals courts blocked President Trump from rapidly deporting Venezuelans suspected of being gang members under the 18th century wartime Alien Enemies Act In a two-to-one ruling, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a preliminary injunction, quote, to prevent removal because we find no invasion or predatory incursion has occurred.

The Fifth Circuit is considered to be one of the most conservative appeals courts in the United States. The case is expected to head to the Supreme Court will have more on this story later in the broadcast. A federal judge has ruled the Trump administration broke the law when deploying the national government. to Los Angeles this summer to quell protests against immigration raids. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer raised concerns that the deployments are, quote, creating a national police force with the president as its chief, unquote. The ruling comes as President Trump said, quote, we're going in when asked about federal troop deployments to Chicago and Baltimore. He repeatedly called both cities a hellhole. Yesterday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker was joined by

Chicago officials when he reiterated his opposition to federal troops in Chicago. Trump and his team will be looking for any excuse to put active duty military on our streets, supposedly to protect ICE. We have reason to believe that the Trump administration has already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois. We'll speak with Democratic Congress member Chui Garcia of Chicago after headlines and other Immigration News, Bloomberg's reporting ICE is about to get access to a controversial spyware program built by the Israeli-based company Paragon. A $2 million contract was signed last year, but the Biden administration then issued a stop order blocking government agencies from using the spyware,

which has been used to target activists and journalists in Europe. Meanwhile, defense secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized up to 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges. The head of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Ben Johnson, warned the decision will gut due process and undermine the immigration court system. He told the Associated Press, quote, it makes as much sense as having a cardiologist do a hip replacement. We'll have more on this story later in the broadcast. The House Oversight Committee has released over 33,000 pages related to the federal investigation into the late sex offender, Jeffrey and his associate, Ghislane Maxwell.

But according to Democratic lawmakers, 97% of the files were already public, and the files are just a tiny fraction of the total documents. On Tuesday, a number of Epstein survivors met privately with House Speaker Mike Johnson and a bipartisan group of members of the House Oversight Committee. Meanwhile, Republican Congressman Thomas Massey and Democrat Rokana are holding a news conference today with Epstein survivors.

Massey has also filed what's known as a discharge petition to force a floor vote to compel the Justice Department to release all of its Epstein files. If every Democrat backs the measure, Massey will need the support of five other Republicans for the move to succeed. A group of Epstein survivors and family members have also done a joint interview with NBC News as Hallie Jackson. She asked them about their interactions with the Justice Department. Show of hands. Did any of you hear from the Justice Department before they released that memo, that two-page memo earlier the summer? No hands. Were any of you told that Todd Blanche would be speaking with Gillesne Maxwell prior to that interview over the course of two days? No. No. No. Were any of you told about the prison transfer that Gilling Maxwell? No. Do any of you feel that the DOJ has communicated with you enough this year? No. No. Have any of you had any communication with the DOJ? No. No. Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and other world leaders at one of the largest military parades in Chinese history today to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. For the first time, China unveiled its triad of nuclear-capable missiles as thousands of Chinese troops goose stepped across Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

In a post on social media, President Trump addressed President Xi, quote, Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un as you conspire against the United States of America, Trump wrote. Putin and Kim also met on the sidelines of the military parade. Putin reportedly thanked Kim for sending North Korean troops to fight in Ukraine last year. In Brazil, the trial of former President J. Er Bolsonaro has entered its final phase, and seven of his allies are accused of plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 race to Luis Alastia Lulia de Silva. On Tuesday, the court indirectly criticized the Trump administration for interfering in the trial. Justice Alejandre de Moresh, who has been sanctioned by the U.S.,

said from the bench, quote, we will never lack the courage to reject those who threaten our national sovereignty or the independence of the judiciary. On Tuesday, President Lulu criticize the U.S. meddling. There's no reason to fear an American accusation. What's happening with the U.S. is that it has exacerbated anything we've known in the history of humanity of a government meddling to judge the conduct of another country's justice system. A U.S. federal judge ruled Tuesday. Google does not need to sell its Chrome Web browser, but it does need to share its search

