Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-10-01 Wednesday

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Democracy Now! Wednesday, October 1, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, national guard, but military. Because we're going into Chicago where it's a big city. with an incompetent governor, stupid governor, stupid. President Trump addressing an unprecedented gathering of hundreds of U.S. generals and admirals will get response from Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson. The president is dangerous, absolute dangerous, and he is a threat to our democracy and our humanity. Then a Reagan-appointed judge has issued a scathing ruling, rebuking the Trump.

Trump administration's targeting of pro-Palestinian students. It's a historic ruling and really a scathing critique of the Trump administration for intentionally violating the First Amendment by targeting pro-Palestinian protesters for arrest and deportation. And it made clear what hopefully should have been obvious before, which is that if free speech means anything, it means that mass agents shouldn't be picking up political protesters for their speech and throwing them in jail. We'll speak to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which argued the case as well as the head of the AAPU,P, the American Association of University Professors, and former Columbia University student protest activist, Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained for 104 days. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to. Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Israel continues to bomb Gaza, killing 51 Palestinians in 24 hours. Two missiles struck a Fala school in Gaza City, which had been converted into a shelter for hundreds of displaced people. The Turkish broadcaster, TRT, confirmed a Palestinian freelance photographer, Yehya Barzak, was killed by Israel and Dharbalah in central Gaza yesterday. Palestinians gathered at Alaksa Hospital in Dharabala morning, their loved ones killed in Israeli strikes.

This is Attefa Boudirad, displaced Palestinian man from Beitlachia. We came here after the violence and total destruction in Beitlachia. We've been informed by the Israeli army to head to safe places in these areas, specifically in Deird al-Bahah. But unfortunately, the Israeli war machine refuses to do anything but bombard very innocent lives that have nothing to do near or far with any type of weapon or resistance. Unfortunately, I speak with complete clarity that there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the global Samud Flotilla says its fleet is sailed into the high-risk zone

and is about 118 nautical miles from Gaza. Spain and Italy have sent ships to sail with the flotilla to ensure its passage, but Italy said it would stop tracking the flotilla as of yesterday. David Adler of Progressive International, one of the activists who's on the flotilla, posted on X's his final letter, he called it, writing, quote, last night several Israeli naval ships menaced our convoy. They attacked our vessels, intimidated our crew, and disabled our communications. We recognize these tactics from previous flotilla missions. We know that they are the precursor to what we have long feared illegal Israeli abduction in international war. orders, Adler wrote. Speaking to reporters yesterday, President Trump said he's giving Hamas three or four days to respond to a ceasefire deal to end Israel's war on Gaza and warn that the group will, quote, pay in hell, unquote, if it rejects his proposal. Meanwhile, Axios is reporting that Egypt and Turkey are urging Hamas to accept the ceasefire deal. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdur Rahman Al-Tani, an Egyptian intelligence chief, Hassan Rashan al-Rash.

Shad reportedly met with Hamas leaders in Doha, Tuesday, along with the Turkish intelligence director, Ibrahim Khalin. Meanwhile, in Israel, parents of soldiers marched alongside the relatives of hostages Tuesday in Tel Aviv, calling for the end to the war on Gaza. The protesters march with a banner urging President Donald Trump to make it happen. Here's Elatfeler Memon, the mother of an Israeli soldier. We stand here with the mothers of the hostages because the mothers of Israel are as one. We stand with them until everybody are at home.

The soldiers, the civilians, everybody. We want to end this war. We want our children back home. A federal judge in Boston has ruled the Trump administration unlawfully targeted non-citizens for their pro-Palestrian. Indian activism by threatening to deport them. The judge called the case, quote, perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court. Judge William Young, who is appointed by Ronald Reagan, wrote in his 161-page opinion that

the case, quote, squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in the United States actually have the same free speech rights. the rest of us. The court answers this constitutional question unequivocally. Yes, they do, he wrote. Judge Young also blasted ICE in his ruling saying, quote, ICE goes masked for a single reason to terrorize Americans into quiescence. In all our history, we have never tolerated an armed, masked, secret police, Judge Young wrote. The Knight First Amendment Institute represented the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association in the case and argued that the government's targeting of Mahmoud Khalil, Ramesa Ozturk, Mosul-Maddawi,

