Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-09-23 Tuesday

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

Democracy Now! Tuesday, September 23, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. I cannot believe myself for sure. I cannot yet comprehend that this is real and that Allah is with us. Tears of joy, as Egypt releases long. long-time political prisoner, Alaa Abdel Fata, as he reunites with his family in Cairo. Other than for a few months, Allah has been in prison since 2013 on various charges, including spreading false news, quote-unquote. His family and supporters say he was targeted for his pro-democracy activism. He was a leading voice in the 2011 Arab Spring protests that toppled the Mubarak dictatorship and was repeatedly targeted by

the current president, Abdel Fafel Sisi. We'll speak with Alas and, the renowned author, Adef Suf, and with journalist Sharif al-Qadouz, who knew him well. Then to Chicago, where ICE agents threw a Democratic congressional candidate to the ground. This past Friday, I was assaulted by ICE alongside some other protesters. That day was probably the most harrowing day of protest I have ever attended in my life. Partly, because anything we dealt with, didn't hold a candle to what the people trapped inside that facility are enduring.

Then California Governor Gavin Newsom signs the No Secret Police Act into law, banning all law enforcement, including ICE agents, from covering their faces while conducting raids. I'll be signing a bill the first in the nation saying enough to ice unmask. What are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? We'll speak with the ACOU of, Southern California. And with New York Congressmember Nidia Velasquez, she's introduced the no masks for Isaac into Congress. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 38 Palestinians and injured another 190 over the past 24 hours and estimated half a million Palestinians. Palestinians remain in Gaza City, despite in advance by Israeli tanks, paratroopers, explosive-laden robots and remote-controlled vehicles. Among the latest victims is a five-year-old Palestinian girl named Noor, whose parents frantically searched the rubble of their Gaza City home Monday after it was flattened by an Israeli strike. Bring me Noor. Bring me Noor. In seven years, I've only had her. I do not have any children except her. Nor is under the rubble. Where is Nor? Nor was found under the debris, but later died in an ambulance. Her family had fled their home in the Zaytoon neighborhood after it was destroyed in a previous strike.

Meanwhile, Gaza's health ministry's warning patients face certain death at hospitals that have nearly exhausted fuel supplies needed for generators that power life-saving medical equipment. France has formerly recognized a Palestinian state for the first time. President Emmanuel Macron declared France's recognition Monday as United Nations convened its General Assembly for the 80th consecutive year. The time has come. This is why loyalty to my country's historic commitment to the Middle East for peace among Israeli people and Palestinian people. I declare that France recognizes today the state of Palestine. Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco also declared their recognition of a Palestinian state Monday. With France's recognition, the United States is now the only member of the UN Security Council not to recognize Palestine.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the declarations as a, quote, huge reward to terrorism, unquote, and said a Palestinian state, quote, will not happen. In Italy, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of dozens of cities Monday as Italian labor unions led a nationwide 24-hour general strike to demand an end to Israel's assault on Gaza. In Rome, tens of thousands joined a march that blocked a major highway. There were similar scenes in Bologna where student protesters occupied university lecture halls. In Venice, police fired water cannons to disperse protesters. while dock workers led marches in Genoa and other port cities seeking to block weapons exports to Israel.

This is Genoa resident, Thadio Rossi. Genoa is a port and therefore the ideal place to try and stop this trade in arms that are fueling genocide. These weapons should not be allowed to pass because our laws prohibit trading arms with countries that are at war and violate human rights. Yet they pass through unhindered. Fortunately, we have a very combative group of dock workers here who are fighting two, the nail and dragging the entire citizenry into this protest, which is spreading nationally and internationally. The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing President Trump to fire the Federal Trade Commission's last

remaining Democrat, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and is set to hear oral arguments in December on whether federal law grants presidents the power to fire officials of independent agencies. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote, quote, President Trump may now remove, so says the majority, though Congress said differently, any member he wishes for any reason or no reason at all. And he may thereby extinguish the agency's bipartisanship and independence, Kagan wrote. ABC's announced Jimmy Kimmel's show will return to the airwaves tonight.

After it was indefinitely suspended following FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr's threats to revoke the broadcast licenses of affiliates over comments Kimmel made about Charlie Kirk's assassin. In a statement, the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, said, quote, last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It's a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We've spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday, unquote.

