Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams

US Attorney General Pam Bondi generated alarm on Wednesday when she said the Trump administration is going to take the “same approach” to Antifa as it has to drug cartels—as the military bombs boats in the Caribbean it claims are smuggling drugs.

Antifa encompasses autonomous anti-fascist individuals and loosely affiliated groups who lack a national organizational structure or leadership. Still, as the increasingly authoritarian administration works to quash dissent on all fronts, President Donald Trump last month signed an executive order designating the Antifa movement as a domestic terrorist organization.

During a related roundtable on Wednesday—held as the administration worked to deploy the National Guard in Democrat-led cities—Bondi said that “we’re not gonna stop at just arresting the violent criminals we can see in the streets. Fighting crime is more than just getting the bad guy off the streets; it’s breaking down the organization brick by brick, just like we did with cartels.”

Glancing toward Trump, she continued: “We’re going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa: Destroy the entire organization from top to bottom. We’re going to take them apart. Thanks to your bold leadership, and the designation of Antifa as a terrorist organization—which is exactly what they are—Americans will no longer tolerate their unhinged violence.”

Lawyer and radio host Dean Obeidallah warned: “Please understand that this is Trump regime explaining how they will use the government to prosecute Democrats. Page 1 of the fascist playbook is imprison political opponents so that the fascist has one-party rule.”

Others noted the violence the administration has already taken. Zeteo reporter Prem Thakker said: “My gosh! After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly ‘carrying drugs,’ the US attorney general says, ‘Just like we did with cartels, we’re going to take the same approach…with Antifa.’”

Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan said, “So he is going to drone strike American citizens?”

HuffPost’s SV Dáte similarly asked, “So the US military will be summarily killing them from above now?”

Trump has recently announced four bombings of boats he claimed were running drugs, without releasing any evidence. Those US military attacks have killed at least 21 people. Critics in Congress and beyond argue the strikes are illegal under federal and international law.

On Tuesday, top Democrats from key committees in the US House of Representatives demanded further information about the bombings and reminded Trump: “Congress has the sole constitutional responsibility to declare war and to authorize the use of force. You have failed to secure such authorization for these strikes.”

Also on Tuesday, Bondi appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where lawmakers grilled her on a range of topics. Asked about legal justification for the boat bombings by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), she declined to comment.

Ahead of Bondi’s Senate testimony, watchdog groups and hundreds of former employees of the US Department of Justice expressed alarm about her leadership of the DOJ.

“We’re seeing the erosion of the Justice Department’s fabric and integrity at an alarming pace,” says a letter signed by 282 former DOJ officials. “Our democratic system cannot survive without the primary institution that enforces the law.”

Journalist Mario Guevara’s family and lawyers said Thursday that the award-winning Spanish-language journalist is set to be deported from the United States to his native El Salvador on Friday morning.

The announcement comes after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday declined to block a final order of removal from the Board of Immigration Appeals. The ACLU said in a statement that Guevara’s wife and three children were not allowed to say goodbye to the journalist, who was transferred to a Louisiana facility ahead of his deportation after being held in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) center in Georgia for over 100 days.

“Words cannot begin to describe the loss and devastation my family feels. I am in utter shock and disbelief the government has punished my father for simply doing his life’s work of journalism,” said his son Oscar Guevara, who also shared an update in Spanish on his father’s Facebook account.

“My father should have never had to face over 100 days in detention,” Oscar Guevara continued. “He is the center of our family. He is the reason our home feels like home. To me, he’s my rock, and I don’t know what life without him here will look like now that he will be deported.”

“When I was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2021, it was my dad who centered me, who drove me to my medical appointments, and who lifted me up,” he added. “Now, I will have to manage my healthcare on my own, and live thousands of miles away separated from him. My family has been torn apart for no good reason, and I can only hope that we can one day be reunited.”

Guevara has covered immigration in the Atlanta area for two decades. He was arrested in June while reporting on a “No Kings” protest in Georgia. The local charges against him were dropped, but he has remained in ICE custody in Folkston, despite having work authorization and a path to a green card through his son.