Badar Khan Suri, and Yon Seychung, suppressed speech on college campuses. Separately, a panel of judges heard arguments yesterday from lawyers representing Ramesa Ozturk and Mosomadawi will hear more from Mahmoud Khalil later in the broadcast. In an unprecedented and highly unusual gathering, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth addressed 800 top military generals and admirals flown in from around the world for the meeting in Quantico, Virginia. Hegset blasted woke policies and diversity initiatives. For too long, we've promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quota. based on historic so-called firsts. Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations

or really any formation and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country in the world. It's a bad look. Meanwhile, President Trump defended his policy of deploying troops to U.S. cities

and suggested to the officers gather they should view the domestic deployments as a training exercise. from within, no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms, at least when they're wearing a uniform, you can take them out. These people don't have uniforms, but we are under invasion from within. We're stopping it very quickly. Democratic Senator Jack Reed, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee,

called the meeting, quote, an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership. by President Trump. We'll have more on this story later in the broadcast. The U.S. government shut down as of today after Democrats and Congress refused to support a Republican funding bill that did not include concessions on health care. It's the first shutdown in seven years, the last time the government shut down for 35 days during President Trump's first term. Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and House minority leader, Hakeemper, blamed Republicans, saying in a joint statement, quote, after months of making life harder and more expensive, Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the federal government because they do not want to

protect the health care of the American people, unquote. President Trump's threatened mass firings of federal workers in the event of a shutdown. Here's Randy Irwin, president of the National Federation of Federal employees. You know, we're going to be over 300,000 federal employees. have, will have been lost after today since the start of this Trump administration. And we don't know what our functionality of government looks like with, with that level of staff, because the size of the federal workforce has been almost entirely flat for the last 60 years. In New York, a journalist was hospitalized after masked federal agents assaulted a group of

reporters documenting ICE arrests outside immigration court at 26 federal plaza in downtown Manhattan. Video footage of Tuesday's attack shows AM New York's journalist Dean Moses attempting to enter an elevator, where masked agents had followed two women when he was shoved out with an agent shouting, get out of the inking elevator. Olga Federova, who freelances for the Associated Press was pushed, knocking her down, as well as Viral Illibol of the Turkish News Agency, Anadolu, who seriously injured his head after he hit the floor. DHS spokesperson, Trisha McLaughlin, defended the agent's actions, claiming the reporters had obstructed operations. This comes as the Trump administration's escalating its attacks on

journalists documenting mass immigration raids nationwide. In Chicago, an investigation was launched after local journalists was assaulted by federal immigration agents while covering protests outside an ICE jail in Broadview Sunday. A masked agent shot a pepperball at CBS Chicago reporter Assal Rosier. She described the attack on social media saying, quote, An ICE agent took a direct shot at my car today, absolutely unprovoked. My window was open and chemicals went all over my face, been puking for two hours. hours, she said. We'll speak with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson after headlines. As immigration

raids continue across the country, federal authorities swarm Chicago Tuesday morning for a major operation in which neighbors were awoken by the sound of Black Hawk helicopters swarming the sky. Some 300 federal agents descended onto an apartment complex where they arrested at least 30 people who were allegedly undocumented. A Mexican immigrant has died after he was wounded in the sniper attack on an ice facility in Dallas, Texas last week, Miguel Angel Garcia Hernandez is the second person to die. Norland, Guzman Fuentes, a 37-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, was also killed in that attack.

Native American leaders are condemning a move by the Pentagon to preserve 20 medals of honor awarded to soldiers involved in the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee Massacre. On December 29, 1890, the U.S. Army killed as many as 300 Oglala Lakota people at Wounded Knee, including many women and children. In a statement, National Congress of American Indians Executive Director Larry Wright Jr. said, quote, Celebrating war crimes is not patriotic. This decision undermines truth-telling, reconciliation, and the healing that Indian country and the United States still need. he said. In the Philippines, at least 69 people have been confirmed dead after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake jolted the province of Cebu on Tuesday night. More than 150 others have been reported injured. The quake was followed by a series of aftershocks and comes just days after a super

typhoon battered small islands in Central Philippines forcing some 400,000 people to evacuate. And this year's Right Livelihood Awards have been announced in Stockholm today. A student-led group from the Pacific Islands and human rights lawyer from Guam, Julian Aguan, were jointly recognized for taking their fight against climate change to the International Court of Justice, which found earlier this year polluting countries primarily from the global north are legally obligated to address global warming. Other winners include the Sudanese group Emergency Response Rooms, the group Justice for Myanmar, and the Taiwan-Nusiness. activist, Audrey Tang. 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 Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. President Trump addressed an unprecedented gathering of 800 U.S. generals and admirals on Tuesday at a meeting at Marine Corps-based Quantico that was organized by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had the admirals and generals flown in from around the world. President Trump urged the military to use cities as training grounds, claiming the U.S. is under invasion from within. The ones that are run by the radical left Democrats,

what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they're very unsafe places. And we're going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war, too. It's a war from within. I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, national guard, but military, because we're going into Chicago very soon.