data with rivals. The rulings widely seen as a victory for Google as the Justice Department has asked the judge to force Google to share more of its data and sell Chrome in an effort to break up Google's power as a search monopoly. Google's still scheduled to go on trial in a separate case brought by the DOJ about its monopoly in online advertising. And President Trump's nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Anthony, reportedly discussed gender differences and IQ scores with interns at the Heritage Foundation. According to the Washington Post, Anthony remark that women's scores clustered around average IQ scores while men were more likely to display scores at the higher and lower end

of the distribution. Anthony would replace Erica McIntyrefer, who Trump fired after he accused her of changing a jobs report that showed lower than expected employment growth. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.

We begin today's show in Chicago. On Tuesday, President Trump said, quote, we're going in when asked about federal troop deployments to Chicago and Baltimore. He repeatedly called both cities a hellhole. There's no place in the world, including you can go to Afghanistan, you can go to places that you would think of. They don't even come close to this. Chicago is a hellhole right now. Baltimore is a hell hall right now.

Parts of Los Angeles are terrible. Take your mind about Chicago, though? Well, we're going in. I didn't say when. We're going in. This comes, as a federal judge ruled the Trump administration, broke the law when deploying, the National Guard to Los Angeles to quote protests against immigration raids, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, the brother of retired Justice Breyer, raised concerns the deployments

are, quote, creating a national police force with the president as its chief, unquote. Yesterday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker was joined by Chicago officials when he reiterated his opposition to federal troops in Chicago. In the coming days, we expect to see what has played out in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. to happen here in Chicago. First, Donald Trump is positioning armed federal agents and staging military vehicles on federal property, such as the Great Lakes Naval Base. Second, unidentifiable agents in unmarked vehicles with masks are planning to raid Latino, communities and say they're targeting violent criminals. As we saw in Los Angeles, a very, very small percentage of the individuals they will target will be violent criminals. Instead, you're likely to see

videos of them hauling away mothers and fathers traveling to work or picking up their kids from school. Sometimes they will detain handcuff and haul away children. Third, as lawful citizens exercise their First Amendment rights. Trump and his team will be looking for any excuse to put active duty military on our streets, supposedly to protect ICE. We have reason to believe that the Trump administration has already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said federal agents have already begun staging at a military base near Chicago. He was joined by Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson. Instead of using militarized ice agents to terrify our communities here in Chicago,

instead of sending in border patrol to our city to detain mothers and fathers who have called Chicago their home for decades, working class people who pay their taxes and make our communities stronger, they should direct those resources to taking down gun traffic so that we can finally put a stop to the violence. If the Chicago Police Department had a fighting chance, we could end gun violence in Chicago. But as long as this president allows hundreds of thousands of guns to come into our city, we will always be fighting an uphill battle.

For more, we're joined in Washington, D.C. by Democratic Illinois Congress member, Jesus Chuli Garcia, who represents Chicago. Welcome back to Democracy Now, Congress member. So can you first respond to what is happening? How advanced are the troop deployments to your city? And what's your message to President Trump? Good morning, Amy and Juan. I'm glad to join you.

Unfortunately, we don't have a whole lot of information about the deployment of both federal agents or how many of them will be deployed. And then, of course, the even greater fear that the National Guard would be deployed. We get little bits and pieces of information, including a tip that Texas National Guard elements might be used in the mobilization. But clearly, this is not about public safety and it's not about law and order. It's a show of force meant to intimidate to create fear and send troops to act. cities because people in those cities largely and overwhelmingly opposed Donald Trump and his policies.