The reporter’s battle to remain in the United States has played out as ICE works to deliver on President Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations and his administration cracks down on criticism from journalists, comedians, and more. Press freedom and immigrant rights advocates have sounded the alarm about his case.

“The government kept Mario unlawfully detained for weeks because of his vital reporting on law enforcement activity. His deportation is a devastating and tragic outcome for a father and celebrated journalist,” said Scarlet Kim, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU, one of the groups representing Guevara in federal court.

“Journalists should not have to fear government retaliation, including prolonged detention, for reporting on government activity, and showing up to work should not result in your family being torn apart,” added Kim. “Mario’s treatment should terrify any person in this country that cares about a free press.”

Freedom of the Press Foundation is among the groups that have been demanding his release. The organization’s director of advocacy, Seth Stern, said Thursday that “Mario Guevara was ripped from his family and community because the Trump administration punishes journalists to protect its own power.”

“The only thing that journalists like Guevara threaten is the government’s chokehold on information it doesn’t want the public to know. That’s why he’s being deported and why federal agents are assaulting and arresting journalists around the country,” Stern continued. “The full impact on our freedom of speech may never be known. But what is certain is that Guevara’s deportation sends a chilling message to other journalists: Tell the truth, and the state will come for you.”

“This is unconstitutional, un-American, and wrong,” he added. “It’s an assault on the First Amendment, and it won’t stop until we all fight back by speaking out.”

As President Donald Trump and his allies continue to target immigrants, journalists, and anyone else critical of the increasingly authoritarian administration, organizers are gearing up for another round of “No Kings” rallies across the United States — which they expect will draw even more demonstrators than a similar day of action in June.

“Sustained, broad-based, peaceful, pro-democracy grassroots movements win. Trump wanted a coronation on his birthday, and what he got instead was millions of people standing up to say NO KINGS,” Indivisible co-founder and co-executive director Ezra Levin said in a Tuesday statement. “No Kings Day on June 14 was an historic demonstration of people power, and it’s grown into a broad, diverse movement.”

“While Trump escalates his attack with occupations of American cities and secret police forces terrorizing American communities, normal everyday people across this country are showing up every single day with courage and defiance. On October 18, we’re going to show up in the largest peaceful protest in modern American history,” he added. “Millions will come together in more cities than ever to say collectively: No kings ever in America.”

Indivisible is planning the peaceful protests alongside groups including the ACLU, American Federation of Teachers, Common Defense, 50501, Human Rights Campaign, League of Conservation Voters, MoveOn, National Nurses United, Public Citizen, Service Employees International Union, and United We Dream.

Organizers announced the second Not Kings mobilization earlier this month. As a federal government shutdown loomed on Tuesday, they said that over 2,110 protests are now planned across all 50 states—more than those that drew over 5 million people to the streets in June

“We the People of the United States of America reject the Trump regime’s repeated assaults on our freedoms,” said 50501 national press coordinator Hunter Dunn. “This administration has invaded our cities, dismantled our social services, and tossed hard-working Americans into concentration camps. He has sacrificed our Constitution on the altar of fascism. On October 18th, the American people will gather together to practice two time-honored American traditions: nonviolent protest and anti-fascism.”

Trump has deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles, California, and Washington, DC, and this week is moving to do the same in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois—where US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are already carrying out the deadly “Operation Midway Blitz” as part of Trump’s national push for mass deportations. The administration is also specifically targeting pro-Palestinian foreign students, which a federal judge on Tuesday rebuked with what one reporter called “the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era.”

Also on Tuesday, during an unusual gathering of US military leadership in Virginia, Trump declared that the country is “under invasion from within” and generals should use American cities as “training grounds,” while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pledged to overhaul the inspector general process: “No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complaints, no more smearing reputations, no more endless waiting, no more legal limbo, no more sidetracking careers, no more walking on eggshells!”

Meanwhile, Jacob Thomas, a military veteran and communications director for Common Defense, said that “as veterans and patriots who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the freedoms that it enshrines, we are appalled at the lengths President Trump and his billionaire buddies have gone to to strip our neighbors and communities of the rights, dignity, and freedoms owed to everyone residing in this country.”