That's a big city with an incompetent governor, stupid governor, stupid. Trump's comments about Chicago come after he has repeatedly threatened to send national guard. troops to the city for weeks. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker warned he would sue to stop their deployment. Armed federal agents with ICE, the FBI and Border Patrol have already arrested hundreds in Chicago as part of Operation Midway Blitz. Dozens of agents and military fatigues roamed downtown Chicago over the weekend. And on Tuesday, some 300 agents emerged from box trucks and repelled from a Black Hawk helicopter for an apartment complex raid that led to the arrest of about 30 undocumented people. Meanwhile, five people are facing federal felony charges

stemming from protests at the ICE detention facility in Broadview. This is 70-year-old Air Force veteran Dana Briggs, who says an ICE agent pushed him to the ground Saturday when he tried to hand his cell phone to another protester. Briggs was accused of swinging his arm at the agent and his charge with felony assault on a federal officer. He spoke to CBS News, Chicago. Because it didn't give me time to move. It's all I saw was a hand coming at me after I had handed my phone off. I'm just, I guess, more appalled than anything else that they're just going after ordinary everyday people. Did we say some things that they probably didn't like? Yeah, fine. but free speech.

For more, we go to Chicago, where we're joined by the mayor, Brandon Johnson. Mayor Brandon Johnson, welcome back to Democracy Now. If you can respond to Trump's comments about Chicago, that your city, among others, will be the training guard for the military in this country, training ground. Yeah, he's absolutely wrong, you know, about, you know, his character. characterization of our city, it is absolutely absurd and appalling that the President of the United States of America would describe the city of Chicago or American cities as enemies from within. This is unconscionable. It's reckless. It's dangerous. And that's why we are forcefully fighting back to defend our democracy and to protect the humanity of every single resident across our city. And, may, could you comment on these latest actions in Chicago over the weekend of ice agents

parading down through the downtown area, detaining people in a show of force? And then, of course, this raid that happened on Tuesday. Yeah, absolutely. You know, listen, you know, Trump's deportation campaign, It's not for safety. It's for profit. This is yet another example of how this president is militarizing forces, ultimately with the goal to occupy cities. It's why we have vehemently pushed back, you know, against this operation, and in no way are we calling for the militarization or the occupation of our cities.

What we saw, not just downtown Chicago, where Chicagoans, visitors from around the country and around the world were enjoying a peaceful, beautiful day in Chicago, and this political stunt was carried out, you know, by an unhinged, deranged president. What we saw just a couple of nights ago on the south side of Chicago where we had masked men destroyed. property, barge into people's homes in the middle of the night, sticking long guns in the faces of black residents. This is an affront on our democracy, and it is further demonstration and a further display of how this president is carrying out, you know, what Dr. Keene described as one of the three evils. The militarization of our country is an evil, and as workers, and as workers,

and as working-class people around this country, we have to push back and, you know, put forth a real cure to this unconscionable evil that is undisplayed by the president of the United States. And, Mayor, you recently signed an unusual executive order on the right to protest, where you mentioned that Chicago police can, collaborate with protest organizers to develop a mutually acceptable alternative plan. Could you talk about that? I can. So I sign two of the most sweeping executive orders anywhere in the country by a city. And this particular executive order ensures the First Amendment will be protected. What we are seeing in cities across America, and quite frankly, around the globe, where peaceful protesters are being shot at and targeted by government.

In the village of Broadview, just outside of the city of Chicago, where we had ice agents shooting pepper balls at protesters, even shooting at a reporter that was there just to do her job. We know that this is an attempt of the president to set up a pretext to sending a in the National Guard. And so this executive order ensures that our local police department will work in coordination with protesters and residents who wish to exercise their First Amendment right and that the federal government cannot interfere with the First Amendment.

I mean, this is an amazing scene, Mayor Brandon Johnson, that happened in the last few days. you have agents repelling from a Black Hawk helicopter. These masked agents also emerging from box trucks. So, and this, as you said, the CBS reporter being having a pepperball blown into her face as she sat in an open window in a car. In California, they've passed a law and the governor signed it, the no secret police act. It's not quite in effect yet, but it's forbidding massed agents. The federal government, the Trump administration, says they're not going to abide by it.

