Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-12-10 Wednesday

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

Headlines for December 10, 2025; Will the International Community Act? Preschool Massacre & “Large Piles of Bodies” in Sudan; “Torture & Enforced Disappearances” at Florida’s ICE Jails “Alligator Alcatraz” & Krome; Trump Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt’s Nephew’s Mother Released from ICE Jail, Faces Deportation; Despite Judge’s Order, ICE Deports Shackled Babson College Freshman, Harasses Her Family in Texas; What Activists Can Learn from Rosa Parks on the 70th Anniversary of Montgomery Bus Boycott

From New York, this is Democracy Now. What is very real is that people are fleeing this advance of the RSF. Their stories are unfortunately all the same. Rape, murder, forced recruitment of children, separation of families, and sheer robbery. In Sudan, fighting continues after the UAE-backed RSF attacked a kindergarten killing over 40 children. We'll get an update. Then torture and enforced disappearances in the Sunshine State, human rights violations at alligator Alcatraz and Chrome in Florida. What we found in both facilities were serious human rights violations, cruel conditions, and real abusive.

We'll talk to the mother of the nephew of White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt, who was released from an iced jail Tuesday. We'll also talk about the 19-year-old Babson College freshman, arrested at a Boston airport and deported as she flew to surprise. her family in Texas for Thanksgiving. Then, sick and tired, she wasn't. We'll look at the rebellious life of Rosa Parks on this 70th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott. I felt that I was not being treated right that I had a right to retain the seat that I had taken

as a passenger on the bus. The time had just come when I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed, I suppose. They placed me under arrest. All that and more. Coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warrant Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

Hamas is calling for greater international pressure on Israel before agreeing to the next phase of the U.S. broker-gaza ceasefire. Hamas says Israel must open key border crossings, halt military strikes and home demolitions, and allow for more humanitarian aid into the besieged territory. Palestinian health officials report, since the ceasefire took effect, October 10th, Israel's killed at least 376 Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israel continues to bar international journalists from independently entering Gaza after the country's top court on Tuesday delayed a legal challenge seeking to overturn

the media restrictions. Meanwhile, UNICEF says 9,300 children in Gaza were treated for severe acute malnutrition in October when the first phase of the ceasefire deal came into effect. This is UNICEF spokesperson, Tess Engram. Mothers cannot afford to buy their children the nutritious food that's available in the markets. Fruits and vegetables, which are now here, remain very expensive. And animal products like dairy and meat, even more so. For example, a UNICEF market survey done in November found that meat still on average costs about U.S. $20 a kilo.

So most families can't access this, and that's why we're still seeing high rates of malnutrition. In news from Yemen, forces backed by the United Arab Emirates have claimed control of the oil-rich southern half of Yemen, including the city of Aden. Analysts say the military advance could result in renewed fighting between UAE and Saudi-back groups, as well as southern Yemen, possibly becoming an independent country again. President Trump's publicly pressing Ukrainian President Vlodemar Zelensky to accept a peace deal, saying Ukraine is, quote, losing the war with Russia. In an interview with Politico, Trump also said it was time for Ukraine to hold elections.

Zelensky responded by saying Ukraine could soon be ready for long-delayed elections if the U.S. insures security. In Oslo, Norway, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the right-wing Venezuela and opposition leader at Maria Corina Machado, but she did not attend the ceremony. Her daughter accepted the prize on her behalf. Ahead of the ceremony, Machado said she was heading to Oslo but would not arrive in time for the event. She's been in hiding for the past year. On Tuesday night, hundreds of protesters marched in Oslo to condemn the selection of Machado, who supported Trump's threats against the Venezuelan government. In October, she dedicated the Peace Prize to President Trump. In related

News two U.S. F-18 fighter jets entered Venezuelan airspace for 40 minutes Tuesday as the U.S. escalates its threats against the Maduro government. The jets circled the Gulf of Venezuela near the city of Madacaibo. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights have sued the Trump administration seeking the release of the secret legal memo that's been used to justify the U.S. campaign targeting alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific. The U.S. struck at least 22 boats, killing 87 civilians since September. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Higgseth gave a classified briefing to members of Congress, but he refused to commit to show lawmakers a full, unedited video of a September 2nd strike

on two shipwreck men who'd survived an earlier U.S. strike that killed nine about 40 minutes before. Honduran President Yamada Castro has accused President Trump of interference with Honduras' recent election and said a, quote, electoral coup is occurring. Honduran election officials are still processing ballots from the November 30th election after numerous delays. The Trump-back candidate, Nasrius Fuhra, has a narrow lead over Salvador Nasrallah, who's also alleged fraud. President Xiomatto Castro spoke Tuesday.

In this election, the people were subjected to coercion, black, extortion, tricks, fraud, and the manipulation of the preliminary results transmission system. These threats are a direct attack on the popular will. At a rally in Pennsylvania Tuesday, President Trump again attacked Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar in a racist, expletive-filled rant while calling for more immigration from Northern European nations. We had a meeting, and I said, why is it? We only take people from all countries.

Right? Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few. Let us have a few. From Denmark. Do you mind sending us for you people? Send us some nice people. Elon Omar, whatever the hell, her name is, with a little shoe, the little turban. I love her. She comes in. There's nothing but bitch. During the speech, President Trump also called concerns over affordability a hoax. In response, Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar posted on social media, quote, Trump's obsession with me is beyond weird. He needs serious help.

