As Voters Push Back at Recess Town Hall, Human Toll of Mass Deportation Breaking Through

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Washington, DC — Separating families. Detaining long-settled green card holders. Thousands of detention camps planned across the country. This is the face of Trump and Miller’s mass deportation crusade. Polling shows that Americans are rejecting the violent overreach of the Trump administration – and Republicans are feeling the heat as they head home for August recess to face their constituents.

According to Joanna Kuebler, America’s Voice Chief of Programs:

“The human toll of mass deportation is breaking through with the American public and voters are pushing back loud and clear at GOP town halls. The Trump administration’s blitzkrieg of attacks against immigrants continues to escalate – from reinstituting family separations to purging long-residing contributors to subjecting detainees to subhuman conditions in facilities designed as ugly political theatre. This is not what Americans voted for; this is why Americans confronted GOP Congressman Mike Flood at his citizen town hall last night in Nebraska. Americans everywhere now recognize that extremism toward immigrants is just the tip of the spear in a broader authoritarian assault against democracy. Republican lawmakers should be feeling the heat and be held accountable by their voters after awarding Trump and Miller $170 billion in taxpayer dollars to advance this cruelty. For those GOP voices now speaking out for a better way – consider us skeptical until you put real muscle behind a different vision of immigrants and America.”

See below for key stories of the growing pushback and dehumanizing cruelty of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda:

• CNN, “‘How much does it cost for fascism?’: Tensions erupt at Nebraska GOP congressman’s town hall”, noting: “Rep. Mike Flood faced a barrage of criticism at a packed town hall in Lincoln, Nebraska, Monday evening as audience members repeatedly confronted him over his support for President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” immigration policy and what they described as threats to democracy. It didn’t take long for those gathered for the meeting at the University of Nebraska to erupt in chants of “tax the rich,” while the Republican congressman attempted to defend his decision to vote for the president’s massive agenda. In one tense back-and-forth in Nebraska, an audience member confronted Flood about government spending and authoritarianism. “My question is fiscal,” the attendee began, referencing reports that the makeshift immigration detention facility in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” is expected to cost $450 million to operate for a single year. “How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?” the attendee asked, as the crowd erupted in applause.”
• New York Times, “Inside Trump’s New Tactic to Separate Immigrant Families,” noting: “Evgeny and Evgeniia faced an excruciating choice. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers told the couple they could leave the United States with their child and return to their native Russia, which they had fled seeking political asylum. Or they could remain in immigration detention in the United States — but their 8-year-old son, Maksim, would be taken away and sent to a shelter for unaccompanied children … Their case is an example of a little-known tactic the Trump administration is using to pressure undocumented immigrants to leave the United States. Officials have begun separating children from their families in small numbers across the country, in what appears to be a more targeted version of one of the most explosive policies of President Trump’s first term. The New York Times has uncovered at least nine cases in which parents have been separated from their children after they refused to comply with deportation orders, according to internal government documents, case files and interviews.”
• Los Angeles Times, “Can the U.S. deport someone who’s lived here for 30 years without an immigration hearing?”, noting: “Federal immigration authorities are attempting to quickly deport an Arizona woman who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years, in what her lawyers are calling the first test of a federal law holding that longtime immigrants cannot be removed until they’ve had a chance to plead their case before a judge.Lawyers for Mirta Amarilis Co Tupul filed a lawsuit Saturday night in U.S. district court in Arizona and are seeking an emergency stop to Co Tupul’s imminent deportation to Guatemala while the case plays out in court. “Only this administration would go this far,” said Co Tupul’s lead attorney, Chris Godshall-Bennet, “because at the core of it is an underlying complete disrespect for the rule of law.” Godshall-Bennet said the government’s move against Co Tupul is just the latest of many illegal actions being attempted by the Trump administration in its effort to remove as many immigrants as possible. If Co Tupul’s deportation is allowed to proceed, her defenders said, it could have wide implications for millions of other immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for many years and are at risk of deportation.”
• Mother Jones, “ICE Plans to Build More Tent Jails for Immigrants. What Could Go Wrong?”, noting: “The administration hopes to erect thousands of these tents ‘as quickly as possible to expand detention capacity…at US military bases and adjoining bricks-and-mortar ICE jails,’ … Officials say they like this approach, at least for now, because they can quickly set up tons of beds in a few new locations rather than finding space at existing facilities here and there. But tents raise serious humanitarian and safety issues. “There’s a reason no one wants to live in a tent,” says Eunice Cho, an attorney who challenges unconstitutional conditions in immigrant detention centers with the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “There are many, many logistical problems—with sanitation, getting food. They certainly are not weatherproof. They do not have the setup to make sure people’s medical concerns are addressed.””