But is Illinois going to pass a similar law? And, I mean, this is exactly what Trump is describing to this unprecedented gathering of 800 generals, many of whom didn't even want to come in from around the world, saying you're the training ground. Yeah, to characterize our cities, not just Chicago, but cities around. America as training ground for the military is just absolutely reprehensible. You know, the brave women and men who sign up to serve and protect this nation here and abroad, they don't sign up to come and terrorize their neighbors. And in fact, I put forth an executive order to this point to ensure that our police officers

will be in uniform, their badges, their ideas. their names, everything on full display, we urge the federal agents to do the same. You know, it's unfortunate, though, that this president is, you know, committed to disrupting what's sensible about our democracy. And you are absolutely right, you know, the secrecy and the hyper-militarization of this $170 billion blank check that the president has turned over to, to Tom Holman, who took a $50,000 bribe to direct contracts to these detention centers, these corporations of whom, of which many of them have contributed millions of dollars to Donald Trump's campaign.

So again, this clearly, his deportation or so-called deportation campaign is not about safety. It's about profit. And Mayor, President Trump, in threatening to call the federal troops into Chicago and other cities has claimed that these Democratic-controlled cities are hellholes of lawlessness. Could you set the record straight on what the situation is in your city? Yeah, absolutely. Look, the city of Chicago, we are truly the greatest city in the world. You know, from 20% of the world's fresh water in our front yard between Lake Michigan and the St. Lawrence River, you know, we have one of the most diverse economies in the world where not one industry comprises of more than 20% of our overall GDP.

You know, our airports, and particularly O'Hare, we set and break records every single day. You know, we have some of the top universities anywhere in the world, the top labor force. You know, in fact, with the development that's happening in Chicago right now, you know, we're talking about $20 billion of new revenue coming into our region from tourism. You know, it's a place where, you know, as I said, you know, a black Haitian immigrant and a Pottawatomie woman fell in love and established the trade post right at the bank of the river. And it's truly the love story of America. and not only have we demonstrated that we are the global capital of the world, with the investments that we are making, we're seeing unprecedented levels of violence reduction in our city. How much size are down 30 percent?

Shootings and shooting victims are down 35 percent. There's more work to be done, but we are truly building the safest, most affordable, big city in America. In fact, Condi Nas rated us the best big city in America eight years. years in a row, 13 years consecutively, as the number one relocator for corporate headquarters. And so we have a great workforce, a great university system, a diverse economy. And of course, most of all, we have amazing people in our city. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, we thank you very much for being with us, former teacher and organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, speaking to us from one city, Chicago.

Coming up, we talked to an expert on military law who warns, Trump and Hegseth want to turn the military into a tool of personal loyalty. Back in 20 seconds. Do you believe in his sweet sensation? Do you believe in second chance? Do you believe in Rapture, babe? Do you believe in Rapture by Thurston Moore, performing at Smith College in 2005? This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the warrant,

Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez as we continue to look at Tuesday's unprecedented gathering of 800 U.S. generals and admirals who were flown into the United States from around the world and gathered at Marine Corps base, Quantico, Virginia. Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth called the meeting in order generals and admirals to gather together for what many have likened to a MAGA campaign rally. President Trump addressed the generals for over 70 minutes, but Heggseth spoke first. We are preparing every day. We have to be prepared for war, not for defense. We're training warriors, not defenders. We fight wars to win, not to defend. Defense is something you do all

the time. It's inherently reactionary and can lead to overuse, overreach, and mission creep. War is something you do sparingly on our own terms and with clear aims we fight to win well today is another liberation day the liberation of America's warriors in name, indeed and in authorities you kill people and break things for a living

you are not politically correct and don't necessarily belong always in polite society President Trump claimed the United States facing an invasion from within? Only in recent decades did politicians somehow come to believe that our job is to police the far reaches of Kenya and Somalia while America is under invasion from within. We're under invasion from within.

No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms. At least when they're wearing a uniform, you can take them out. These people don't have uniforms. But we are under invasion from within. We're stopping it very quickly. After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, with your help, we're defending the borders of our country from now on.