Since he has no economic policies to tout, he's resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead. He continues to be a national embarrassment. Florida's Republican Governor Randa Santas signed an executive order Monday, declaring the Council on American Islamic Relations, CARE, a foreign terrorist organization. The move follows a similar declaration issued last month by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott. Like in Texas, the Florida Executive Order also designates the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization. This is Imran Ghani, director of Khear's Houston Chapter.

So these two governors are fomenting anti-Muslim hate, bigotry, and these accusations are totally conspiracy-based and done to stoke fear of Muslims. From a human perspective, it continues to make Muslims, who are part of the cultural fabric of American society, it others us. Muslims have been around for hundreds of years. Texas's Republican Governor Greg Abbott announced Texas will be partnering with Turning Point USA to establish chapters of the right-wing youth organization launched by the late Charlie Kirk in every high school in Texas. Governor Abbott said, quote, let me be clear, any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately

to the Texas Education Agency, unquote. Turning Point USA's high school chapters are called Club America. The move follows similar efforts by state officials in Oklahoma and Florida to establish Turning Point USA chapters in high schools. Australia's officially banned children. under the age of 16 from using social media apps in the country starting today. The apps ban include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, and Kick. Platforms will need to deactivate accounts for users under 16 and stop them from making accounts or face fines up to $33 million. Amnesty International said in a statement, quote, many young people will no doubt find ways to avoid the restrictions.

a ban simply means they will continue to be exposed to the same harms, but in secret, leaving them at even greater risk, they said. One student's dead and another was in critical condition after shooting at Kentucky State University Tuesday. Officials say a suspect who's not a student at the school is in custody after the incident. According to the gun violence archive, there have been 387 mass shootings in the United States so far this year. The Trump administration announced it's reached an agreement with several Republican-led states to end former President Biden's student loan repayment program, the program called Save, which stands for saving on a valuable education, is an income-driven repayment program which currently has more than 7 million borrowers. In its statement, the Education Department said it plans to stop all new enrollments under the plan, deny any pending applications, and transition borrowers into other repayment plans.

Natalie Abrams, president of the student debt crisis center, said, quote, borrowers need real relief and stability, not a return to unaffordable, costly student loan payments that push them closer to financial crisis, unquote. A federal judge has ruled Tufts University Ph.D. student Ramesa Oster can resume teaching and conducting research. In March, the Turkish-born student was abducted by mass immigration agents near Boston and the Tufts campus and then sent to an ice jail in Louisiana where she was held for six weeks. She'd been targeted for co-writing a student article on Gaza in the student paper. Up until now, she had not been able to teach her due research because the Trump administration had revoked her visa. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed bills aimed to prevent federal immigration agents from making arrest near courthouses, hospitals, or colleges, another new law will also make it easier

for people to sue federal agents if their constitutional rights have been violated. Meanwhile, a coalition of civil and immigrant rights groups are calling for the immediate closure of an ICE jail at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, the groups alleged detained immigrants have been beaten and sexually abused while being denied adequate medical care and food. President Trump's former personal lawyer, Alina Haba, who was installed. as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey has resigned after a panel of federal judges ruled she was serving in her position unlawfully. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Habo would remain at the Justice Department to serve as a senior advisor. In election news, voters in Miami, Florida have elected a Democratic

mayor for the first time in nearly 30 years. In a stunning upset, former county commissioner Eileen Higgins received about 59 percent of the vote defeating Republican Emilio Gonzalez who'd been endorsed by Trump. Eileen Higgins will become Miami's first female mayor. In another setback for Republicans in Georgia, Democrat Eric Gisler flipped a statehouse seat in a district Trump won by double digits last year. And New York City controller Brad Landers launching a primary challenge against Democratic Congress member Dan Goldman.

The congressional district covers the southern part of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. New York City mayor elect Zoran Mamdani endorsed Lander, saying, quote, He's been a trusted ally and partner of mine. I'm proud to support him as I know he'll continue delivering for those who need government to show up for them the most, Mamdani said. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

We begin today's show in Sudan, where fighting continues after the UAE-backed rapid support forces attacked a preschool last year, a hospital and other sites in the state of South Cortifan, killing at least 116 people, including 46 children. This happened last week. Reports from the WHO say parents and caregivers rush the wounded to a nearby hospital even as the attack was ongoing. Paramedics and responders were also reportedly attacked since fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese military broke out in April 2023 and estimated 150,000 people have been killed in at least 12 million displaced. Aid groups say the true death toll is likely far higher.

Hundreds of thousands also face famine. On Monday, the RSF seized the Hegelig oil field, the country's largest. This follows other RSF advances, including the seizure of El Fasher, Darfur's largest city in October. In this clip from Amnesty International, a survivor describes what happened when she fled El Fosher with her five children and was stopped by three armed men. one of them forced me to go with them cut my robe and raped me when they left my 14 year old daughter came to me I found that her clothes had blood on them

and were cut into pieces her hair at the back of her head was full of dust she came to me and said mum they raped me too but do not tell anyone after the rape my daughter became really sick when we reached to wheeler her health deteriorated and she died at the clinic