This statement comes as a movement to boycott Disney Plus, Hulu, and other Disney-owned subscription services was gathering steam in the wake of Kimmel's suspension. Meanwhile, Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns dozens of ABC affiliates, said it will not air Jimmy Kimmel live on its stations and will replace it with news programming. On Monday, unions let a rally for free speech outside Jimmy Kimmel's studio in Hollywood. joining the protest was California Democratic Congress member Laura Friedman. Is the Trump administration deciding what you can watch on television, what jokes he thinks you should be able to hear? He does not want dissent and he's not above using the highest

powers of the law to clamp down on dissent. That's an American. It's dangerous and it's something that we need to raise the alarm about. President Trump's proposing sweeping changes to how children are vaccinated, saying the MMR vaccine should be broken up into separate shots at a White House press conference flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid head, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump said children should instead receive separate shots for measles, moms, and Rubella, though he apparently forgot the name Rubella. Trump also recommended removing aluminum from vaccines and said parents should wait until their children are 12 to vaccinate against hepatitis B, falsely stating the viral infection

is only sexually transmitted, even though it can also be spread through open wounds, contaminated objects during birth or through breastfeeding. Trump said his recommendations were, quote, based on what I feel, unquote. He made the remarks while promoting unproven claims that vaccines and the common painkiller, acetaminophen, cause autism. Despite decades of research showing no proven links. Effective immediately, the FDA will be notifying physicians at the use of a sedent... Well, let's see how we say that. Acetaminophen. Acetaminophen. Is that okay?

Which is basically commonly known as Tylenol during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism. So taking Tylenol is not good. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called the announcement irresponsible, adding, quote, it's highly unsettling that our federal health agencies are willing to make an announcement that will affect the health and well-being of millions of people

without the backing of reliable data, unquote. In immigration news, hundreds of people who were once detained at the troubled immigration jail and the Florida Everglades dubbed Alligator Alcatraz have disappeared. The Miami Herald reports about two-thirds of the 1800 immigrants who were held there in July have gone missing from ICE's online database with their families unable to locate them. Earlier this month, the federal appeals court ruled that jail could continue to operate despite reports. reports of abuse. The Trump administration's trying to limit the enforcement of the Fair Housing Act. That's according to the New York Times review of dozens of emails, memos, and other internal communications, as well as interviews with current and former workers of the Department

of Housing and Urban Development HUD. Speaking to the Times, lawyers say they've been blocked from communicating with clients without approval from a Trump appointee. Staff members also detail how their fair housing work is being dismissed as an offshoot of In response, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said her office is reviewing documents shared by whistleblowers inside HUD. Documents detail how the Trump administration apparently views the office that enforces civil rights protections in housing as a, quote, optics problem. Imagine thinking that defending black families from being denied a mortgage because they're black, or protecting a market. mom and her kids from living with an abusive father is a, quote, optics problem? Imagine thinking

that it's an optics problem to help the dad with a bad knee whose landlord refuses to install a handrail on the stairs. Prominent Egyptian blogger Allah Abdel Fata has been released from prison along with several other prisoners following the announcement of presidential pardons Monday in Egypt. Ala spent most of the last 12 years in and out of prison due to his political activism. Al-Aab al-Fata reunited with his mother, Leila Suaf, who'd been on a hunger strike for months demanding her son's freedom, also celebrating Allah's release Monday at their home in Cairo with his sister, Senaseef.

We wish for this moment to come for all the families of political detainees. I'm praying that this is the end of. tragedies in our family and that Allah is allowed to travel and to be with his son. We'll have more on Allah's pardon and release later in the broadcast. In related news, the human rights investigations uncovered a mass grave in Egypt's North Sinai, which researchers believe was used by the Egyptian military to bury the bodies of victims of extra judicial killings. The Colombian government's terminated arms purchases from the United States, its largest military partner's tensions rise with the Trump administration over accusations.

Colombia is failing to combat cocaine trafficking. Colombia and President Gustavo Petro announced denounce the U.S. intervention saying his government, quote, will not be blackmailed and that more cocaine has been seized under his administration than any previous presidents. In more news from Colombia, 12 former soldiers have been sentenced to eight years of reparations work over their role in the extrajudicial executions of 135 civilians during Colombia's U.S.-backed conflict. The killings were part of what became known as the false positive scandal when U.S.-backed Colombian soldiers massacred thousands of civilians falsely counting them as rebel fighters. The White House said Monday, it had dismissed an offer by Venezuela and President

Nicolas Maduro, to engage in direct talks with President Trump, aimed at de-escalating a U.S. naval buildup near Venezuela's coast. The brush off came after Trump declared he'd ordered the bombing of another vessel. He alleged was trafficking drubs to the United States. Trump shared video on a social media site, Truth, Social of an apparent airstrike on a speedboat, writing in all caps, quote, stop selling fentanyl, narcotics, and illegal drugs in America, committing violence and terrorism against Americans, unquote. Trump did not specify where the bombing occurred, the name of the alleged terrorist organization

involved or who conducted the attack. The strikes appear to have occurred outside any declared war zone targeting civilians who pose no immediate threat. Legal experts say such extrajudicial killings violate both U.S. and international law and constitute war crimes. And the international criminal courts charged former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity. Duterte is accused of orchestrating the extra judicial killings of dozens of people between 2013 and 18 as part of his devastating so-called war on drugs. The U.N. estimates over 8,600 people were killed during Duterte's rule, with some estimates suggesting the true toll could be three times higher. Last year, Duterte

