Vanessa Cárdenas Statement on Trump’s Escalating Attacks on Democracy

Access online version of this press release HERE

Washington, DC — From the White House Press Briefing room Monday, Donald Trump took unprecedented steps to announce a federal take over of Washington, D.C.’s police department and deploy the National Guard into the city, including noting that the police are “now…allowed to do whatever the hell they want.” This move echoes a broader pattern of undermining democratic norms and militarizing domestic law enforcement.

In response to these alarming actions and Trump’s call to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census, America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas issued the following statement:

Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice said,

“We said it all along: the anti-immigrant crackdown was never just about immigration—it was the opening act of a full-scale assault on American democracy and the rule of law.

From Los Angeles to Washington D.C., Trump is militarizing our streets, deploying armed forces against American residents, and weaponizing federal agencies into instruments of authoritarian control. What began as extremist anti-immigrant policy has metastasized into an anti-democratic nightmare. Just yesterday in Los Angeles, armed DHS agents detained, handcuffed and drew their guns on a 15-year-old boy with disabilities outside a high school in an alleged case of mistaken identity. This is just another chilling reminder of the unchecked power these big federal agencies wield and how quickly it can be turned against any of us.

A leaked DHS memo confirms our worst fears: Trump plans to escalate military involvement in immigration enforcement—not just at the border, but in our cities, for years to come. This is a dangerous new threshold that turns the world’s most powerful military against the very people it swore to protect.

Our soldiers enlisted to defend America from foreign enemies, not to patrol American neighborhoods or intimidate American communities for political theater.

Meanwhile, with violent crime in D.C. at a 30-year low, Trump is manufacturing crises and fabricating threats to justify this unprecedented power grab that obliterates democratic norms.

The reality? There are countless better uses for taxpayer dollars that would actually improve lives: investing in young people, workers, and communities. But Trump prefers stoking division and consolidating power over solving real problems.

History shows us where this leads. A military turned against its own people threatens both democracy and individual liberty. Americans across the political spectrum must reject this authoritarian overreach and send an unmistakable message: this is not who we are.”

See here recent news coverage on Trump’s growing threat to democracy:

●     The New Republic, “Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows,” noted, “The larger context here is that the administration has taken extraordinary license in its invention of pretexts for draconian domestic operations. The administration has insisted we are under foreign “invasion” to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of people with little to no due process. Government agencies have hyped supposed evidence of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s MS-13 ties to justify illegally renditioning him to a Salvadoran prison. Trump has a long history of lying about crime to justify immigration crackdowns. He invented numerous fake pretexts for sending troops into L.A…In a sense, the administration seems to be supercharging immigration “invasion” agitprop to manufacture a sense of national trauma similar to the one that arose after the September 11 attacks.”

●     CNBC, “Trump puts Washington, DC, police under federal control, deploys National Guard,” noted, “President Donald Trump on Monday said he is placing the Washington, D.C., police department under federal control and deploying 800 National Guard troops in order to address what he claims is out-of-control crime in the capital city. The move — which marks the first time in history that a president has federalized the district’s police force — was met with fierce condemnation from local officials, who quickly noted that official statistics show crime is on the decline.”

●     Time Magazine, “Trump’s Troubling Deployment of DHS Officers,” noted, “Charged with protecting federal buildings, FPS has sweeping police powers that go far beyond that mandate and make the agency vulnerable to political weaponization. Its presence in Los Angeles may be an opening salvo, as similar protests crop up in cities around the country. State and local authorities in California and nationwide should act fast to prevent the abuse of their resources and mitigate harm.”