Also this week, on Tuesday, the United States Treasury announced sanctions against four people and four entities accused of recruiting Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside the RSF and Sudan. To discuss all this and more, we're joined by two guests. Nathaniel Raymond is Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, the labs monitoring Alfacer. He's joining us from New Haven. And here in New York, we're joined by Khalud Khair, a Sudanese political analyst, head of the Confluence Advisory, a think tank, found in Khartoum. Welcome to Democracy Now. Hulud, let's begin with you. We just occurred this horrific story. And this follows last week's attack on the kindergarten and a hospital. At least 46 children were killed. For people who are not following what is

happening in Sudan, can you explain why these warring parties are still fighting after two years. Sure. Well, this war started because the Sydney's Armed Forces, the National Army, and the Rapid Support Forces, a really powerful paramilitary group, fell out of favor with each other. They were once very much allied. They committed the genocide together in Darfur 20 years ago. They led a coup against a civilian cabinet two and a half years, oh, more than two and a half years ago, 2021. And then they fell out because there wasn't any kind of security arrangements that both were happy with. Now, this war is the world's large. at the moment, it's world's largest hunger crisis, world's largest humanitarian crisis,

well, largest displacement crisis, and as we heard in your report, Tajal was largest protection crisis because of the number of women and girls in particular who are being exposed to sexual gender-based violence. And this war, really, to a lot of people, seems like a nonsensical conflict because the level of fighting cannot possibly justify any political machinations of either of the two sides. But this war has now mushroomed into something much, much larger. Almost every part of Sudan is somehow impacted. impacted by this war. People who pushed against military rule in the revolution of 2018 and

2019 are by and large the parts of the society that are facing the most repression from both the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces. And so we're seeing really a war against civilians while the staff and the RSF are fighting each other. They're really fighting the people of Sudan. And that's why you get the nursery killings that we saw last week. You see barrel bombs being used by the Sudanese forces against largely civilian sites. You see the mass atrocity and genocide that's taking place in Darfur. And all of that really can be described, I think, best for people unfamiliar with the story as a means for the security services in Sudan, both the Sunnis-on forces and the rapid support forces, to really try and kill

any kind of revolution, rezeal in Sudan, and to make sure that they pave the way for their vision of military rule. Can you talk about the role of the United Arab Emirates? What's their interest in backing the RSF? And then talk about how and why former Colombian military personnel came to fight alongside the RSF? Talk about the international dimensions of this. Sure. Well, increasingly, as the war continues, we get to see more and more of these

proxy elements. And the most obvious one has been the United Arab Emirates. It, of course, denies supporting the RSF. But the United States' own intelligence community, the United Nations panel of experts on Darfur have all shown that the UAE has been supporting the RSF pretty much

from the outset of the war, and probably before that. The UAE has been familiar with with the RSF for some time, the RSF and the Sydney's armed forces were part of the Saudi Emirati coalition on Yemen, and that's where their relationship really started. But the UAE now is interested in land in Sudan, arable land, fertile land for agriculture. It's interested in supply lines that go through the western part of Sudan and the southern part of Sudan that the RSF largely controls. It has some interest in Red Sea access. It is also interested in having some kind of influence over the Red Sea, which of course is a very large and very important commercial

zone. And because of that, it has given the RSF a huge amount, huge volumes of weapons and very sophisticated weapons from far as far away as China. But there are also allegations that German, Swedish, British, American and Canadian weaponry that has been sold to the United Arab Emirates has found its way in the RSFs hands in places like Darfur. Now, what we've seen recently is an uptick of mercenary action that is reported to have come through the Global Security Services Group, a UAE-based company, that gets particularly Colombian mercenaries that have been phased out of the Colombian soldiers who have been faced out of the Colombian military since the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia, and those people have effectively found new livelihood sources through this UAE-based company, and most of them have now found themselves in Darfur. reports that these mercenaries will continue to be part of the coalition in Sudan, as we have seen them in Yemen and as we have seen them in Libya. So this is part of a broader UAE security infrastructure that has been put in place that we're now seeing brought to bear

in the U.S. Sudan. And the U.S. Treasury announcing sanctions against four people and four companies accused of aiding the RSF by enlisting Colombian mercenaries. Can you talk about the role of the U.S., which is increasingly allying with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, UAE being the backer of one of the sides of the RSF, what power they have here? So the U.S. has a lot of

power. The question is, will they use it? Because Sudan is, even though it is the world's largest conflict by scale right now, it is not very important, has not been a priority country for the United States, which means that increasingly what we're seeing is that the U.S. allies are

able to, you know, be involved in the war in Sudan, whether they're supposed by supporting one of the armed actors or in the case of Egypt and Turkey by increasing its weapons support to, for example, the Sudanese armed forces. And really allowing for these proxy elements to take part in order to keep their allies in the region happy. And, you know, the biggest country that's sort of the biggest priority, I should say, in the region for the United States, is of course Israel. And here we see that Arab countries, particularly the United Arab Emirates that, of course, is very close to Israel, is an ally of Israel and the region, probably one of the few, has really been able to use that relationship to leverage that relationship

against Washington in terms of what it can get away with, as far as the United States is concerned. And this is what puts Sudan, unfortunately, in a very difficult position and the rights and sort of the potential ability for civilians in Sudan to get access, to get an end to the fighting, to get a peace deal or some kind of ceasefire. All of that is complicated by the regional picture, and in particular the interests of American allies. The United Nations is saying more resources are needed to adequately address the humanitarian crisis. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Philip O'Grady, says the Sudan response plan is only one-third funded due largely to Western donor cuts.

