The Protectors
Minnesota has trained 30,000 Constitutional Observers. Every state needs that many. We have to hold this rogue government to the law, and to human decency.
—Dahlia Lithwick, Minnesotans Showed Us What it Looks Like to Protect the Constitution1
This is us, friends. This is the work we’re doing, the effect we’re having. And don’t tell me you haven’t done much. If you’ve written a postcard, called your Senator, spoken with a friend in way that shows the urgency you feel, the danger you recognize— you’re a protector, and you’ve helped move this conversation forward and carry us toward our goal.
Americans, who will pick a supermarket clean in fear of a snowstorm, are just beginning to grasp the threat of fascism. An execution in broad daylight, by government operatives, is reported by the media as an issue with two sides. We’re social— hypersocial— animals. We’re used to synchronizing our thoughts and even feelings with the people around us. There is enormous pressure to give in and go with the fascist flow, but our humanity has turned out to be a deeper force.
Adam Serwer in The Atlantic: “The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and they’re the ones who are alone.” 2
As we bear witness to their atrocities, we’re showing MAGA that fear is justified. Most Americans, most people, value kindness and want to help their communities. I’ve always wondered if Republicans would be comfortable stepping over the bodies of their neighbors in the street. That would be the result of the policies they defend.
There will be casualties.” said an organizer from Minneapolis on a rapid response call to discuss ICE murders. She’s a former marine—she knows where we are. When Tom Homan describes a Minneapolis streetcorner as a “theater” of war, he sounds ridiculous—but he is telling us who he, his bosses, and his thugs, are, and what they intend.
They are more brazen, more vicious, and more lawless every day. Arresting journalists—all Black, because that attacks our Constitutional rights, and supports racism—a classic MAGA behavior. How did this country develop a population so ignorant and depraved that they could believe the lies about immigrant families, (brown-skinned immigrant families only) and countenance the appalling cruelty visited on them? I can guess.
Then there are the secret memos “allowing” ICE agents to break the law, while DHS hides the ICE thugs who executed an American citizen on camera. In Knoxville, Tennessee, a man who helped immigrants evade an ICE abduction squad has been jailed indefinitely. (No, he has violated no law.) In Portland a protester was told she would be added to the DHS database of “domestic terrorists”. All absolutely illegal and unconstitutional.
Tennessee elected Trump by 30 points in 2024. But in Knoxville last week, students streamed out of their schools to join ICE-OUT protests:
Thousands across the country, in red states and blue, joined the protests. Our warnings are finally being heard. Our numbers are growing and we can keep them growing until the depravity is overwhelmed by honor, kindness, understanding….and by Constitutional Law, which gives us the right to protest, the right to film ICE officers, and the right to report the truth.
Our rights under the Constitution cannot be altered by memo. Judge after judge has upheld them, most recently Judge Fred Biery in the Western District of Texas, where 5 year old Liam Ramos and his father had been imprisoned by ICE in spite of the fact that they are asylum seekers in the U.S. legally.3
“Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.” Biery wrote in his decision. “With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike, [Ramos’ release] is so ORDERED.”
The Third Circuit Court ruled on Monday that Habeas Corpus petitioners like the Ramos family are entitled to have their legal costs paid by the government.
Of this, Joe Patrice writes, in Above the Law: “The financial stakes aren’t huge — Tom Homan could theoretically fit several in a single Cava bag — but the thing about the government playing a numbers game is that volume adds up fast. Every successful immigration detainee in the Third Circuit forcing the government to pony up fees costs the government both money and time.”
“And with a circuit split, the Supreme Court faces pressure to resolve the matter, something the Third Circuit opinion takes into account, concluding with a direct challenge to the justices:
We close by echoing the Supreme Court’s recent reflections on the historic role of the writ of habeas corpus. “When English monarchs jailed their subjects summarily and indefinitely, common-law courts employed the writ as a way to compel the crown to explain its actions—and, if necessary, ensure adequate process . . . before allowing any further detention. The Great Writ was, in this way, no less than ‘the instrument by which due process could be insisted upon.’” Brown v. Davenport, 596 U.S. 118, 128 (2022) (citation omitted) (quoting Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507, 555 (2004) (Scalia, J., dissenting)). It remains so today. With this history in mind, we affirm.
“Will this shame the Supreme Court into respecting its own recent history, or will the majority embrace hypocrisy?”4
Imagine, we live in a time when that is a real question. The Supreme Court majority has been in flagrante delicto with hypocrisy for some time. We are the boots on the ground, the constitutional observers who support judges like Biery as they protect the rule of law.
Minnesota has trained 30,000 constitutional observers: “The Immigrant Defense Network helped band together more than 100 organizations to assist struggling families and defend immigrants’ constitutional rights. In January, the network registered an average of 2,000 volunteers per week to train as constitutional observers. A constitutional observer is a trained community member who observes and documents federal law enforcement activity to help ensure constitutional rights are followed….Additionally, another 6,000 volunteers are registered to help deliver food, give at-risk families rides, go to court hearings and translate documents.” 5
When we come out to observe ICE harassment and violence, we are defending not only our neighbors, but the Constitution. We do the Supreme Court’s job, protecting ourselves, protecting each other, and ultimately protecting democracy. When we use our right to free speech we encourage others to join us, and our numbers, and our power grow.
We need to be legion, because we’re fighting a system of lies as well as a system of cruelty. Every one of us who comes out, whether to protest, to video ICE in action, to help with food and clothing, is another link in what has to become a nationwide change of protectors, of human decency and protectors of the Constitution.
In Massachusetts you can be trained as a constitutional observer by LUCE, the Immigrant Justice Network of MA. Most states can direct you to an organization like LUCE. MIRA offers online Know your Rights Training, Bystander Training, and more: (one for early educators February 5 and 6.). When I did bystander training there were people from all over the country on the Zoom.
Why? Because we know what’s despicable, and we know that the more work we do now, the safer we will all be in the future. The more of us there are, the harder it is for the Supreme Court majority to shtupp the Constitution. The harder it is for ICE to follow memos instead of laws. And the easier it is for Democrats to restore the rule of law and decency. 30,000 in every state would be a good beginning. We watch out for our neighbors AND for our Constitutional rights.
Your social media can be your megaphone too. Even if you have 32 Facebook friends you can be getting important information out to them, helping them gain confidence for the fight. Communications strategist Antonia Scatton has a great one page summary of what our messaging can be:
All of this is great, but my favorite is: “Do not repeat or spread their arguments, not even to debunk them. Their messaging is designed to sow doubt in the mind of the listener, even when you are making the case against what they are saying. Always write and speak from our perspective.”
Ours is the constitutional perspective, and the humane perspective. Power to the people! (That’s us!) Power to the protectors. Power to human decency.
Thank you Heidi,
A shout out to the ‘Protectors’. All those who stand up for our constitution, for our neighbors, our rights. We need you, we need each other. We are legion 💙