admitted under oath he oversaw a death squad of gangsters while he served as mayor of the southern city of DeVal. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York. Juan Gonzalez is in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Well, Egypt's most prominent political prisoner, Allah Abdel Fata, has been released and reunited with his family after being granted a presidential pardon on Monday, along with several other prisoners. Allah is 43 years old. He spent most of the last 12 years of his life in prison. The writer, blogger, and political dissident was a leading voice in the 2011 Arab Spring protests that toppled the Mubarak dictatorship and has been repeatedly targeted by the current authoritarian government of President Abdel Fattel Sisi. Most recently, he was sentenced to five years in prison for a Facebook post. That sentence, ended last September, but authorities refused to release him until now, saying his two years

of pretrial detention didn't count. Monday's pardon comes after years of international pressure led by his family to free Allah, including in the United Kingdom, where he also holds citizenship. Both Allah and his mother, Leila Swave, went on extended hunger strike to draw attention to his case. This is one of Allah's sisters, San Esouyev, speaking at the family home after Allah's release. I cannot believe myself for sure. I cannot yet comprehend that this is real and that Allah is with us. I cannot believe that I'm seeing him here at home among us normally. I guess it will feel more real when we go to sleep, wake up and find him present.

And when his son arrives here from traveling, I'm really happy. Sana'a is one of Allah's two sisters. And this is Allah's mother, Professor Leila Swath. Despite our great joy, the biggest joy is when there are no political prisoners. The big and real joy is when there are no political prisoners. We go now to London, where we're joined with Leila Swave. sister, the renowned writer Adef Swift. She is Alaa Abdel Fata's aunt, the author of several books, including the map of love, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Cairo,

My City, Our Revolution. And here in New York, we're joined by Sharif Abdoch Adh Kudu's award-winning journalist, Middle East, North Africa editor at DropSight News. We welcome you both to Democracy Now. Adef, if you can share your feeling. today, just 24 hours after it was announced that your nephew was pardoned. Amy, hi. Hello to you and to all your viewers. I really don't even know how to, I mean, how to describe my feelings. It's a tremendous relief. We keep saying, is this over? Is this, can we stop now? I haven't seen I let yet. I've spoken to him on the phone. So tremendous, tremendous relief.

And also a lot of very active hope that this is the beginning of the release of a lot of other political prisoners as well. You're showing images of your sister, the Cairo University math professor, Laila Swife, hugging her son. She and Allah himself almost died in their hunger strike. She did it in Britain thinking that was the pressure point that would bring him home. home, the British Prime Minister putting pressure on Sisi, and of course, Allah in prison. What about their health? Well, they're looking, I think, pretty haggard, pretty gaunt. This is masked to an extent, maybe masks, maybe even highlighted really by how clearly happy

and joyful they are. But I think that getting back to health, getting back to a good weight. is really paramount for them both. Now, they've been under a lot of stress and hunger strikes are, you know, hunger strikes are very, very difficult and Layla's lost it for so very long. And Adolf, I wanted to ask you,

for those of our audience who are not familiar with your nephew's case, could take us back to, he was in prison twice under C.C. Could you talk about the reasons the government gave and the fight to free him? Well, he went to trial twice, and both times he received five-year sentences. The first time, which was in 2014, was actually the culmination of before President C.C.,

it was also President Mohamed Morsi, and before that President Mubarak. Aalqa has been imprisoned under every system that has ruled in Egypt. But these two long stretches, 2014 and 2019, the first one was for taking part in a silent protest outside the Senate or Parliament to urge them not to allow military trials for civilians. He was there for 10 minutes and he was arrested two days later and charged. with unlawful protest and even with organizing it and sentenced to five years. And I think there were 13 other people, or maybe even 23 in that case with him, and they all received jail sentences. He served that sentence from 2014 until March 2019.

And when he came out, he was under surveillance order, which meant he had to report every evening at 6 p.m. to his local police station and spend the night there and go home at 6. the morning. And he did that for six months. And then in September 2019, he was arrested again, charged with a menu of charges, and then eventually two years later tried on a charge of spreading false information. What he had done was he had reposted a post about a prisoner dying in custody. And the post was truthful. The prisoner had died in custody. Ale reposted it and was charged and was tried and was sentenced to five years. The five years ended September last year, and he was not

released. And at that point, Layla, his mother, decided that things couldn't wait any longer, really, that more than 11 years of her son's life had been taken from him. And she started her hunger strike. And now, a year later, we're here celebrating his release with tremendous relief. Well, it certainly is a relief for your family, but as Leila mentioned, in her statement, there are thousands, some people say from 20 to 60,000 political prisoners still in Egypt. What about the, do you talk about the failure of the rest of the world to put the pressure on the Egyptian government to release these people? Well, the various human rights organizations, the international human rights organizations, are actually doing a lot of work on political prisoners in Egypt. And of course, our hope is that, you know, the release of somebody as high profile as I let would persuade the Egyptian government to open the doors to other prisoners as well.