What is very real is that people are fleeing this advance of the RSF. I was in a place called Addaba. This is in the so-called northern. States, north of Khartoum, where there is a smaller camp. You know, the biggest camp is Tawila taking people from El Fasher. This is a smaller camp taking people also from El Fasher, but also from Cardofan and other places. And their stories are unfortunately all the same. Rape, murder, forced recruitment of children, separation of families, and sheer robbery. We are barely responding. I have to say in the site, I only visited this particular site, which is not very big about 11, 12,000 people, but arrivals all the time.

We saw people just arrive literally. So that's the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Philippe O'Grady. We're bringing in now Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, which is monitoring El Fosher. Daniel, we last had you on weeks ago. Explain the latest findings of your lab. You said El Fasher is beginning to look a lot like a slaughterhouse. We haven't spoken to you since, for example, the kindergarten was attacked last week with over 40 children killed. What we're seeing through very high-resolution satellite imagery is at least 140 large piles of bodies that appear at the end of oxygen. October into early November, and we see basically a pattern of activity by the rapid support forces that indicates they've been burning and burying bodies for almost the better part of five weeks. Meanwhile, we see none of the pattern of life that we expect to see in a place with

civilians. There's grass growing in the main market in El Fosher. There's no activity at the water points or in the streets, and there's no sign of civilian vehicles such as donkey carts or cars. Basically, we see a ghost town where the only visible activity is rapid support forces in what's called their technicals, their armed pickup trucks, moving objects consistent with human remains around, bearing them and burning them. Moving from what's happening now, the horror we're hearing described, to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, they've just sentenced the former John Jewett leader, Ali Mohamed Ali Abd al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushaib, to 20 years in prison for atrocities committed in the Darfur region like 20 years ago in 2003 and 4. He faced 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, turned himself in, transferred to ICC custody in, 2020. The RSF is largely seen as successors to the Janjaweed. This is the presiding

ICC Judge Joanna Corner. Abd al-Raman's conviction is the first acknowledgement that the people of Darfur were not victims of mere intertribal conflict or something akin to that. They were victims of a deliberate campaign. The Chamber made it very clear. orchestrated by those in power, executed by the Janjouid, led by Mr. Abd al-Rama in the Wadi-Sali region, under the authority of the government of Sudan, even if not specifically ordered by anyone in particular. So that was the presiding judge of the International Criminal Court, sentencing the Janjewid leader. This is crimes committed over 20 years ago. You grew up in Sudan, Khaled-Kha.

Is it proper to think of as we wrap up this segment? The RSF is the kind of successors of the Janjaweed and the significance of this sentencing. Absolutely. I mean, I think first and foremost that a lot of people will feel that 20 years is far too little for what Ali Khashyip has committed. And others will feel that it's not enough, of course. There are four other indictees, including the former president,

President Amar al-Bashir, and another very key indictee called Ahmed Harun, who, according to the ICC, was working very closely with the Ali Khosheb. Now, the issue is that both Amr al-Bashir and Ahmed Harun are currently in Sudan, and reports say that they're being protected by the Sunnis Armed Forces, and this just shows you the extent to which neither the RSF nor the SAF want to see justice done in Sudan for previous crimes or indeed for current crimes,

and have blocked every single justice mechanism that we have seen. That said, Darfur people and communities that I speak to say that at least now we're seeing some kind of justice, some kind of recompense at the global stage, because we're not going to get it at the national stage. No government in Sudan has ever been interested in bringing about justice for, particularly those from places like Darfur and the Kordofans. So some measure of justice, but by no means enough. You left just a year or two ago from Sudan. You travel the world, you talk about the situation in Sudan. What do you think, as we wrap up, are the biggest misconceptions and what's the most important action that must be taken now?

I think people get very much invested in the military elements of this war. Who has gained, what ground, you know, which armed actor is potentially on the road to winning or isn't. What we have seen in Sudan's history is that no military actor has ever won a war outright, whether that's the central Sydney's armed forces or any group that they have fought. no matter how strong they are. And so investing in a military victory, investing in this narrative that we will get some kind of victor is probably not going to serve us. I think we need to focus on the victims. And as you said, the UN envelope for humanitarian aid is very, you know, poorly resources. I think about 16% funded. And those are the people we need to focus on. There are emergency response rooms and mutual aid groups. These are volunteer-led groups of civil society

actors that are at the brunt, at the forefront of the humanitarian relief. And nobody's really looking at them. I think sufficiently nobody's helping them. No one is putting money and resources to them to enable them to save lives. And they have won a string of awards. They have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice. But we have not seen that translate to political support. And we haven't seen that translate sufficiently to financial support. I think investing in those groups, both for the humanitarian response

and for, you know, frankly, allowing them to weave back the social fabric that this war is ripped apart. I think that is a much better investment of time than focusing on the belligerent parties. I want to thank you, Khalud Khair, for both. being with us, Sudanese political analysts, head of the Confluence Advisory. It's great to have you in our studio. And Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health Monitoring Alfacher. We'll link to your reports at DemocracyNow.org. Coming up, torture and enforced disappearances at ICE jails in Florida from the Everglades to Chrome. And then we will look at the case of the mother of the nephew, of the white,

house press spokesperson. She was just released from an ice jail yesterday. Stay with us. When I love you, you didn't walk me, you turned me away from the door of your heart. When I love you, you love you too, but you didn't. of dark till another one my heart oh I just got the message

you sent by a friend telling me that you had to be with me once morning oh you heard of my wedding you can't believe

if my heart is safe now Don't ain't no more When I love you Alice Gerard and band singing when I loved you at the Brooklyn Folk Festival. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We look now at how Amnesty International says immigrants held at the ice jail in Florida