“We must all do our part to fight back against his authoritarianism and military occupation of cities,” he continued. “We cannot allow a wannabe dictator to destroy our democracy, gut veteran healthcare, keep people from accessing the ballot box, and tank our economy. We must all join together in solidarity to fight back and secure our freedoms. Two hundred and fifty years ago, Americans stood up to a tyrant king, generations later our great-grandparents defeated fascism abroad. Now it is up to us to defeat fascism at home.”

Amid rising concerns over US President Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, including attacks on the media, press freedom advocates on Friday celebrated the dismissal of some federal charges against a journalist indicted during the Biden administration.

“This ruling is a significant victory for free expression and press freedom, and it will help restore confidence that journalists, researchers, and members of the public are not breaking federal law simply by accessing or reviewing streaming information,” said Bobby Block, executive director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, which had filed an amicus brief with other advocacy groups.

US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle—appointed to the Middle District of Florida by Trump during his first term—dismissed seven of the 14 charges against Tampa-based media consultant and journalist Timothy Burke on Thursday.

Burke was arrested and charged last year after obtaining and disseminating unaired 2022 footage from Tucker Carlson’s former show on Fox News, including antisemitic remarks by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

“In this case, the government argues that it can prove a Wiretap Act violation solely by showing that a defendant intentionally acquired a communication using a device and that the many exceptions to the Wiretap Act are not elements of the crime but instead defenses to be raised by a criminal defendant,” the judge wrote. “Significant First Amendment concerns arise if I were to adopt the government’s theory.”

“The court recognized that the government’s theory not only posed serious threats to press freedom, but also to anyone engaged in everyday internet activity.”

Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, explained that “the prosecution’s theory would have allowed not only journalists but anyone who watched a livestream to be forced to defend themselves in court to stay out of prison. It would be naive to think the government wouldn’t abuse that kind of power.”

Stern expressed relief at the judge’s dismissal decision, while Yanni Chen, legal director at the group Free Press, called it “a crucial victory for the First Amendment—for journalists, for internet users, and, most immediately, for Timothy Burke.”

“The court recognized that the government’s theory not only posed serious threats to press freedom, but also to anyone engaged in everyday internet activity,” Chen said. “At a time when journalists face increasing risks for doing their jobs of holding power to account, this ruling affirms the essential protections they deserve and sends a clear message: The law cannot be twisted to criminalize newsgathering.”

Jennifer Stisa Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, also pointed to threats under the current US government, saying that “now is a time when press freedom is in jeopardy and it’s essential that courts stop prosecutors from twisting the law to silence news the government doesn’t like.”

“The Wiretap Act protects our privacy; it doesn’t criminalize journalists whose reporting relies on online sources,” she stressed. “Tim Burke’s case isn’t the first example of this kind of abuse, but hopefully it will be the last.”

In a social media post late Thursday, Burke thanked not only his “overworked and underpaid legal team” but also the press freedom groups that submitted amicus briefs in this case.

Burke also stressed that the case against him continues, saying, “To be clear, only the wiretap charges (which were half of the total) have been dismissed, though they were certainly the far more serious of the allegations and I’m grateful the court has found them to be deficient.”

Last month, Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell—appointed to the Middle District of Florida by former President Barack Obama—sentenced Marco Gaudino to five years of probation with a year of house arrest for his role in helping Burke gain unauthorized access to the videos. Gaudino pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against Burke.

The ACLU is asking a federal district court in Georgia to order the immediate release of Mario Guevara, a journalist arrested while covering a June “No Kings” protest, after the Board of Immigration Appeals on Friday ordered his return to El Salvador.

The Emmy-winning Spanish-language journalist has reported on immigrant issues in the Atlanta area for two decades. When he was arrested on the job this year, he had a work permit and a path to a green card through his US citizen son. The charges from June have been dropped, but he remains at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) center in Folkston.

ICE refused to comply with a July 1 decision that Guevara could be released on bond. The Board of Immigration Appeals has now dismissed his bond appeal “as ‘moot’ because it has also granted the government’s motion to reopen his removal proceedings,” according to the ACLU—which secured an emergency federal district court hearing on Friday.