That's really what's behind this as well, of course, as creating distractions from the Epstein files. There's great fear in the White House that there could be implications for the administration. I think the California redistricting response to the illegal blatant. gerrymandering in Texas and the fact that we hosted much of the Texas delegation. And of course, the D.C. mobilization, militarization that also rejects Trump. And as we saw this weekend on Labor Day on Monday, there have been protests against the Trump policies all over the nation. And those will continue. That's what this is all about,

distracting from the fact that the cost of living continues to rise and that people are hurting and that no legislation has been introduced, no policies have been rolled out seeking to control the cost of living and provide relief to the American people. And Congressman, I wanted to ask you, on Labor Day, I was at the March that was held where you spoke in Chicago, and many of the immigrant rights activists there were telling me that the people that they're in contact with in their communities, of them are staying home from work or keeping their kids out of school because of all of these the word that is spreading about this upcoming raids. This Saturday is going to be the Mexican

Independence Day Parade in Chicago. Your concerns about how the parade might be used by federal agents and even by provocateurs? A great question, Juan. Yes, one of my concerns is that For several years now, it's become quite a tradition where especially young people take to the streets in their cars and their pickups and their vans and they're waving Mexican flags. They're expressing their Mexican pride and having a good time. And it occurs all over the city of Chicago, including in the downtown part of Chicago. My concern is that such a setting provides a very ripe opportunity for those who want to sow discord, those who want to create clashes to do so. And of course, there is also a great concern on my part that this announcement of federal agents

and the mobilization of the Guard comes on the eve of that. celebration, which is an annual affair. And for example, 26th Street in the Little Village community where I live hosts perhaps the largest Mexican Independence Day parade in the country where up to 250,000 people have assembled to enjoy this wonderful celebration. And of course, there is concern and fear that these events commemorating Mexican independence will be used to repress, to intimidate, and to try to create clashes so that there's imagery of people fighting with the federal agents, with local police, certainly with National Guard if they were to be deployed. So these are among the concerns that we have. And it certainly seems

that they are timed to coincide with this celebration. And I wanted to ask you also, So Trump continues to rail against sanctuary cities and threaten to withhold federal funding, but Chicago was the nation's first sanctuary city. Could you talk about that history because you were there when it happened? Yes, this year is the 40th year since Chicago's mayor at that time, our Harold Washington issued an executive order because Latinos were being profiled. They were being harassed by immigration agents. Today, they're known as ICE agents, including Puerto Ricans, who were stopped and interrogated and asked for their papers.

The mayor was really upset about this and issued the executive order, which recognizes immigrants' contributions to Chicago, great, long, rich history of many immigrant groups that have come to Chicago and made it their home. Similarly, the growth of Chicago's Latino community, especially its huge Mexican-American and immigrant communities, are very concerned about what is going on. And the city, of course, has reiterated its sanctuary status. It's a welcoming immigrant-friendly status, both by codifying the executive order into an ordinance and strengthening it. And, of course, this has been replicated in the Illinois legislature by both chambers with Republican support. And, of course, the mayor, the governor has been a big champion of protecting and defending immigrants' rights. And most importantly, their constitutional rights in this new second Trump administration. That's the history.

Chicago has been a refuge for immigrants, for women. reproductive rights for the LGBTQ community, and let's not forget that Trump is holding a grudge because when he began his campaign for the White House in 2015, Chicago pushed back against his hatred and his divisive rhetoric. Let's not forget that at that time, he was attacking Mexican immigrants for being criminals and rapists and the worst of the worst, and that's been used to try to justify the deployment of the National Guard and the federalization of National Guards in several states. We've seen it now, of course, in L.A. and California. We've seen it in D.C. And Chicago, of course, seems to be the next target of Trump and Stephen Miller again

to stir up fear to attack immigrants and to pursue deportation quotas and most importantly to try to pit people against each other. Congressman, on Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Trump's threatening to send troops to Chicago to distract the public from other issues. This president doesn't care about gun violence. He just wants his own secret police force that would do publicity stunts whenever his poll numbers are sinking. Whenever his jobs report shows a stagnating economy, whenever he needs another distraction from his failures, that's what this is about. So two quick questions. He's talking about Chicago being the distraction for Trump. You're a Congress member.