We're joined now by Eugene Fidel, senior research scholar at Yale Law School, where he teaches military justice. He co-wrote a piece for the Hill, headlined Trump and Hegseth want to turn the military into a tool of personal loyalty. He's an expert on military law served as a judge advocate in the U.S. Coast Guard. Eugene Fidel, thanks for joining us. Explain what you mean as people describe this unprecedented gathering, where it is many of these generals and admirals were asking why they had to be flown in. This was live streamed. What was the point of this? Good morning. Well, the first thing is, I think you omitted what the generals and admirals actually said. There was probably an expletive that was inserted in

their comments. But I think really the reason for this unusual event at Quantico, unusual and costly event at Quantico is probably not that hard to figure out. It's the greatest of all photo ops. We're all used to photo ops, President Trump, with police chiefs as the backdrop. GIs with the backdrop. We've seen them in prior administrations, if you remember, the mission accomplished photo op that President George W. Bush offered us wrongly. So I think the photo op stands out as an important factor. Second, it's a way of maybe subliminally but not so subliminally exacting loyalty, special loyalty, from the most senior officers and enlisted personnel in the U.S. Armed Forces. I think every American, by the way, should watch the video. It's extremely

instructive. And even though it's time-consuming and it will annoy many viewers, I think it's a critically important document that people should be exposed to. And Mr. Fidel, I wanted to ask you in terms of some of the stuff that HECSeth said, for instance, you kill people and break things for a living with training warriors, not defenders. What are they trying to impart to these generals? I think what the broadcast here is a rejection. of so many of the progressive innovations that the U.S. armed forces have experienced since World

War II. That's what we're talking about. It wasn't until the Truman administration, for example, that there was racial desegregation in the U.S. armed forces. The introduction or reintroduction of women in the armed forces was a major issue. The dirty word, in this environment is woke, being woke or DEI projects. All of these serve a useful purpose in terms of integrating American society, and the U.S. Armed Forces is supposed to be a replica of American society, not simply white male American society. There were so many things that were off in this event.

I'll just take off a few if you don't mind. Personally, I found the sectarian religious references highly offensive and inappropriate that has no place in a non-religious event, basically a command performance. I thought the notion that we're going to get tough with people, as if that's something new, the U.S. armed forces have always been tough. But the difference is that until now, there's been no question about our armed forces, compliance, strong efforts to comply with the rules of armed conflict. What you hear here is a replica of things that happen that President Trump's first administration, where he was pardoning people that were charged with

or had been convicted of highly illegal conduct in war zones. And what this is is a kind of green light that we're going to throw the rule book out. And you have to connect some dots here. Remember, one of the first things this administration did was fire a couple of the judge advocates general, the senior lawyers, senior uniform lawyers of the armed forces. That's a terrible signal. And as if they were like softies. They weren't softies. They were tough people who rose by their natural gifts, their training, their loyalty, their patriotism, to the highest levels. So you have to view this holistically with other things that have happened.

I think that one scary point that Mr. Hegeseth made was that they were going to make sure that anyone who made a complaint in the armed forces that was later shown not to be substantiated would themselves be subject to prosecution. Well, can you think of a better way to chill the filing of complaints? Certainly, there are valid complaints and there are invalid complaints, and there are complaints that are somewhere in between that require some investigation. But what they've done here is send a clear signal that if you make a complaint, you are going to personally be in the crosshairs if it turns out that we don't agree with your complaint. That's a preposterous position. So what do you see is the likelihood, following from that, that the officer class would refuse to deploy troops against U.S. citizens, Eugene Fidel?

Well, my feeling is that the people who are going to be on the receiving end of these orders, I'm talking about the senior officers, they should be talking to their lawyers. and not necessarily their staff judge advocate, their uniform lawyers, assigned to advise them, because they may need more independent and confidential advice as to what to do. Remember, the staff judge advocate is not the commander's lawyer. The staff judge advocate works for the government, and those conversations may prove not to be confidential. And what these senior officers need most of all is some good, private legal advice to help them ensure that they can distinguish between orders that are lawful

and orders that are not lawful. Orders that are lawful, of course, have to be complied with. But some of these issues, some of these orders about the internal war, for example, or going to war in Chicago as a training mission, raise questions as to whether they're lawful or not under, for example, the Posse Comitatis Act, the 19th century legislature. that's been on the books and has made sure that the Army, the military is not involved in Garden Variety law enforcement until now. Some of those issues are going to be touchy, legal issues that lawyers are going to have to get smart on, hit the books, and be prepared to give advice. Maybe the senior officers are going to be able to get that advice that they