“Mr. Guevara should not even be in immigration detention, but the government has kept him there for months because of his crucial reporting on law enforcement activity,” said Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “The fact that he may now be put on a plane to El Salvador, a country he fled out of fear, at any moment, despite a clear path to becoming a permanent resident, is despicable. The court must ensure he is not deported and should order his release from detention immediately.”

“The fact that he may now be put on a plane to El Salvador, a country he fled out of fear, at any moment, despite a clear path to becoming a permanent resident, is despicable.”

In a letter published Friday by The Bitter Southerner, Guevara detailed his experience since his arrest and wrote: “I don’t know why ICE wants to continue treating me like a criminal. It pains me to know that I have been denied every privilege and the right to be free when I have never committed any crime.”

“This whole situation has me devastated, and not only morally, but also economically, because I am the breadwinner for the home,” he explained. “Since my arrest, I have lost tens of thousands of dollars, and my company, the news channel MGNews, is on the verge of bankruptcy.”

“But I have to remain strong and confident that the United States still has some caring and decency left and that in the end justice will prevail,” he added. “Hopefully, soon all my tears and my family’s tears will be wiped away, and we can have fun and smile, triumphant, as we did before, together and in absolute freedom.”

Guevara’s legal team and press freedom groups have emphasized that his case is bigger than a single reporter. As ACLU of Georgia legal director Cory Isaacson put it on Friday, “If Mr. Guevara is deported it will be a devastating outcome for a journalist whose initial detention was a gross violation of his rights.”

“The immediate release of Mr. Guevara is the only way to correct this injustice that has immeasurably harmed his well-being and the well-being of his family, the community, and the people of Georgia,” Isaacson added. “In a democracy, journalists should not be arrested for exercising their constitutional rights to report the news.”

Other free press advocates also responded with alarm to the Board of Immigration Appeals’ Friday decision.

“We are outraged that journalist Mario Guevara was initially detained for almost 100 days because the government believes that livestreaming law enforcement poses a danger to their operations,” Committee to Protect Journalists US, Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator Katherine Jacobsen said in a Friday statement.

“This latest move allows the government to circumvent addressing the reason why Guevara was detained, in retaliation for his journalism,” Jacobsen continued. “Instead, authorities are using the very real threat of deportation to remove a reporter from the country simply for doing his job and covering the news.”

Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director at PEN America, similarly said that “if carried out, this ruling would mark a dangerous moment for press freedom, with the United States—long considered a beacon for free speech—moving to deport a journalist in direct retaliation for his reporting.”

“This mirrors the tactics of authoritarian governments the US has long condemned and sends a chilling message to reporters everywhere, especially those covering vulnerable communities or government abuses of power,” he added. “We urge the court to reconsider and to allow Mario Guevara to remain in the country and continue his reporting free from fear of deportation or retaliation.”

US President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of mass deportations, and since returning to power in January, his administration has sought to deliver on that. On Friday, Free Press senior counsel Nora Benavidez warned, “Deportation without due process—that would be the new normal set by Mario Guevara’s removal from the United States.”

“Horrific and lawless, this is the environment the Trump administration created to promote a singular approved narrative, remove critical news coverage for communities, and chill journalists’ freedom should they dare hold power to account,” she said. “Mr. Guevara’s case is happening live, with breaking updates occurring under a sealed case shrouded in secrecy, upon which his removal and ability to report depend.”

Ahead of the developments on Friday, Benavidez had tied Guevara’s case to the government’s effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil over his protests against Israel’s US-backed genocide in Gaza, and Disney yanking late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air after the Trump administration objected to his comments about the fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

“Mahmoud Khalil was just ordered to be deported for his free speech,” she said Thursday. “Mario Guevara is in detention for filming police. Jimmy Kimmel taken off air for his speech. TikTok [is] being bought by Trump cronies. All of it moves towards one singular narrative Trump approves. We must resist.”

Protests at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Chicago continued on Friday, with ICE and Border Patrol agents tear-gassing, pepper-spraying, and detaining demonstrators—and even throwing congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh to the ground.