dubbed alligator alcatraz were shackled inside a two-foot-high metal cage and left outside without water for up to a day. at a time. In a new report, they also detail on sanitary conditions, lights on 24 hours a day, poor quality food and water, and lack of privacy. The report is titled Torture and Enforced Disappearances in the Sunshine State, Human Rights Violations at Alligator Alcatraz and Chrome in Florida. We're joined now by the lead researcher, Amy Fisher, Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA. Amy, thanks for

for being with us. Thanks for joining us from Bentonville. Can you describe what you found? Sure. So myself and colleagues from Amnesty International went to Florida in September, and we were able to have a tour of the Chrome detention facility, and we were also able to speak to a number of individuals detained inside who had also been detained inside of Alligator, Alcatraz. and really what we heard about both facilities were harrowing stories of human rights violations, cruel conditions, abuse, and in some cases, treatment that amounts to torture under international law. So explain, can you describe situations you found at what the Republicans have dubbed alligator alcatraz? Of course. So what we found and heard about alligator alcatraz is that people are housed,

in cages that hold about 30 people, and there's about three toilets per cage. The weather, the environment is very severe. And one of the things that we heard that was so concerning was the use of something called the box, which was described to us as the type of cage that you put lions in at the zoo, and people are placed in this box as a form of punishment. It is a two-by-two-foot box where people are shackled at their wrists and at their feet and chained to the ground in the hot Florida sun for hours upon hours at a time, without food, without water, as a form of punishment. We heard that there was an incident in which somebody in one

of the cages was having a medical emergency and other people inside were calling for help for this individual and those that were seeking help were placed in the box as a form of punishment. And after hearing about this, amnesty made the determination that putting people in the box in the use of this box amounts to torture under international law. So what can be done? What are you demanding, Amy Fisher? We are calling for the shutdown of Alligator Alcatraz, as well as Chrome, as well as any other cruel detention center across the United States.

What we are really seeing is an intentional development within immigration detention that is aiming to make it increasingly cruel, increasingly abusive, so that people are forced to give up their immigration claims, give up their asylum claims, because the conditions are so cruel that they can't handle it anymore. And what we know is that there are alternatives to immigration detention that are cheaper, that respect human rights, and actually lift up all communities. And so what we need to do is shut down these facilities and instead invest in an immigration system that works for all of us. I wanted to go to a vigil outside of alligator Alcatraz.

Sonia Bichara spoke about the conditions that her fiancé, Rafael Coyado, faced inside the jail. He has been there for a month and three days, and he has told me that the conditions inside are deplorable. The food is terrible. They keep the lights on all the time to keep them awake. They say they are tired of seeing each other's faces. They are given five minutes to eat. and only a small cup of water with their meal.

If they stand up, they're beaten. They turn the identifications around so they can't see the names. Some tell them the time. Others don't because they don't know what time it is. They only know when they call home. My fiancé asks me what time it is, what day it is today, and it breaks my heart when he asks me that question. In response to the Amnesty Report,

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida issued a statement that read, quote, this report is nothing more than a politically motivated attack. None of these fabrications are true. In fact, running these allegations without any evidence whatsoever could jeopardize the safety and security of our staff and those being housed at alligator Alcatraz. Amy Fisher, your response. First of all, if the governor would like to see some evidence, I encourage him in his office to read the report where that evidence is.

presented. But more than anything, if Governor DeSantis is really concerned about the care and safety of those in custody, then he should shut down Alligator Alcatraz and allow these people to return to their communities where they belong. Amy Fisher, I want to thank you so much for being with us and ask one last question about Crohn's. I remember years ago when people were marching on Chrome because of Haitians who were fleeing violence in Haiti were being placed there in the conditions that they faced. If you can briefly summarize what you found there. What we found at Chrome was very similar to what other people have been reporting for years,

horrific conditions. You know, one of the things that most impacted me at the time in Chrome is that we were speaking to somebody in solitary confinement who was showing us an injured hand through the slot on the door and an ice agent slammed a metal flap of the solitary confinement door on this man's injured hand and then punched it repeatedly. And that was such a show of force, a show of violence. And it happened in front of human rights monitors. And so we know the conditions are horrible. And when we see that type of activity in front of human rights monitors, we can only imagine the type of cruelty that is going on on a day-to-day basis behind closed doors.

I want to thank you so much for being with us, Amy. Amy Fisher, lead researcher on the new Amnesty International Report, torture and enforced disappearances in the Sunshine State. We'll link to it at DemocracyNow.org. Thanks for joining us from Bentonville, Arkansas. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We turn now to two shocking immigration cases, among many. In a minute, we'll look at what happened to a 19-year-old Babson College. freshman, arrested at the Boston airport and deported to Honduras last month when she was flying, hoping to fly in a surprise visit to her family in Texas for Thanksgiving. But first, we turn to the case of Bruna Caroline Ferreira, the mother of the 11-year-old nephew of White House Press Secretary, Caroline Levitt. Ferreira shares a child with Levitt's brother, Michael Levin. She's a Brazilian immigrant who arrived to the U.S. when she was six years old.