You know the huge push that's now becoming bipartisan to release all the Epstein files. And survivors are speaking in Congress. This is a serious threat to President Trump because his MAGA base is also demanding the release of the files. Do you think this push against Chicago and. in Baltimore and the more dramatic language Trump is using is to distract attention from hearing these survivors of Epstein and call for the release of the files where we understand he's mentioned a number of times. Absolutely.

It's a distraction, a total distraction, because from Washington, D.C. to Chicago to Baltimore, crime rates, especially the most serious crimes, have gone down and continue. to trend downward. Misinformation is being used to justify an authoritarian takeover without a doubt. That is why this is being ramped up at this time. Today, we're going to be hearing from a number of survivors of abuse in the Epstein episode, one of the darkest episodes in our country, especially as it exploits and traffics in young women, and there seems to be a great paranoia in the White House about full disclosure of these documents, and that's why we will continue to push for the resolution, the discharge petition, to put it to a vote in the House of Representatives

to see what people will do. But without a doubt, this is a total distraction from the real issues of the day that includes the Epstein files, the cost of living, and of course, Donald Trump's fate in the courts, which are in real danger because courts are threatening to undo his tariffs. They have found that he has illegally mobilized the National Guard, and they're losing in many critical cases in the federal courts, even though it's a very slow process, but they're not winning like they expect to do, and that's why they're trying to destroy. the nation. Congress member Chewy Garcia, we want to thank you very much for being with us.

Congress member Garcia represents Chicago, where our co-host, Juan Gonzalez is as well. When we come back, a slew of new judicial rulings on Trump's use or misuse of the National Guard and the immigration crackdown, we'll speak with an attorney with the American Immigration Council, as well as. as New York Times contributor, Gene Guerrero, about her new essay, The Border is Invading America. Back in 20 seconds. Palpitas in front of me

in our aha, aha, aha, aha, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh,

uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Here in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, DemocritoryNow.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. We look now at a slew of legal developments

with the Trump administration's deployment of National Guard troops to U.S. cities and his broader immigration crackdown. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, the brother of the retired Supreme Court Justice, Stephen Breyer, ruled Trump broke the law when he deployed the National Guard to L.A. to quell protests against immigration raids. Breyer expressed concern about the deployments are, quote, creating a national police force with the president as its chief, unquote. Meanwhile, defense secretary Pete Hegsef has authorized up to six.

hundred military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges. And in more immigration news, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a two-to-one ruling that blocks President Trump from using the 18th century wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans accused of being gang members because, quote, we find no invasion or predatory incursion had occurred. The Fifth Circuit is considered to be one of the most concerned. conservative appeals courts in the United States. The case is expected to head to the Supreme Court. For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we're joined by Aaron Reiklin-Mellnick, Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council. Aaron, welcome back to Democracy Now. Let's start with that last

overnight court decision. If you can talk about this very conservative court ruling against Trump using the Alien Enemies Act, the AEA, and then just go through these latest decisions in the last two days? Yeah, well, first starting with the Alien Enemies Act, we saw the Fifth Circuit in a two-one decision ruled that the Alien Enemies Act is a wartime authority, which is what everyone has been saying so far. The judges' panels rule it was a two-one decision. They joined over a dozen other federal judges to rule that this law adopted in 1798 during the quasi war with France and that has only ever previously been invoked during declared wars is in fact a wartime authority and not something that can be used to deport Venezuelan alleged gang members

without any due process whatsoever. So this is yet another blow for the Trump administration in their efforts to use the Alien Enemies Act. And though we know that this case will eventually make it to the Supreme Court. At the Supreme Court as well, the Trump administration is zero for two in their efforts to use the law without any due process. Beyond that, of course, we had Judge Breyer's decision in California, finding that the president violated the Posse Comitatus Act when the military was used for domestic law enforcement, things like riot control or crowd control in Los Angeles. And for those who are not aware, what is the Posse Comitatus? The Posse Comitatis Act?