badly need. And we already know that based on what Mr. Heggseth and the president have said. And maybe they'll be able to get it within the service. But if I were a general or an admiral right now, I'd pick up the phone and call my lawyer, preferably somebody who was knowledgeable in the field. You know, I wanted to ask you as well, the U.S. military, probably of any institution in American society, has made the most strides, especially during the volunteer arms. Army period in terms of racial diversity and ethnic diversity, 35 to 40% of the U.S. military or African-American and Latino, how do you sense that this whole anti-woke theory of Hexeth

and the president, what kind of impact will this have on U.S. military morale? I think it's going to have a very bad impact. We've learned correctly over the last several generations, that unit cohesion is so critical. And in our country, cohesion is not everybody looks alike, talks alike, you know, and so forth. It's a cohesion based on diversity and the celebration of diversity in our country. Remember what the great poem, The New Colossus, Give Me Your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. People accepted that offer. My family, everybody's family can account for that, except Native Americans, and we'll get to the Native American community in a minute. But we've just

made tremendous strides, as you point out. And I see this going back in time to an all-white, all-male military establishment. And I think that would be so unfortunate. Even when I was on active duty, even though it was well after the Truman administration, there were still holdovers. People who worked in the galley on Coast Guard cutters were often African-American, black sailors. There were stewards who were often Filipino Americans. And that's not that long ago. So, you know, even since then, we've made tremendous strides. And if you look at some of the people who have been sidelined by this administration, some of these fantastic women officers, fantastic officers of color, you know, there's a lesson there. There's a lesson that Americans have to

take away. This is an administration that wants to turn back the hands of the social clock, whether it's Teddy Roosevelt, charging up San Juan Hill. I mean, pick your historic illustration, but it's not today's America. It's not today's armed forces. So fasten your safety belts. This is going to be a wild ride. Now, I want to say a word. I mentioned the Native American situation.

There was one point that President Trump made in his remarks at, Quantico that I think has been neglected. One of the things he's celebrating in American history is the war that we waged against Native American tribes, as if that was something to celebrate. I happen to live in a town, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, that was an Indian town. It was the Stockbridge Muncie Nation, which is now no longer in this area. But, you know, we have to be aware of the fact that our history in dealing with Native Americans is a very, very grim and bloody affair. And for him to celebrate the Indian wars, to use the old term, is really shocking in this day and age. Eugene Fadogne.

I want to thank you so much for being with a senior research scholar at Yale Law School, where he teaches military justice. We'll link to your piece in the Hill. Trump and Hegseth want to turn the military into a tool of personal loyalty. Coming up, we go to a major decision. A Reagan appointed judge in Boston has issued a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration for illegally trying to deport pro-Palestinian international students and academics back in 20 seconds. We'll be also speaking with Mahmoud Khalil. Black waters, black waters rise over the island.

Oh, on a quail, she's a pretty bird, she sings a sweet time. In the roots of tall timber, she mess with her. with her young when the hillside explodes and the dynamites roar the voice of the small bird has heard there no and the mountain

comes sliding so awful and grand as the poisonous waters rise up My land side scenes of destruction on every hand. Black waters, black waters rise over. Black Waters performed by Nora Brown, Stephanie Coleman, in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. a Reagan-appointed judge in Boston has issued a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration for illegally trying to deport pro-Palestinian international students and academics.

The lawsuit was filed by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of the AAP, that's the American Association of University Professors in March. In his 161-page decision, U.S. District Judge William Young wrote, quote, this case, perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court, squarely presents the issue of whether non-citizens lawfully present here in the United States actually of the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The court answers this constitutional question unequivocally. Yes, they do.

Young went on to write, the First Amendment does not draw President Trump's invidious distinction and is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence. No one's freedom of speech is unlimited, of course, but these limits are the same for both citizens and non-citizens alike. Judge Jung also wrote, quote, this court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the Secretary of Homeland Security, Christy Noam, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio,

together with the subordinate officials and agents of each of them, deliberately and with purposeful aforethought, did so. concert their actions and those of their two departments intentionally to chill the rights to freedom of speech and peacefully to assemble of the non-citizen plaintiff members, unquote. Judge Young's published ruling begins in an unusual fashion. At the top of his opinion, he included a scanned image of an anonymous threat that had been sent to his chambers in June that ominously asked, quote, Trump has pardons and tanks.