New video of her arrest has just been obtained and released by TMZ. She was stopped on November 12th. She had picked her, had left her son off at school. On Tuesday, Bruno Ferreira was released from detention in Louisiana on a $1,500 bond. The Trump administration's characterized her as a a criminal illegal alien from Brazil, a characterization Bruno refutes and is called disgusting. For more, we're joined by her attorney, Todd Pomerlo, in Norwell, Massachusetts. Thanks so much for being with us, Todd. Explain what happened in court yesterday. Tell us Bruno's story, why she was detained, and now the government did not challenge her release. Yes, thank you so much for having me.

and it's a real privilege to come here today and discuss yet another abuse of immigration and custom enforcement's cruel immigration policies. Bruna Ferreira is a mother of Michael Jr. and 11-year-old, and she was surreptitiously arrested and the government was trying to deport a person who's been trying to get a green card since the age of 18 years old, and they have falsely claimed that she is a quote-unquote criminal illegal alien, which they claim about all of the clients we've had that had been unlawfully arrested and detained. She was, yes, she had a bond hearing at 10 a.m. Monday in the immigration court in Oakdale, Louisiana, 1,500 miles away from her home, away from her child,

away from her business. And during the argument, Jason Thomas, former DHS counsel, he's a managing attorney with our office in Boston. He basically laid out chapter and verse, why that was a bold and wrong characterization of Bruna Ferreira. She has zero criminal record. She's been trying to get a green card since the age of 18. They said she illegally entered the country, yet she came here at the age of six on a tourist visa, which is a lawful entry. Her grandmother brought her here when her grandmother was going to bring her back home. Her grandmother passed away unexpectedly in Brazil, so she had no way back. They expect a six-year-old child, apparently, to pack her bags and buy a plane ticket and fly back to Brazil. And then on top of that, they've been falsely claiming

she was arrested. She's never been arrested in her life, except for the rogue, unlawful arrest that occurred on November the 12th. We talked about how she never was convicted or even accused of a crime. This is a juvenile offense when she was 16 years old, that's subject to privacy laws under Massachusetts. Her and another girl in high school were seen pushing each other in the parking lot of a Dunkin' Donuts where they were arguing over who was entitled to the $8 of change from a purchase, and a police officer just happened to be driving by, and he told them each to go to the juvenile court where there was summons, not arrested, not for a crime, and the case was promptly dismissed. So they've been engaging in character

assassination against her. When we made all of these arguments, when DHS had its turn, It's lawyer said two words. I stipulate. That means it agreed factually and legally to every single argument we made. The judge set the minimum bond available $1,500, which is what we asked for. And the government then said it waived appeal. I wanted to ask you, I mean, this is the mother of the nephew of Carolyn Levitt, the White House press spokesperson.

What has she said about this? Bruna was involved for years and had the baby with Michael, Carolyn Leavitt's brother. She also suggested, why would they even know where she was driving, the only people who knew, because she was driving her kid to and from school, Michael Jr., was Michael Carolyn's brother. What is going on here and what is Carolyn Levitt said, the White House press spokesperson, who so often reiterates Trump's anti-immigrant policies? for somebody has a lot of rhetoric and a lot to say about non-citizens throughout the United States she hasn't said anything about this case the DHS press secretary is the one that keeps falsely claiming libelously and slanderlessly by the way that Bruno is a criminal legal alien keeps regurgitating that she was arrested for a crime which is factually and legally

false and then even after its own lawyer agreed that that was that it stipulated that that wasn't true, it still continues with that character assassination. Caroline Levitt would have been my client's sister-in-law had she married Michael Sr. They were madly in love when they were young. They were engaged to be married. They had a child in like a lot of relationships in the world. It broke up. She's never harbored any animosity toward the Levitt family. She has spoken very kindly of Caroline. She even picked Caroline to be the mother-in-law, I mean to be the godmother, excuse me, for Michael Jr. over her own sister. She has one sister and she chose Caroline Levitt. to be the godmother. And that's a significant thing for Catholics in America to do. And she's just

dumbfounded. She was sitting in a for-profit prison in Louisiana. This is a single mother who owns two businesses. She actually looked up to Caroline, because Caroline is a woman who rose to a position of power. She ran for Congress at a young age. She's now the press secretary, which is an envious position for anyone to be in. And she's always looked kindly upon her. But Caroline was a high schooler when she was dating Michael. Caroline's six or seven years younger than Bruna. Brunner's 32 years old. So she's just absolutely astounded the way she's been labeled. I mean, if she's a criminal illegal alien now, which they keep calling her,

she was a criminal illegal alien then when she was dating Michael, when she was engaged to him, and when she was at a soft baseball game of Michael Jr., where Caroline was a couple of spring times ago. So all of a sudden, now the Levits have a problem with criminal illegal aliens, yet one of them was about to marry one of their loved ones, and there was no problem then. And so now she's out.

She was sent to Louisiana. She was jailed. What happens next? It was even worse than that. She was arrested in her driveway. They knew exactly where she was going to be. She was driving a car not registered to her. Five federal agents with masks over their faces

just barricaded her in her driveway when she was pulling out onto the street to go pick up her son 33 miles away from her house like she did four or five days a week. And they never showed her a warrant. At first they asked her for her license and she thought it was odd because it didn't appear to be a traffic stop.