The Posse Comitatis Act is a 150-year-old law adopted after the Civil War that says extremely clearly that the U.S. military may not be used for domestic law enforcement unless explicitly authorized to do so by Congress. And here, Congress has never authorized the military to be used for basic law enforcement tasks like crowd control. also if you could comment on the federal judge decision over the weekend stopping the Trump administration from illegally deporting as many as 700 Guatemalan children in the middle of the night back to Guatemala yeah that's another case that looks very suspiciously similar to the kinds of things the Trump administration did in the Alien Enemies Act case they adopted a very out there bizarre legal interpretation that had never been put forward

and then tried to execute mass removals in the middle of the night or very early in the morning before a judge could stop them. In this case, a judge acted at 2 a.m. to put forward an order to block the Trump administration and continued forward that order and her actions throughout the day so they did, in fact, prevent the planes from taking off. But at its heart, this resulted from the, this was a result of the Trump administration's bizarre claim that the Office of Refugee Resettlement has an authority to effectively run its own shadow repatriation system and has the ability to send children home outside of the normal constraints of immigration law, which include things like the right to seek asylum.

So that, those flights have been blocked. this case will now continue forward in the courts, but unlike what happened with the Alien Enemies Act and the deportations to El Salvador, the planes did not manage to take off and deplane their passengers. Meanwhile, defense secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized up to 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges. The head of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Ben Johnson, warned the decision will gut due process and undermine the immigration court.

He said to the Associated Press, it makes as much sense as having a cardiologist do a hip replacement. Talk about the meaning of Army lawyers becoming immigration judges. Yeah, Ben Johnson is right here. The reality is that immigration law is extraordinarily complex. And it's often been described as second in complexity only to the tax system. An immigration court has often been described as death penalty cases in traffic court procedures. So what we have here are 600 lawyers who may very well be good lawyers and conscientious, but have absolutely no experience in immigration law whatsoever,

and they're being assigned to take cases that could lead to someone's death if they're decided wrong. While undoubtedly they could eventually become experts in immigration law with months and months of training, these deployments are supposed to last only 179 days. So you have people who are going to be ordered to take on these incredibly weighty, difficult, complex cases without any of the relevant experience they need, which is only going to strain the immigration court system. And indeed, the purpose of this is clear. Corey Lewandowski, who is a senior advisor to Secretary Nome, and of course a longtime member of Trump World, said on X yesterday that the goal of this is to increase deportations.

And I think that really gives away the game. So much for being with us. Oh, go ahead, Juan. No, no, I just wanted to ask him about the pending invasion of Chicago by both federal agents and the military, especially this idea that Trump has of bringing National Guard troops from essentially Republican states to occupy largely minority cities in democratic states? Yeah, I think, as Governor Pritzker has stated, this is particularly disturbing. You know, when you look at the statistics, you know, Chicago is not even in the top 20 most violent cities, which is not to say, of course, that there are not issues with gun violence, but not ones that would

justify deploying the National Guard. But I want to emphasize that, you know, beyond the National Guard, this is in many ways also about immigration. Here in Washington, D.C., the National Guard has mostly been standing around the mall or doing tasks like spreading mulch and picking up trash. But what's actually been happening most significantly is the invasion of the city by federal law enforcement officers to carry out immigration enforcement. You have ICE and the Metropolitan Police Department setting up checkpoints in major thoroughfares in the city. you have a major increase in ice rates across the city and people being afraid to take their

children to school. So while a lot of the attention in Chicago is going to be on the National Guard deployment, keep an eye out for what ICE is doing, because this could be yet another Los Angeles where we see huge increase in immigration enforcement throughout the city and immigrant communities forced to shrink back in fear. Aaron Reikland-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, thanks so much. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. As President Trump threatens to send the National Guard to Chicago and if federal judge rules against their deployment to quell ice protests in Los Angeles,

we turn now to Jean Guerrero, contributing opinion writer at the New York Times. Her new essay is headline, The Border is invading America. She writes, quote, The U.S.-Mexico border is no longer just a line on a map. It's a roaming force drifting through our cities and rhaps. savaging schools, courthouses, and workplaces. It's become unmoored from geography, dragging its violence and impunity into the heart of American life. Jean Guerrero is author of Hatemonger, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda, and a visiting professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, joining us from Los Angeles. Jean, welcome back to Democracy Now.