And particularly really at this moment when Egypt is having such an external issue with what is happening in Gaza, in Palestine, and when the Egyptian government is actually aligned with the wishes of the Egyptian people to not allow the forced displacement of the Palestinians. And so this is probably a very good moment for that alignment to actually be translated into releases for a lot of people. political prisoners. And if you were the first family member, right, he talked to, can you explain the confusion yesterday when your sister, Professor Leila Suwe, von Sanna, his sister, trucked out to the prison thinking they would greet him there, but he wasn't there? Well, yeah, this is a kind of like dramatic comic ending, we hope ending, to this story.

Yesterday morning, the presidential pardon that we had all been waiting for was signed and the press covered it. So we learned that that had happened and Alex's lawyer posted it. And so Leila and Senei got into a car with a couple of other friends and drove to the prison to be there to welcome him when he was released. They knew, of course, that there was a process that had to happen before he was. released, but they couldn't just stay home. So they drove off to the prison, which is about an hour and a half away from Cairo along the desert road towards the north coast. And so all day, they were waiting outside the prison. There were friends waiting at a nearby gas station. We were waiting here. Everybody was just spending the day waiting. And we knew that the

process through which the release would actually happen was taking place, but we had no idea how long it would take. And word was that it wouldn't happen that night. It would probably be tomorrow, i.e. today. But Leila was not giving up and was insistent that she would wait outside the prison in case they released him. What actually happened was that at about 11 p.m., I got a phone call from a number that I didn't recognize. I didn't answer it. And then I got a message from that same number saying, answer me, this is Aaliyah, and I couldn't believe it. So I called him and he said, he said, it's Aala, it's Aeneh, Adef, I, where are you? I said, where are you? He said, yeah, I'm out, I'm out, I haven't moved, but where are you? He said, I'm outside the house and I can't get in. Where's my mom?

And I said, well, your mom is at the prison gate, it's waiting for you. So, anyway, so then we called And my brother, who went round and opened, unlocked the door for him, and friends started coming around, and we called Leila and Senet, and they turned round and drove back to meet him. So basically, yeah, the process had happened, and he'd been driven out, and they hadn't noticed, and he'd been driven from the prison, the hour and a half to his local police station, went into the police station, the police station drove him to his house, and said, are you fine, here and he said yes and they left him there and he rang the doorbell and nobody opened because his mom was at the prison gate. I mean, this is just remarkable after all these years,

more than a decade, Sharif, you know Al-a-Well, you've interviewed him. He was a leader of Tahrir Square of the Arab Spring in Egypt. His mom going to Britain to put pressure there, seeing that within Egypt, she didn't seem to succeed in securing his release. So if the British government, talk about that, what ultimately happened, both Leila Suaf and Al-A, are British Egyptian citizens. Yeah, let me just first say that Al-Az released from prison is a moment of light in this time of darkness. And his freedom is a testament to the power of hope, of resilience, of struggle,

and ultimately of solidarity and love, the love of his family, who fought and sacrificed so much and the love of one's chosen family. Alat's friends and comrades who around the world campaigned tirelessly and fought for years and never gave up. When I speak about his family, I'm talking about Aheadaf,

talking about his cousin, Alma Robert Hamilton, who helped Speer had the campaign for him. His sisters, Mona and Sanat. You know, Sanat spent over three years in prison, much of it being put behind bars for advocacy around her brother. But perhaps most of all, for his mother, Leila Suave, who sacrificed herself.

She sacrificed her body, the body that gave birth to Ale it, and went on hunger strike last year that lasted over nine months that really brought her to the doorstep of death. And her willingness to put her life on the line for her son's freedom, for her son's life, is what really pressured the British government to really act and negotiate on a real level. So what happened was, Hedaf mentioned, the different imprisonments. And when Alaa was sentenced in December of 2021 to five years, a couple months later, he began a hunger strike.