She's not clueless. She watches the news, and ICE wears masks all over their faces because they don't want to apparently show the public who they are. And then she was asked, if she was Bruna, and she was puzzled, and she said, why are you asking me my name? And then they arrested her,

and she demanded to see a warrant, and they never saw one. TMZ leaked the video that I had never seen about a week ago, and it shows a brazen, unconstitutional arrest, a clear violation of her rights. And it's just really uncalled for it. First, we thought it was happenstance, because it wouldn't surprise me if ICE

would actually arrest Malania Trump. They just go around and arrest everybody these days. with apparently no recourse according to their own policies. But again, we're in courtrooms. The first chance we had, she was released on $1,500 bail. Bruna is a fighter. She's a strong, courageous woman, and she's had one of her days in court,

and she'll have many more in the future, where we expect her to get her lawful permanent residency. There is no reason under the law for even arresting her. She wasn't dangerous. She wasn't a risk of flight, according to the government's own lawyer, and that's the standard that was required to actually arrest her again when she's in the middle of a green cut process. Well, Attorney Todd Bomberlow, we have one last question to ask you about another of your clients, Annie Lucia Lopez-Belosa, this 19-year-old Babson College freshman arrested last month at Boston Airport when she was at the gate, she was going to surprise her family for Thanksgiving in Texas, but she was deported to Honduras.

She spoke to MS now about how her lawyers tried to stop the deportation to no avail. passed and even the night passed, and in the morning, that's where I found out that I was gone, that they were going to transfer me to Texas. And I was like, oh, like, can we call like my family so I can let them know they didn't allow me to. So I didn't even know that I had that my lawyer had put it on orders. So I wouldn't be able to, so I just couldn't move me to Texas. And it hurt me because. I wasn't able to let them know that I was going to get deported. And I didn't even know that I was going to get deported until I was on the plane.

So attorney Todd Palmerlo, the Trump administration says your client missed multiple opportunities to fight a removal order. But she came to the U.S. as a seven-year-old asylum seeker. DHS spokeswoman McLaughlin said she received full due process, but she was unaware of her process. removal order. Is that right before being detained? And what did the judge say about not deporting her? Yeah, this is yet another character assassination. They are labeling a child still under the immigration law. Under the age of 21, you're considered a child. She came her around the eight, it was actually eight years old. She came her with a mother fleeing persecution in Honduras, seeking asylum. That's a lawful process. And yet they call her illegal again. She was legally

pursuing asylum. Their lawyer explained to the mom and to Annie that she had no deportation and nothing to worry about. I got the case very late Thursday night. The day she was arrested, she was arrested early that morning. I got around 10.30 that night, and I was looking into it. At first, I thought she was flying into the United States as a college student possibly on an F-1 visa, and we learned the opposite. She was traveling domestically, not internationally. This is the first arrest of its kind I've seen, and I've done over 75 of these habeas cases in the last six months. Friday, we were trying to reach out to the Icefield Office to no avail. She was in a database, showed us being in their custody, and then right around the time we started contacting them.

They deleted her from the database, treating her like she wasn't in the custody at all of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office. We filed the lawsuit at 6 o'clock at night. At 608, a federal judge issued an order, preventing her deportation from the country, requiring her to have a court hearing. And then we talked to her father, and he thought she was deported on Friday, and he was crying. and we reconnected with him on Monday. He told us, yes, Ani was deported. On Saturday from Texas, is what he told us. And I almost fell out of my chair.

This is a clear violation of a federal court order. She was not supposed to be removed from the country. She was supposed to be brought to court for her hearing, where we were challenging her detention as being unlawful under the Constitution and the statutes and regulations of the United States. She had no idea. She had a removal order. She should have been given the courtesy of talking to a lawyer,

not having our office ignored, which is a repeat theme with ICE. They don't answer their first. anymore. They don't respond to emails, but they managed to have the time and capacity and money to arrest people 24-7. It's really unconscionable and cruel what they did to a child. And we have a hearing coming up soon in the federal court. This is contemptuous conduct. The government responded last week. I thought it might have said, sorry, or maybe they didn't know about the court order. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. And it is doubling down. And its claim is basically that

she got what she wanted. She's not in unlawful custody anymore. So basically, boo-hoo, stop complaining. And by the way, they're telling the judge that it ignored the judge's order because it didn't think the judge had the authority to issue it. That's not the rule of law. So, Todd Palmerlow, in 30 seconds, what's happening to her family right now in Texas? Her family is being targeted now, apparently for speaking out to the press about the unlawful and unconstitutional violation of their daughter's rights. Apparently, on Sunday, they were trying to break into the backyard of the dad's and mom's home without a warrant and tried chasing the dad into his house when he was washing his car up with his two-year-old U.S. citizen toddler. This is just beyond the pale what we were seeing on a daily basis, and the public needs to know what is going on.

They are not arresting criminal illegal aliens, even though they are labeling them as such. They are attacking hardworking people, and if we want to have, their whole goal is mass deportation now. With that, you're not going to have democracy now. What we require is mass deportation defense. And she was shackled and handcuffed when she was deported? That is correct. Not only did they arrest her at the airport and handcuff her and put her in a van, bring her to a nice facility, and then put her at a military base and hide her from the public and from her lawyer,

the day she was deported in Texas, she said she was taken down near the border on a bus, had shackles around her ankles, chain around her waist, and shackles around her wrist. And she was treated like she was going on a perp walk, like she was some type of sexual predator or hardened criminal. And then she was flown on a plane to Honduras, wasn't allowed to make a phone. call once on Friday or Saturday, and she had to find her grandparents who she hasn't seen in 12 years once she got off the tarmac in Honduras. Todd Palmerlo, I want to thank you for being with us. The attorney representing Annie Lucia Lopez-Belosa, a Babson College freshman, deported, defying a judge's

order for her not to be sent out of the country. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll follow these stories. Next up, the Montgomery bus boycott started 70 years ago. What is the lesson of Rosa Park sitting down on that bus? Was she just tired? Or did she lead a life of activism that led to the desegregation of the transportation system of Alabama? Back in 20 seconds.