What do you have, unquote? Below the postcard, Judge Young wrote this message. Dear Mr. or Ms. Anonymous, alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together we, the people of the United States, you and me, have our magnificent constitution. Here's how that works out in a specific case, unquote. And he went on to lay out his decision. We're joined now by three guests. The lawsuit was filed after federal agents detained.

Colombia University student protest leader, Mahmoud Khalil, in March, after he took part in Palestine Solidarity protests at his university, Colombia. He was held for over 100 days in an ICE jail in Louisiana. During that time, his wife, Dr. Nora Abdullah, gave birth to their first child dean. Mahmoud was released June 20th, but the Trump administration is still trying to deport him. He's joining us from Brooklyn. In Philadelphia, we're joined by Todd Wolfson, President of the AAPUP, that's the American Association of University Professors. And in studio with us in New York, Alex Abdo is with us, litigation director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. We welcome all of you back to democracy now.

Alex, let's begin with you. I mean, the significance of this scathing decision, the judge basically said it's the most important of his career. It's a historic decision, and it reaffirms what should have been on. obvious, which is that if free speech means anything in this country, it means mass government agents can't pick you up off the street and throw you into jail because of what you've said. In ordinary times, you would expect the Department of Justice to react to a ruling like this by saying, of course, we are not intentionally targeting people for their political views, but instead the administration has doubled down on the legal theory it has behind the case,

which is why it's so important that you have a federal judge, a judge who's been on the bench for decades, speaking so clearly and cogently about the stakes of this case and the other efforts by this administration to crack down on dissent and political speech it doesn't like. Alex, at the same time, though, the judge deferred a decision about what remedy to impose and said he's going to schedule a hearing promptly. What does that mean and how do you see the case developing from here? Well, he divided the case into two sections, the first, which is the one we just finished, focus on the question of, is the administration, in fact, targeting pro-Palestinian protesters on the basis of their speech? And if so, does that violate the First

Amendment? And he answered both of those questions unequivocally. Yes, the government has, in fact, been targeting protesters on the basis of their speech, and that violates the First Amendment. And now the question is going to be, what remedy he'll issue? And we're going to have presumably briefing about that question, and we'll ask Judge Young to take a series of measures designed, to prevent what has been going on in the cases of these individual protesters. So I want to talk to one of these protesters, Mahmoud Khalil, but first tell us what does it mean that an immigration judge has just ruled Mahmoud can be deported to Syria or Algeria, but now this decision has come down?

Well, I think this decision will provide ammunition to the legal teams in his case and in the cases of the other protesters who have been trying to convince immigration judges is that the reason they were targeted was for their speech. And the administration, you know, the federal administration has held out the possibility that they have some kind of secret evidence demonstrating that what was going on here was more than just the targeting of speech. But Judge Young, in our case, had access to all of the underlying documentation because he let us go through a period of discovery.

And he took these documents from the government, and he reviewed them. And he was unimpressed. And he held, again, unequivocally, that what was going on here was the targeting of political speech. So let's bring Mahmoud Khalil into this discussion. Mahmood is a graduate and a green card holder, but a graduate of Columbia University, arrested and detained March 8th, International Women's Day, as he and his wife were coming into their university housing, held for more than 100 days in Louisiana. Your response to this ruling, clearly the judge was furious saying that your detention, was unconstitutional, or the targeting of you, was unconstitutional, Mahmoud. Thank you so much, Amy.

And absolutely, it's a welcome decision. And as Alex said, this would provide us with ammunition in our legal case against the administration. And basically, it affirmed what we already knew from the beginning, that this Trump administration is targeting us to chill speech across the country, chill pro-Palestin. speech across the country. And they wanted to find a base for that. Even in, I mean, the court documents revealed a lot of important details about the process of targeting me and other students.

They had no basis. Yet, they brought this foreign policy determination, and after they felt that they would lose on that, which now they did, they resorted to bringing baseless. charges, fraud charges against me to have another leg to stand on. And another, one other important thing about this particular ruling is that the judge said that speaking up for Palestine and for Palestinian liberation is protected, is not supporting terrorism as this administration is trying to do. And as you said, Rubio and Neum with the support of the White.

house to. They technically conspired to deprive us from our freedom of speech so that they can advance their ideological agenda in this country. And but, Mahmoud earlier this month, a judge in Louisiana ruled that you are deportable. What are your lawyers saying about how this decision will affect that one? And what's the status of that Louisiana decision right now? Yeah, the immigration courts are kangaroo courts. They answer to the Attorney General, to the executive branch. They are basically affirming a decision or a court ruling, an immigration court ruling that I'm deportable based on baseless charges.