Why don't you elaborate, again, on your piece, the border is invading America. Yeah, of course. Thank you, Amy. So what we're seeing across the U.S. is that the Border Patrol is now operating deep inside the country alongside ice. And it's bringing its Wild West mentality. You know, they're wearing cowboy hats. And they're treating Los Angeles in places across. the United States like lawless outposts on a hostile frontier. They've been deputized to carry the

border with them and to enforce its racialized logic wherever they go. As we know, the administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow it to continue to use racial profiling and immigration enforcement. And in Southern California, we are routinely seeing people targeted based on their skin color, which is why I wrote that the border is no longer something that only divides countries. It also snakes between white and brown, between families and neighbors, between citizens, and the rights that they once thought were inviolate. And the brute force that the border once unleashed out of sight in the desert or behind

the locked doors of detention centers is now erupting on our side. streets. For example, in Southern California, we're seeing fathers killed while fleeing immigration raids. We recently saw a family shot at in their car while trying to get away from agents. We are seeing people violently tackled and disappeared into unmarked vans. And too many Americans continue to believe that the border is meant to stop a quote-unquote. invasion. But the reality is that the border is invading us. And it's coming not only for the rights of immigrants and for immigrants themselves, but for the rights of all of us. And Gene, in your piece, you basically also charged that democratic leaders have been

complicit now for decades in the stoking of anti-immigrant xenophobia. in the U.S. You're right at one point, quote, I have repeatedly asked Trump voters about his immigration policy, such as his first terms family separation. They tend to reply by shrugging their shoulders and pointing at similar actions by Democratic leaders saying Obama put kids in cages or Obama separated families too. Do you talk about that? Yeah, I think it's important to talk about that because what happened is that the Democratic Party, formalized anti-immigrant cruelty alongside Republican administrations. And until we reckon with that bipartisan nature of our racialized immigration system,

then we're not going to be able to restrain it because we need to hold our elected officials accountable in both parties for what they have created together. So as I wrote in my piece, it was the Clinton administration that oversaw the initial militarization of the border in the 1990s, after which we have seen as many as 80,000 people who have died trying to cross the border. That's a stadium of human beings who've died of dehydration in the desert, who've died of broken backs falling off of the border barriers, or even from Border Patrol agents' bullets. And after Clinton's border militarization, we saw President Obama deport three million people more than any previous president.

oftentimes these are individuals who were deported to their deaths. And the Obama administration also oversaw or decided against removing exceptions for racial profiling and immigration enforcement. This is a decision that the Biden administration made as well. And so both of these administrations affirmed a two-tiered system of justice, one in which immigrants and people who merely look like immigrants have fewer rights. However, when Trump came along, many Democrats treated his cruel policies as if they were shocking new horrors, unique to Republicans. And this is a moral inconsistency and hypocrisy that Trump's senior advisor Stephen Miller knew to exploit, which I can talk about in a moment. But the point is that Democratic leaders' selective outrage

on the immigration issue helped fuel the crisis that we're living today and we need to reckon with that because right now too many Democratic Party leaders wrongly believe that we are where we are today

because they were too nice to immigrants. Yeah, and I wanted to ask you particularly again about the role of Stephen Miller there's been really no one quite like him at the high echelons of federal government in terms of the emphasis on naked mass deportations. Do you talk about him as well as the architect of the Trump policies? Yes.