And the family announced that they had obtained British citizenship for Alaa to get them out of what they called their impossible ordeal because it didn't seem like the Egyptian government was ever going to let him go. And they decided that they needed the British government to then pressure the Egyptian government to let him out. Aleh was on hunger strike for over 200 days when Egypt hosted the climate conference in Sharma's Sheikh, UN COP conference that you covered Amy and timed to coincide with the first day of the conference

he announced that he was going to go on a water strike and this brought to the forefront at the climate conference Egypt's alat's case himself but Egypt's dismal rights record and I think for the first time at a UN climate conference inextricably tied climate justice to human rights in a very profound way. After five days, he collapsed in what he described as a near-death experience, and he was

revived. During that time, we saw massive protests inside the conference. We saw the White House, the French president, the German chancellor, then British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, all publicly called for Alat's release. He wasn't released. But, But what he did accomplish with his own hunger strike was his transfer outside of the maximum security two wing of Torah prison, which is known as Scorpion prison. He had been held there for three years, over three years, with no books or reading material, no sunlight or fresh air, no exercise or time outside of his cell, no bedding, no pen and paper, no clock.

And Ala is very tough. He has a very strong intellect and will, but this was beginning to break him. And at some point a few months earlier, he had expressed suicidal thoughts. So they transferred him to this newly built prison in Wadin Nautroun. But then he was supposed to be released last year in September, at the end of September. And the Egyptian government, in violation of Egypt's own penal code, did not count the two years of pretrial detention that he had spent in his sentence and said that he was going to continue until January 27.

And at this point, Leila Suif decided that that was not going to happen. And so she embarked on this hunger strike and she conducted most of it in London. She would spend most mornings outside the headquarters of the foreign office in London in this protest. By February of this year, she had lost a third of her body weights. And her blood sugar levels collapsed and she was hospitalized. And this prompted just a few days later the British Prime Minister, Kirstarmer, to have a call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi. And then we saw a flurry of diplomatic movement with Britain's national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, who helped broker the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, begin these talks. And this eventually culminated in July. Alet was removed from the terrorism list.

And eventually, you know, he was pardoned. So I think we also just, one final thing, we have to say that Alet is free. but he doesn't have justice he spent more than half his adult life behind bars his father died while he was in prison and while Senet was in prison as well his father died while

he himself, the father was in prison or while Alah was in prison? The father died while Alat was in prison and Sanat was in prison in 2014 Alat's son Khaled who's now 13 has grown up without him and beyond Alah there's still so many thousands of political

prisoners in Egypt including dozens who are behind bars simply for speaking out in solidarity with Palestine and against Israel's genocide in Gaza. And Palestine is central to Alaa's politics and his thinking and he was able to visit Gaza many years ago.

He has a beautiful essay in the anthology of his writings called Palestine On My Mind that I encourage everyone to read. But yes, Alet is free and the photos and footage of him in Cairo with his family are joyous beyond comprehension. He spent last night in his bed for the first time in 11 years. And the world has been made that much richer with him

finally back among us. Well, we thought we'd end this segment. Clearly, an alidae for so many around the world with Allah's freedom. With Allah, in his own words, going way back, we first interviewed Allah Abda Fata on Democracy Now in February of 2011 during our special coverage of the Tahrir uprising of the Arab Spring. And I've just been told that we do have someone on the phone right now, so we're going to go right to that person. Can you tell us who you are and where you are? I'm Mrs. Alaa Abh Fetech.

I'm an activist in this revolution. I'm sitting in front of the TV building in Cairo. Okay, tell us, Al-A. It's great to have you with us, a prominent Egyptian blogger, democracy activists. What is happening in front of the presidential palace one of a number of new places that are being occupied by protesters like Egyptian state TV as well on the parliament? In front of the TV building, it's a big crowd. We can't shut down the TV building because of its shape and it's heavily barricaded by the army. But what we're trying to do is put pressure on the employees working inside to join us, to revolt and refuse to spread states.

propaganda. So that was Ale Abda Fata in February of 2011. In December of that year, I interviewed him again after he spent nearly two months in prison, which prevented him from attending the birth of his son Khaled. I asked Ale to describe his conditions in prison at the time. The first five days, I was put in a pretty bad prison. Now, all prisons in the world are bad. you know, losing your freedom is quite tough. But also, all prisons in Egypt are in very poor conditions. And so even if they don't torture, you're just spending one night there is already, you know, a bit too much. But I was in a particularly bad prison, and they made sure to put me in a particularly bad cell

and to deny me, you know, any comfort. So, for instance, I was in a complete darkness for five days. So that's Egypt's most prominent political prisoner, Alaa Abdel Fata, in 2011. He has just been released from prison after well over a decade, 13 years, and reunited with his family. I want to thank our guest, Sharif Abduz, Award-winning journalist, Middle East, North Africa editor at DropSight News, and Adaf Suf, Allah's aunt, and renowned. author speaking to us from London, the first family member he got to speak to yesterday after he was freed. Next up, California Governor Gavin Newsom signs the No Secret Police Act, banning all law

enforcement, including ICE agents, from covering their faces while conducting raids. Stay with us. What happened to the worst for which we once stood, I will stand for you. Would you stand for me? Everybody dear loves to be free I would lend a hand to you Would you lend a hand to me Everybody

deserves to be free It's close tonight So I leave the candle burning to light your way home won't give up the fight the story isn't over Everybody deserves to be free

by the resistance revival chorus performed at town hall on Sunday night for the Voices for Gaza program. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren peace report.