Linaresia me, oh, my carino, my life my life, never, but never. Lila Downs, this is Democracy Now, DemocracyNow.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We turn now to look at lessons from the Montgomery bus boycott, which started 70 years ago this month, December 5th, 195, after the civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was arrested days earlier for violating segregation laws when she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. The year-long boycott would help spark the civil rights movement. This is Rosa Parks speaking to

Pacifica Radio in April of 1956 in the midst of the bus boycott. The driver said that if I refused to leave the seat, he would have to call the police, and I told him, just call the police. He then called the officers of the law. They came and placed me under arrest, violation of the segregation law of the city and state of Alabama in transportation. I didn't think I was violating any. I felt that I was not being treated right

than that I had a right to retain the seat that I had taken as a passenger on the bus. The time had just come when I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed, I suppose. They placed me under arrest. Rosa Parks in the Pacifica Radio interview in 1956. For more, we're joined by the historian Gene Theo Harris, professor of political science of Brooklyn College, author of 13 books on the Civil Rights Movement,

including the rebellious life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. Also, there's a young adult version of the book and a documentary by the same name. You just wrote a piece in The Guardian, Professor Thea Harris, headlined what we get wrong about the Montgomery bus boycott and what we can learn from it. Teach. Thank you. It's so great to be here. So I think the ways that we now remember, and honor the Montgomery bus boycott is that it was the right action with the right person and it was sort of destined to succeed and that in the United States, if you have the right action, right, injustice is vanquished. And that is a comfortable story, but it's not an accurate story. All right, let's start with Rosa Parks. As you just mentioned, she is a longtime activist

by this point. She's been active for about 20 years. In fact, this is not going to be her first bus stand. She had been thrown off the bus by this very bus driver and other bus drivers because she refused the practice. Some bus drivers would make black people pay in the front, but have to get off and re-board in the back. She refused to do that, had been thrown off by this bus driver 12 years earlier, and by other bus drivers for being uppity. This is also not the first time somebody's going to be arrested for refusing to give up their seat. In fact, in 1940s, a woman by the name of Viola White refuses to give up her seat on the bus. She decides to pursue her legal case, and in response, the police rape her daughter.

And then the state holds up her appeal for so long that Mrs. White actually dies before her appeal ever goes to court. And this is, they will learn from this because Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon, who are a long time, who will become the kind of two leaders of Montgomery's NAACP, in 1945 and for the next decade helped to transform it into a more activist branch. They learn from Viola White. There's a trickle of cases over that decade. A neighbor of Rosa Parks refuses to get off and reboard. He's killed on the bus by police. And then, as many of us know, in March of 1955, Claudette Colvin, 15-year-old Claudette

Colvin refuses to give up her seat on the bus. As the police take her from the bus, they manhandle her. Colvin, you know, resists there having their hands all over her. And so police don't only arrest Colvin on a segregation charge, but they arrest her on an assaulting an officer charge. Colvin is this very petite 15-year-old and on a disturbing the peace charge. Montgomery is outraged. Black Montgomery, sorry, not Montgomery.

Black Montgomery is outraged. Rosa Parks starts fundraising for Colvin's case. And then a couple of things happen. The judge strategically throws out the segregation charge. He only convicts Colvin on an assault charge. So that's the first issue that's going to make this case hard to pursue. Wait, two minutes. The second is that Colvin is a teenager, and many adults don't trust a teenager.

So let's fast forward. Now we're at December 1, 1955. There is nothing to suggest. What makes what Rosa Parks does so courageous is there is nothing to suggest that making a stand on this day will do anything. And I think that's one of the biggest myths, right? And one of the biggest misunderstandings of her courage. Part of what her courage is is the ability to step forward again and again

without any sense that this is going to change anything and say, this is the line, and I refuse. I mean, so interesting. She had worked for years fighting against and exposing the rapes of black women. She was deeply moved and horrified by the lynching and killing of Emmett Till. But as you said, she didn't know if this would have an effect, but she sat down on that bus. Then there was Joanne Robinson. Talk about that.

A few days later, the bus boycott is launched. And she, in fact, Rosa Parks launches Dr. Martin Luther King, a young pastor who just moved to town. Right. So late that, so she's bailed out a few hours later. when E.D. Nixon sees that she is okay because that she hasn't been physically hurt, he's delighted. This could be a possible test case. She and her husband have to think. That night, she decides she will go forward. She calls a young black lawyer named Fred Gray. That night, Fred Gray calls Joanne Robinson. Joanne Robinson's the head of the Women's Political Council. They have a plan. In the middle of the night, Robinson sneaks into Alabama State where she works and with the help of two students runs off 35,000 leaflets.

And the next morning, the women of the women's political council fan out over Montgomery with those leaflets. They're originally calling for a one-day boycott. But it ends up being a year, and one year later, the final result. The buses are desegregated. It's not about walking. They organize this incredible carpool system. They set up 40 pickup stations all around the city. They're giving at its peak 15 to 20,000 rides a day.

All of this, right, exceeds every time people take a step. They, again, what is imagined gets broader. And they turn it from a one day to a year-long boycott from first-come-person. And that's the story of Rosa Parks. To go to all our interviews with Jean Theo Harris on the rebellious life of Rosa Parks. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.