Yeah, the architect of Trump's immigration policies. So as I wrote in my book, Hate Monger, Stephen Miller is a student of liberal hypocrisy. He grew up in Santa Monica, California, where he saw the performative nature of many Democratic leaders, compassion for immigrants. Santa Monica is a place where many working class immigrant residents have been pushed into overcrowded apartments or out of the city altogether because of rising rents. So as Trump's speechwriter, it was not hard for Stephen Miller to make the case that Democratic Party leaders defend immigrants only as a source of cheap labor or because they want their votes, even though immigrants don't vote unless they're citizens. But

But essentially, Miller knew that in practice, if not in proclamation, Democratic Party leaders had normalized indifference and cruelty toward immigrants. And this longstanding indifference toward immigrants that the Democratic Party has, except when they're wielding this issue as a cudgel against Trump, is something that has worked symbiotically with the racism of Republican leaders to enable the border's violent, encroachment on our lives, which we are now seeing. And unfortunately, Democratic leaders are now largely silent on immigration. They are convinced that to win back voters and to win back

Americans' trust, they have to either sidestep the immigration issue or they have to channel the rights hostility toward immigrants. For example, we were seeing California Governor Newsom approved cutting back on health care benefits for the undocumented. He's really had a more muted tone on sanctuary laws in California. I actually reached out to his office for comment on the deaths of immigrants that we saw this summer and haven't heard back. But as Democrats like him appear to see it, the party's failure is not inhumanity or in coherence on the immigration issue. but rather an overabundance of compassion for the foreign-born.

And this delusion would be comical if it wasn't so costly. It's a gift for restrictionists like Stephen Miller, who use the disconnectedness of Democratic Party elites to stoke resentment toward all liberals and to bolster the false perception that immigrants are to blame for everything. So really what I'm arguing for in the piece is that we desperately need a reckoning with the structural abuses embedded in our immigration system and with how both parties have played a role in sustaining them because otherwise the border is going to continue to coil inward and to destroy our collective rights. Jean Guerrero, I want to thank you so much for being with us.

New York Times contributing opinion writer will link to your piece, the border is invading America. Jean is also author of hate monger, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda and Visiting Professor at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Coming up, we look at the case of a military veteran charged with conspiracy for joining an ICE protest back in 20 seconds. Wade in the Water, Children, Wade in the Water, by Ruther May Harris, one of the Snick Freedom singers, performing for the memorial service of Mary Travers in 2009 at the Riverside Church here in New York. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. We turn now to the story of a military veteran who joined an ICE protest and is now being charged

with conspiracy to impede or injure officers. Legal experts have called the charges a test case for how far the Trump administration will go to punish dissent. Beijan Mavala, who goes by Bejee, is a 35-year-old former Army sergeant who survived a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. On June 11th, he saw a social media post by the former city council president of Spokane calling to protest the detention of a legal asylum seeker. The post said in part, quote, three weeks ago, I became the legal guardian of a young man from Venezuela seeking asylum. He's turned in all paperwork, has a future court hearing. I went with him to ICE check-in today. They detained him, are shipping him to Tacoma.

I'm going to sit in front of the bus. Feel free to join me, the city council president wrote. Bejie was one of hundreds who responded. The protest became confrontational, more than two dozen people arrested the scene. But Beji wasn't one of them. In a minute, a one-minute video posted on Instagram, the Army veteran is briefly visible jostling with an agent before locking arms with other protesters. He was also injured by a rubber bullet at the protest.

More than a month later, FBI agents came to his home at 6 a.m., more than a month later, and arrested him. Beji's father, the retired intelligence officer, Bayesian Ray Mabalala, filmed part of his son's arrest. His is the first voice you hear in this clip. I want the search warrant free going to house. That's my house, not his. Hold it.

I mean, I'm just put it in this truck. I'm just saying if you can just step down here. Thank you. I'm a guest and veteran. I'm an American citizen. The conspiracy count against Beijing Mavala carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison, a quarter of a million dollar fine, and three years of supervised release.

He's now out on his own recognizance awaiting trial. We're joined out by two guests in San Francisco Aaron Glantz's investigative reporter who's covered this story for The Guardian. In Spokane, Washington, Bayesian Ray Mavala, the father of Bejee is with us. We welcome you both to Democracy Now. Bayesian Ray Mavala, your former Army intelligence with three bronze stars earned. that you have earned during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. You're the father of Bejji, a U.S. Army veteran, arrested by the FBI in charge with conspiracy.