I'm Amy Good with Juan Gonzalez. We turn now to California, where Governor Gavin Newsom is signed into law the No Secret Police Act banning all law enforcement, including ICE agents, from covering their faces while conducting raids. The bans are response to recent immigration raids in Los Angeles and other areas where ICE officials made mass arrests while heavily masked. This is Governor Newsom speaking before signing the legislation. The impact of these policies all across this city, our state and nation are terrifying. It's like a dystopian sci-fi movie. Unmarked cars, people in mass, people quite literally disappearing, no due process, no rights, no rights

in a democracy where we have rights. Immigrants have rights. And we have the right to stand up and push back. The new California law was quickly denounced by Trump administration officials, including Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at Homeland Security. She said, quote, a sanctuary politician is trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers, unquote. The acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Bill O'Saley, didn't just denounce

the law, but said ICE agents should not follow it. This is U.S. Attorney Saley during an interview with KCal News. We're not going to follow it. The law has no force or effect on federal agencies. The state of California has no jurisdiction to regulate anything that we do in the federal government. And I've instructed our agents to disregard it. So we will continue doing our operations as we have been doing them. The reason the officers wear face masks... We're now joined by two guests. Ava Bittran is the director of immigrants' rights at the ACLU of Southern California, joining us from Riverside, California. And in Harlem, we're joined by New York Congress member Nydia Velasquez, who introduced the No Mask for Ice Act in Congress, which would bar agents nationally from wearing facial coverings during enforcement actions and require them to wear clothing displaying their name and affiliation with ice.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now. Eva Bittran, let's begin with you in California, the significance of the No Secret Agents Act being signed into law, and yet Trump officials saying do not follow the law to ICE agents. Talk about where this law came from. This law came from the enormous siege of our immigrant people here in Southern California that we have seen the federal government beginning in June carry out all the way until now. What we saw were bands of masked, powerfully armed, and really swiftly moving federal agents, kidnapping our community members. And that's what prompted California to react to say, this is not how we handle our immigrant people. For us, it is important that due process prevail, that transparency prevail,

and that we free our people from the kind of siege of kidnappers that's come out to Southern California. But ever, some people have criticized this law because it has law. loopholes that it allows masks, exceptions for SWAT teams and undercover operations. How do you respond to those concerns? My understanding is that what this law is trying to do is to take us back from the era of routine sort of masking based on completely foundationless officer claims of fear and back to sort of the technical necessities that officers would claim in previous years or previous administrations. and the loopholes are designed to sort of protect for that. Yeah, I'd like to bring in a U.S. Congress member, Nidia Velasquez. Welcome back to Democracy Now.

I wanted to ask you about the legislation that you've introduced, what are the specifics of the legislation and also your hopes, your expectations of whether it can pass or not. Good morning, and thank you for having me. Amy and Juan. So as you can, as you see, the Trump administration is already saying that they are not going to comply with the law passed by California. And this is why we need to have a federal solution that I will apply nationwide and it will ban the use of masks and it will require for any ICE agent to wear a uniform that clearly has. their names and badge numbers, so that there is transparency and accountability. Eva Latron, I just wanted to ask you, what does this mean?

As Congress Member Velazquez tries to introduce a federal solution, which would require these federal agents, on the ground, what is this now going to look like? First of all, it doesn't go into force, the No Secret Police Act for, until next year, is that right? And how do you get ICE agents to comply if the no mask bill is not passed in Congress? So that's right that the bill does not go into effect until next year. But what we are really seeing is our communities coming out to demand and end altogether, masked or unmasked to the lawless and unconstitutional raids that we have seen ICE carrying out here. We've seen people in the streets peacefully asking.

for ICE to leave our community neighbors alone. We've seen rapid response networks. We've seen community defense initiatives to keep people safe. And we know that's the path forward, whether or not legislation is in effect. Yeah, and I'd like to go back to Representative Velasquez. The ICE data shows, for instance, in New York that there's been nearly a six-fold increase in immigration detentions going from 500 last year to almost 2,800 in the, in the, in the, the first seven months of this year. What is, what has been your experience and as these ice

drag nets have spread across the country and even in your, in your state? Well, people are terrorized. Families do not want to, parents do not want to go to bring their children to school, to take the subway, to even appear before. or an immigration judge because they know that they could be ambushed by ICE aging in those federal courts. People are terrorized. And this is the whole purpose of this mass deportation. It's just to terrorize, to instill fear. And my message to America is that we live in a country with,

with laws, and everyone, every person, whether you are undocumented or not, you have a right to do process. And this is this use of police tactics, of agents wearing masks, of ambushing people in the streets in front of school children is undermining safety and security in our community. And we have to have a federal response. This administration is out of control and is affecting everyone, not only, not only undocumented, bystanders who sometimes when they witness on mass, not only mass agents, but on cars that are not identified, they think that a kidnap is taking place. But also, it incentivized criminals to wear masks so that they could commit crimes and assault immigrants in this country. I wanted to ask you about federal plaza, 26 federal plaza, Congressmember Velasquez. A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction to improve the conditions at this notorious