“This is what it looks like when ICE violates our First Amendment rights,” Abughazaleh wrote on social media alongside two videos of the incident at the facility in Broadview, Illinois—which is key to ICE’s deadly “Operation Midway Blitz,” launched earlier this month as part of US President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

“What ICE just did to me was a violent abuse of power—and it’s still nothing compared to what they’re doing to immigrant communities. I’ve been fighting the right as a journalist and now I’m running for Congress to do the same in DC,” said Abughazaleh, a former producer at Media Matters for America and one of several Democrats in the 2026 race to represent Illinois’ 9th Congressional District.

“They weren’t showing their faces and almost none had visible badge numbers. There will likely never be any real accountability for the agent who grabbed me and threw me to the ground but we can have accountability for Trump and Tom Homan,” she added, referring to the president’s border czar. ”And that’s why I’m running for office.”

In a phone interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, the 26-year-old said ICE agents threw her to the ground twice:

“I wasn’t surprised, and that’s part of why we’re here,” Abughazaleh said. “Everyone here is at least a little bit scared, but mostly I’m angry and we need to get the facility shut down.”

ICE agents used tear gas and shot pepper balls, she said—some of which hit her legs—around 6:00 am, while shouting “your First Amendment rights are on the sidewalk.”

She anticipates a “nasty” bruise on her right side.

“It’s more important than ever to stand with our neighbors, if not just for their basic human dignity,” Abughazaleh said. “I’m not here as a candidate, I’m here as an individual.”

The newspaper noted that “ICE did not respond immediately to specific questions about Abughazaleh, the use of non-lethal chemical agents, and the status of the protesters allegedly arrested during the clash.”

Abughazaleh used the incident to create a contrast between herself and some other candidates also hoping to replace Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, an 81-year-old who announced in May that she would not seek reelection.

Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, another candidate in Democrats’ crowded primary race for the 9th District, also joined the protest in Broadview on Friday. He told Block Club Chicago that “I’ve seen shocking violence.”

“I mean, throwing people to the ground, pepper balls, tear gas... It seems gratuitous, right? They’re trying to intimidate. They’ve got guys up there on the roof with cameras,” he added. “They’re trying to remind people that this is an administration that names and then targets its political enemies for physical and economic violence.”

Chicago Ald. Andre Vasquez (D-40) and Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton—a Democrat running to replace retiring US Sen. Dick Durbin—were also at the ICE facility on Friday.

Asked about agents’ violence toward protesters, Stratton told reporters that “people are here to peacefully protest. Look what we’ve been seeing over the last several weeks right here in Chicago: people being snatched off the streets, stuffed into unmarked vans, and with no due process.”

“We are seeing the Constitution being stomped upon, and just this week, again, attacks on First Amendment rights—and all of us need to be speaking with moral clarity and saying this is not right,” she added. “So I’m here to stand with Illinoisans who are protesting peacefully and make sure that I let them know that I stand with them.”

Organizers intend to continue demonstrating as long as the ICE operation continues in Chicago and its suburbs. In a statement ahead of Friday’s action, protester Britt Hodgdon stressed that “ICE doesn’t make me or my community safer.”

Mahmoud Khalil and his lawyers on Wednesday affirmed their plan to fight an immigration court ruling that paves the way for his deportation, months after plainclothes agents accosted the lawful permanent resident and his US citizen wife outside their home in New York City.

“It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech. Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colors once again,” Khalil said in a statement.

“When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide,” he continued. “Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation.”

While President Donald Trump has a broad goal of mass deportations, his administration has targeted Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student with a valid green card, and other foreign scholars in the United States for criticizing Israel’s US-backed genocide in the Gaza Strip.

“We have witnessed a constant lack of humanity and allegiance to the law throughout proceedings in this farcical Louisiana immigration court.”

Federal agents arrested Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, in March. He wasn’t released from a federal immigration facility until June. During his 104-day detention, his wife, Noor Abdalla, gave birth to their son. Over the past six months, he has been a part of multiple legal battles: his challenge to being deported in a Louisiana immigration court; a civil rights case before US District Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey; and a fight for $20 million in damages.