Explain how this all has come down. And your response, you're both retired National Guard. I'm retired from the National Guard. My son did his full tour. and when he completed his tour in Afghanistan, he decided to get out of the service, so he did not retire. This whole event has been staged by the Trump administration, and my son was responding to a Reddit post and just wanted to go down and protest to do what he could to raise up the voices there and show that they were opposed to ISIS actions, which literally were called for because the

two gentlemen that were being detained were abiding by their mandatory court dates. They were telling these guys, hey, you've got to come here for court so you can get your status to remain in the United States. and then they arrested them for coming to court. It's unconscionable. And Aaron Glantz, I wanted to ask you, you talked to many legal experts for your article on this case, the significance of being charged with conspiracy

for, in effect, just participating in a protest. Yeah, it's important to note here, not charged with obstruction, not charged with assault, charged instead with conspiracy to impede or injure

a federal officer, which carries, as Amy said, a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $250,000 fine and three months of supervised release. And the legal experts I talked to said that

the burden of proof here for the prosecution is on proving agreement between the demonstrators to show that they collectively wanted to impede these officers. And as you heard Amy say, there's video of Beji locking arms with other protesters, which, you know, might show agreement. So it's a very easy case, actually. for the federal government to make, which is why the legal experts I spoke to said that these cases are brought sparingly by prosecutors, and they exercise a lot of discretion, usually.

And in this case, the acting U.S. attorney in Spokane, Washington, resigned two days before this indictment was handed down. It was noted earlier in the segment, more than a month passed, between the protest and the arrest. In between that time, the U.S. attorney in Spokane, the acting U.S. attorney turned in his resignation, and the new U.S. attorney in Spokane, Pete Serrano, has filed amicus brief in his old job saying that the 14th Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship. So we have a real legal dynamics playing out here with huge implications for the whole country. And Bayesian, I wanted to ask you if you could talk about your family service to this country

and why your son decided to join the military? In 1987, my first wife and I joined the Army together. We went to the language school in Monterey, and we both learned Russian. We were both electronic warfare specialists in the intense. intelligence field. And I continued on in the National Guard. I was a recruiter for seven years, then went on to a full military career as an officer after 17 years enlisted. We were a military family. We lived on the Presidio in San Francisco, which has, of course, a 200-year history of a military installation. But our son wanted to go learn Japanese, and he wanted to have a military career

himself. So at 17, he joined the National Guard, just like his mother, just like his father had joined the service. And he went, learned Japanese at the language school, went on for his intelligence training, and he did almost two years at cybercom, titled Top Secret Security Clearance, with all kinds of caveats there. And then he volunteered to go to Afghanistan. We're at 23 years old, he was leading a team in combat in Kandahar. So, I mean, there's a long history of military service in our immediate family. As a retired U.S. Army intelligence officer, what concerns you most about the Trump administration?

I'm afraid that's a long list. My immediate concern is as related to your earlier story. I spent, both my son and I were in the National Guard. The first thing they start teaching you about in the National Guard is Posse Comitatis, and that it is illegal to use military force against U.S. persons on U.S. soil. This is reinforced by the Dick Act of 1903. And the abuse of the military. We have 30 seconds.

I'm sorry, on domestic issues is what I fear most, because that is indeed to quash our own freedoms and our First Amendment rights. I want to thank you both for being with us, Bayesian Ray Mavala, retired U.S. Army intelligence officer, the father of Beijing Mavala, charged with conspiracy for protesting ICE. Aaron Glantz, we're going to link to your piece in The Guardian, the piece that you wrote, as well as your books, the war comes home, Washington's battle against America's veterans. That does it for our show. Democracy Now is produced with Mike Burke, Renee Feltz, Dina Guzder, Messiah, Roads, Nermine Sheaf, Maria Teresana, Nicole Salazar, Sarah Nassar, Cherina Nodora. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Thanks for joining us.