Celebrating Successes
And bolstering our wins.
Hello Everyone,
Today, we want you to know that your voices are making a difference!
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First, Rümeysa is free. Yesterday afternoon, Vermont Federal Judge William K. Sessions III ordered Rümeysa Öztürk released from custody. In his ruling, Sessions said the government had failed to produce evidence that justified Öztürk’s detention. The administration never charged her with a crime, citing only the op-ed she co-authored in Tuft’s student newspaper as the grounds for her detainent. "That literally is the case," Judge Sessions said. Detaining her was a violation of her First Amendment rights, and her detention, he explained, “chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in the country” who are not U.S. citizens, but whose freedom of speech is protected under the First Amendment. On bail, Öztürk is allowed to continue her studies at Tufts, but her fight for justice will continue as the government pursues immigration litigation against her, including the possibility of deportation.
Öztürk’s freedom was announced here in Vermont (to a cheering, soggy crowd of supporters outside Burlington’s federal courthouse!), but has far-reaching implications. Her case has made international news as an egregious effort by the administration to strangle free speech and deny due process.
What we can do to bolster this win: As Rümeysa continues to battle Trump’s deportation efforts, you can support her legal fight here.
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Second, as you know, Palestinian Vermonter Mohsen Mahdawi was also freed on bail 10 days ago, when U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered his release from immigration custody. Mahdawi’s deportation case continues, however, as he faces Trump’s immigration court in the months ahead.
On Thursday he joined state officials and nonprofit leaders in launching the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund with the goal of raising $1 million to bolster legal representation for immigrants. As VT Digger explains, the federal government isn’t required to provide legal representation for people charged with immigrant offenses, including those who are facing deportation. Vermont has the capacity to hold up to two dozen people in state prisons for immigration offenses, some of whom are then sent to facilities in Louisiana and Texas. The Immigration Legal Defense Fund seeks to provide legal services for individuals and families in the state who wouldn’t otherwise have access to representation.
What we can do to bolster this win: Support Mohsen Mahdawi and—sadly—so many others like him who are in need of legal representation because of Trump’s tactics. Give to the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund. You can also support Mahdawi’s legal fight here.
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Third, you may recall that 10 days ago, Vermont Senator Scott Beck introduced an amendment on the budget bill that would have rolled back Vermont’s climate laws. We asked you to call our senators to vote no. And… success! The Senate voted down the amendment and it passed a budget that includes $700,000 to implement the Climate Superfund Act. This is great news for the groundbreaking law that intends to hold Big Oil accountable for the damage their pollution has caused.
What we can do to bolster this win: In the coming days, Vermont’s House and the Senate will negotiate a final version of the budget. We need them to allocate the funding necessary to implement the Climate Superfund Act. Use this online form to urge your state representative(s) to back this funding. This legislation is setting a national precedent. Thank you for helping Vermont to lead the way.
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Fourth, we wanted to follow up on the SAVE Act as there’s reason for optimism. The voter suppression bill was designed to restrict millions of Americans from voting by requiring citizens to present a birth certificate or passport in person when registering. The bill hasn’t yet moved to the Senate for a vote, but it looks doubtful that it will pass—thanks in part to calls we all made to our senators. On April 30th, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Shumer made the following remarks in a speech on the Senate floor: “Let me be clear: I will not let this noxious bill, the SAVE Act, become law. Every single Democrat is united against it. They need 60 votes. The SAVE Act is dead on arrival.”
We’ll keep you posted if we hear that passage of this bill is threatened and we need to make more calls.
Thanks for all that you do. It matters!
Final Note:
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
Braver Together, Liza and Lorni ♡