ICE jail inside this federal building in Manhattan. immigrants have described being in prison for days or weeks at a time in overcrowded cells without access to medication or proper sanitation, forced to sleep on the concrete floor, left hungry without outside contact. In the last week, something like 11 of your fellow Democratic elected officials were arrested. Does ICE's use of masks, do you think, directly connect to their refusal to allow transparency in these facilities that now a federal judge is saying must be scrutinized. You just most recently, city controller Brad Lander, who is campaigning around the city

with Zoran Mandani, and public advocate, Humani Williams, who are among those arrested. Lander was arrested again. Yes. You know, I have attempted three times, two times, twice, with Jerry Nadler, Goldman and Adriano Spayat to enter 26 Federal Plaza and every time

they have not allowed us to go into the 10th floor Adriano Spallad and myself we force ourselves to get into the 10th floor but not into the detention facility itself because they prevented us.

They keep lying. They're saying that there is not a detention facility that is a processing center. Yet, we have seen videos that shows how crowded they are and it is, and the unsanitary conditions, the lack of meals, showers, and so on. So the judge instructed them to improve the conditions. But not only do they lie, they are in violation of the statute, because we are within our legal right,

as members of Congress to go there and inspect the conditions of those facilities. And time, and again, they prevent us from exercising our oversight responsibility. Yeah, I just have one more question for... Again, this is... Yeah, I'm sorry, I just have one more question for, Eva, before we break. There have been, as the Congresswoman said, there's been numerous arrests up to more than 80 arrests of people who have been trying to assist these, uh, these, uh, these, uh, these migrants when they're, they're being rounded up by, by ICE. What is your, the ACLU's recommendation to

people who are trying to support immigrants in these crises? Yeah, we are really thankful to community members, immigrant and otherwise who are coming out to give, uh, real testimony and witness to what's happening here. We continue to recommend that community members, if it is safe to do so, show up and record with their phones, the interactions that are happening around them to really give witness and also to force some transparency on what have been incredibly secretive operations. We also know that it's important for people to have know your rights information, and we've seen our community members, rapid response network members, shouting out know your rights information to people as they are being detained, which has also been really

powerful. At the ACLU, we have litigation that's been defending the rights of protesters who have been outraged about what's happening to immigrant neighbors here in L.A., as well as litigation, both about the conditions at the short-term holding facilities, and as well as the sort of conduct of these unconstitutional operations. So we are watching, community is watching, our neighbors are looking out for one another. We know that what happens in L.A. becomes the blueprint for the rest of the country with these enforcement operations. And we're also trying to model how to mount a proper civil response. Eva Betrana, I want to thank you for being with us, Director of Immigmore Rights at the ACOU of

Southern California. And thank you to Congress member Nydia Velasquez, who introduced the No Mask for Ice Act in Congress. We just mentioned Brad Lander and Zoran Mamdani. She has endorsed Zoran Mamdani. We're hoping to have the New York City mayoral candidate on Democracy Now tomorrow. Next, we go to Chicago, where ICE agents threw a Democratic congressional candidate to the ground. Back in 15 seconds.

Well, I woke up this morning with my mind, stayed on freedom. Woke up this morning with my mind. Stayed on freedom. Woke up this morning with my mind. Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom, the resistance revival chorus performing at Town Hall on Sunday for Voices for Gaza. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Mindy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.

We end today's show in Chicago where Juan is. As at least 10 people were arrested in protests outside a nice facility Friday with federal immigration agents firing. pepper balls and using tear gas on the crowd. Democratic congressional candidate, Kat Abu Ghazela, was thrown to the ground by ICE agents. People rallied outside the facility to protest the Trump administration's Operation Midway Blitz, which has led to the arrest of nearly 550 people in a sweeping crackdown on immigrants in the city. We are going to Chicago, where we're joined by Kat Abu Ghazela, who is a progressive congressional candidate in Illinois.