In a Wednesday letter to Farbiarz—an appointee of former President Joe Biden who has already blocked his deportation while the civil rights case proceeds—Khalil’s legal team explained that on September 12, Jamee Comans, an immigration judge (IJ), “issued three separate orders denying petitioner’s (1) motion for an extension of time, (2) motion to change venue, and (3) application for a waiver, without conducting an evidentiary hearing.”

“In denying petitioner’s request for a waiver absent a hearing, as well as his motions for extension of time and for change of venue, the IJ ordered petitioner removed to Algeria or Syria... while reaffirming her decisions denying petitioner any form of relief from removal,” the letter says. Khalil now has 30 days from September 12 to start an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

Noting “statements targeting petitioner by name for retaliation and deportation made by the president and several senior US government officials,” Khalil’s lawyers “have ample reason to expect that the BIA process—and an affirmance of the IJ’s determination—will be swift,” the letter continued. “Upon affirmance by the BIA, petitioner will lose his lawful permanent resident status, including his right to reside and work in the United States, and have a final order of removal against him.”

“Compared to other courts of appeals, including those in the 3rd and 2nd Circuits, the 5th Circuit almost never grants stays of removal to noncitizens pursuing petitions for review of BIA decisions. As a result, the only meaningful impediment to petitioner’s physical removal from the United States would be this court’s important order prohibiting removal during the pendency of his federal habeas case,” the letter points out, referring to Farbiarz’s previous intervention.

Khalil is represented by Dratel & Lewis, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR), Van Der Hout LLP, Washington Square Legal Services, and the national, New Jersey, New York, and Louisiana arms of the ACLU.

“When the immigration prosecutor, judge, and jailer all answer to Donald Trump, and that one man is eager to weaponize the system in a desperate bid to silence Mahmoud Khalil, a US permanent resident whose only supposed sin is that he stands against an ongoing genocide in Palestine, this is the result,” CLEAR co-director Ramzi Kassem said Wednesday. “A plain-as-day First Amendment violation that also puts on sharp display the rapidly free-falling credibility of the entire US immigration system.”

In addition to calling out the Trump administration for its unconstitutional conduct, Khalil’s lawyers expressed some optimism.

“We have witnessed a constant lack of humanity and allegiance to the law throughout proceedings in this farcical Louisiana immigration court, and the immigration judge’s September 12 decision is just the most recent example of what occurs when the system requires an arbiter that is anything but neutral to do the administration’s bidding,” said Johnny Sinodis, a partner at Van Der Hout LLP. “As with other illegal efforts by the government, this too will be challenged and overcome.”

Leaders at the ACLU on Tuesday joined other rights advocates and elected Democrats in condemning US President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to Memphis with a Monday order he signed beside Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.

“When military troops police civilians, we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, in a statement.

“President Trump may want to normalize armed forces in our cities, but no matter what uniform they wear, federal agents and military troops are bound by the Constitution and have to respect our rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, and due process,” Shamsi continued. “State and local leaders must stay strong and take all lawful measures to protect residents against this cruel intimidation tactic.”

While Lee expressed his gratitude to Trump for the order, some other elected officials in Tennessee have spoken out since Trump previewed his plans for Memphis on “Fox & Friends” last Friday.

The Associated Press reported on local opposition Monday:

“I did not ask for the National Guard, and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young told a news conference Friday while acknowledging the city remained high on too many “bad lists.”

Young has also said that now the decision is made, he wants to ensure he can help influence the Guard’s role. He mentioned possibilities such as traffic control for big events, monitoring cameras for police and undertaking beautification projects.

At a news conference Monday, some local Democrats urged officials to consider options to oppose the deployment. Tami Sawyer, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk, said the city or county could sue.

State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86), whose district includes parts of the city, declared, “We need poverty eradication, not military occupation!”

Denouncing Trump’s targeting of Memphis on MSNBC, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said that “having the National Guard here is unnecessary and it is a stunt. It’s just a Trump show, to show his power and his force.”

“I think this may be the first representation of his changing the Department of Defense to the Department of War, because he likes to put the National Guard at his direction, as his being the great warrior, into cities and going to war,” he added.