So as I've said before, this case now shows to the federal court, to my federal court in New Jersey, that the administration, the Trump administration, basically conspired to deport me. They had no legal basis to do that. And they say in one of the documents that was presented in the case, they said they had no alternative grounds to deport me. So this would be very important because that would show that the administration actions against me, in particular, are in retaliation of my freedom of speech and designed to make an example out of me so that others would be afraid of speaking out.

I wanted to bring in Todd Wilson as well, the president of the American Association of University professor, former colleague of mine at Rutgers University, Todd, your response to the judge's decision and why the AAUP felt so that it needed to be a plaintiff in this case? Yeah, I mean, we're really happy about this decision as a step forward. I mean, as Mahmoud and Alex detailed, it just confirms what we knew, that this was unconstitutional and illegal, these abductions for political speech. And the reason we took this case on is because, you know, faculty, students, and staff in higher education are living in fear right now. The Trump administration is purposefully attacking our

sector, attacking our speech rights, attacking our institutions, whether it's Columbia and Harvard or UCLA. And we felt like it was critical to step up and step into this fight through the courts and through other mechanisms to push back and to defend our members who are largely faculty, but also students and staff working on our campuses. I wanted to go back to Mahmoud Khalil. Mahmood, we were there at Newark Airport when you were flown back in after being released from that ice jail in Gina, Louisiana. You reunited with your wife with Dr. Dean Abdullah, an American citizen, a dentist, who you were taken from her in March as the two of you were standing in the lobby. of your building. And then you had to experience your son, Dean's birth over the telephone in jail

as your wife gave birth. Can you talk about what this experience has been like for you, the effect of this jailing? Now you've been out for a few months. I mean, you've been standing in Congress with Rashida Talib. You've spoken all over. We saw you at Columbia University. today surrounded by professors, by activists, by people celebrating your release. But what is it meant? And also to spend this last months with your little baby. Thank you, Amy. I mean, it has been absolutely great to be reunited with the family and to make up for the time that was stripped from us, from my wife, Noor and my son, Dean. That's why, I'm churching these moments, but also that means that I have a duty, I have a responsibility

to continue to speak up against what's happening to me and to my people. That explains why I'm involved in these steps to seek accountability, because let's be clear, nothing would ever make up for the time missed away from my family, for missing the birth of my child. not this ruling, not any other ruling. That's why I would continue to seek accountable. So this doesn't happen to anyone else. And the administration would feel deterred from continuing to targeting people for their freedom of speech.

And it's very important to continue to speak out because this is what this administration, and this is what the court now confirmed that this administration's intention was to chill our speech. So I want to continue to speak up against this administration to show that they will never succeed in silencing us, in silencing us against all the atrocities that are happening against our people in Palestine. Alex Abdo, you were with the First Amendment Center, which brought the case. And the people that you talked about who were targeted, there was Mahmoud taken on March 8th. A few weeks later, Mosul Madawi was taken, another Palestinian student who's now a graduate student. Columbia. He went to court yesterday in downtown Manhattan, as did Ramesa Ozturk, the Tufts university student. They were both in federal court. Can you explain how this decision affects what's

happening to them right now? Yeah, so they were both in court yesterday because the government has argued that they're not entitled to challenge their detention, even if the government threw them in jail specifically for the reason of trying to silence their speech and to chill others. And the hope is that a ruling like yesterdays will break the spell because the goal of this administration in all of these cases in which it is cracking down on political speech is to silence dissent. They're not trying to win in court because they can't because the legal theories they're advancing are preposterous. And in another era would have been shameful for DOJ lawyers to present in federal court. But we need to break the spell. We need more people

like Judge Young, like Mahmoud Khalil, to call it for what it is, which is a concerted effort by the federal government to crack down on political speech. So if this decision contributes in small part to breaking the spell, then I think it will have been a success. Alex Abdo, want to thank you so much for being with us, litigation director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Todd Wolfson, speaking to us from Philadelphia, President of the American Association of University Professors, and Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia University graduate, an activist who spent over 100 days in an ICE jail.

He was sent to Gina, Louisiana. During that time, his wife, Dr. Nur Abdullah, gave birth to their first son, Dean. He was released on June 20th. This coming weekend, I'll be speaking at the Roxy Theater in San Francisco on Saturday and in Berkeley. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.