's ninth district, which include Chicago. Kat, welcome to Democracy Now. Describe what happened to you. We're going to show the video. Yeah, so this is actually the third time that ICE has thrown me to the ground. I have been at this facility for the last three weeks every Friday morning, and I'll be back this Friday. I encourage anyone in Illinois to join me, 7 to 9 a.m.

at 1930 Beach Street, B-E-A-C-H. This was, as I said, the third time that ICE has done this to me. it is probably the most violent occasion of throwing me to the ground. But essentially, a car was about to run over a fellow protester. And so I went to check on that person. And that was all the justification an officer needed to pick me up and throw me to the ground despite being half his size. And what I really want to stress here is that is what these officers are willing to do

when there is press and cameras around. The reason we are protesting at this facility is because they are committing human rights abuses within the Broadview Processing Facility. It is a processing facility, so people are not supposed to be kept there for more than 12 hours at a time, but they are being kept for days or weeks without beds, without hot meals, without hygienic products. And if they are willing to do that to a congressional candidate on camera in front of press, imagine what they are willing to do to their detainees behind boarded up windows.

And Kat, you say you found two badges there. What did it say on the badges? So I have no idea the people who have accosted me. I have no idea who they are. I have no idea who these men are. They've had masks and sunglasses and hats sometimes when the sun is still down. We have seen two badge numbers, the entire three weeks that we have been here, four weeks if we include a vigil earlier in the summer.

And they were just numbers. There was no name and there was no identifying law enforcement agency. I have no idea if these men are actually affiliated with ICE. For all I know, this could just be random men who said, I'm going to put on a mask and a costume I got from Spirit Halloween to make me feel like I'm in the Army and go and rough up some protesters today. We have no idea who these people are. And in terms of what you know about the conditions in the Broadview Facility, can you talk about that? Yes, this Broadview facility is horrific. We've gotten reporting about dozens of people being kept in.

one cell. And these are our neighbors. These are pregnant women and grandmothers sleeping on concrete floors. I had not been inside the facility. Elected officials that I've tried to inspect it have not been allowed inside. But I can't attest that two weeks ago when I saw prisoners being marched into a van, they were in the same clothes they were detained in. And we have no idea how long they had been in there. And they were in the same clothes they weren't detained in. The conditions at this facility are horrendous. They are committing crimes against Humane. and it is so important to remember that all of the treatment that we went through as protesters doesn't hold a candle to what these detainees are dealing with. I mean, ICE agents shot and

killed a man two Fridays ago in the Chicago area. They are able to act with impunity. They are able to hurt whoever they want. Last Friday was the first time they had taken protesters inside the facility. And while the video of me being thrown to the ground has gone kind of viral, I want to talk about a few other things that happened that day because they haven't been covered as much. We had to play tug of war with a man's body to keep him from being abducted inside the facility. Right before we were tear gassed, ICE was carrying a van with a protester that had been detained inside of the van. We stood arm and arm. All of this is happening on Broadview public property on public streets.

They tried to ram the van through us. A man fell in front of the van and the van was going to drive over his head. and I helped him up before that happened. But they were totally willing to do that. They shot a man in the face with a pepper ball bullet. They tear gassed us as they were trying to drive a car through a crowd. And then after that, they threw a tear gas canister at the press area. Very intentionally, after protesters were already dispersing because, you know, we were coughing

and trying to get tear gas out of our eyes. Gazale, you are running for Congress. congressional candidate in Illinois's 9th district, which include Chicago, the election is in November of 26, the ultimate election. Why are you running for Congress? I'm a researcher and journalist who covers the far right. I have spent my career deradicalizing and educating people on far right narratives and misinformation. I have spent my career just as my colleagues have trying to get Democrats to put up a resistance to the far right to understand that the old playbook is gone and that it's not coming back. And I don't feel like our leaders are doing that. And so I got sick of waiting around and I decided to run the type of campaign, I think we should. And that is with unapologetic progressivism, anti-fascism, and using our resources to materially improve people's lives right now. So we do voter outreach,

but our campaign office also doubles as a mutual aid hub. We don't ask for $500 a plate at an event for our kickoff event, for instance, we ask people to bring a box of pads or tampons for Chicago's period collective. We are about mobilizing people on the ground right now and making politics as accessible as possible, while also not compromising on basic human rights. And you're running for the seat to replace Jan Schakowsky, who's retiring. There are several other candidates running in that field right now. Why do you think that voters would be best choosing you as a candidate? You know, Illinois does a lot of things, right?

And that's the reason they aren't dealing with until very recently, people like Stephen Miller and Elon Musk on a daily basis. I have been. I am the only candidate in my race with a track record of fighting and winning against the far right. I am the most effective communicator in my race. And I am the only candidate in my race to have the majority of her money come from small dollar donations. We've raised over a million dollars, and our average donation is just 32. We have over 7,000 volunteers, and that's not because I'm some force.

It's because people want progressive policies. They want common sense policies. They want a center that re-centers, actual voters. And that's what we deserve from our leaders. Kat Abu Ghazale, I want to thank you for being with us, progressive congressional candidate in Illinois 9th district, which includes Chicago. That does it for our show. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Thank you.