According to a White House fact sheet, Trump’s memorandum tasks Secretary of War Pete Hegseth with requesting Lee “make Tennessee National Guard units available to support public safety and law enforcement operations in Memphis,” and further directs Hegseth to “coordinate with state governors to mobilize National Guard personnel from those states to support this effort.”

The order also “establishes a Memphis Safe Task Force tasked with ending street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent, including by coordinating closely with state and local officials in Tennessee, Memphis, and neighboring jurisdictions to share information, develop joint priorities, and maximize resources to make Memphis safe and restore public order.”

Trump has already deployed the National Guard to Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, California, and threatened to do so in Chicago, Illinois, where his deadly “Operation Midway Blitz” targeting immigrants is already underway.

“Expanding military involvement into US civilian law enforcement is dangerous and unwarranted,” Tanya Greene, US program director at Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday. “The Trump administration’s continued deployment of military forces in cities with populations primarily comprised of people of color, like Memphis, risks exacerbating violence against immigrants, unhoused people, and poor people in general.”

“While communities desperately need food, affordable housing, and healthcare,” she added, “hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on these deployments.”

Eleven Democrats voted with Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Thursday to advance the so-called Stop Illegal Entry Act, which critics have condemned as ”dangerously overbroad” as well as ”dehumanizing and horrific.”

The final vote was 226-197. The 11 Democrats who joined all GOP members present in backing the bill were Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (NC), Laura Gillen (NY), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Adam Gray (Calif.), Kristen McDonald Rivet (Mich.), Frank Mrvan (Ind.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), Tom Suozzi (NY), and Gabe Vasquez (NM).

Introduced by Congresswoman Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), HR 3486 would increase sentences for undocumented immigrants who repeatedly enter the United States illegally or enter the country and then commit a felony. The bill still needs Senate approval to reach the desk of Republican President Donald Trump, who supports it.

After Thursday’s vote, Mike Zamore, the ACLU’s national director of policy and government affairs, warned that “HR 3486 would supercharge President Trump’s reckless deportation drive, which is already damaging our economy and destabilizing communities.”

“This legislation would hand the Trump administration more tools to criminalize immigrants and terrorize communities at the same time they are deploying federal agents and the military to our streets. It would also undermine public safety by diverting more resources away from youth services and prevention programs that actually improve community safety,” Zamore said. “While the House narrowly passed this bill, we thank the members of Congress who held the line and voted against this harmful legislation.”

“At a time when president is threatening American cities and the Supreme Court is greenlighting racial profiling, it is vital that a growing number of elected officials are standing together in rejecting Stephen Miller’s dystopian agenda to criminalize and demonize people who come to this country seeking a better life,” he added, calling out the White House deputy chief of staff for policy infamous for various anti-migrant initiatives from Trump’s first term, including forcible separation of families.

Speaking on the House floor, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), an immigrant herself, called the bill “Republicans’ latest attempt to scapegoat and fearmonger about immigrants.”

US Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) also spoke out against the bill, saying on social media: “It does nothing to protect communities or make us safer. Instead, it piles on cruel mandatory minimums, explodes prison costs, and treats families seeking safety like violent criminals. We need real immigration reform, not another zero-tolerance failure.”

Congressman Dave Min (D-Calif.), the son of immigrants, said in a statement that “in talking with local and state law enforcement officers, I learned that this bill will potentially make it harder for them to do their jobs. By increasing the scope of crimes that local police officers might be expected to enforce, while not providing any funding for this, HR 3486 would effectively reduce the resources our local law enforcement has to keep our communities safe and potentially lead to increases in violent crime.”

Min also pointed to the US Supreme Court’s Monday ruling that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to engage in what critics have called “blatant racial profiling.”

“This bill, combined with the Supreme Court’s clearly wrong decision allowing ICE to detain people based on ethnicity, race, language, or place of employment, will give sweeping new authorities to ICE to perpetuate the mass incarceration of immigrants,” he said. “I am deeply concerned that HR 3486 will lead to more violent attacks and unlawful arrests by ICE of the people I represent. For these reasons, I voted no earlier today.”

As US President Donald Trump expands his authoritarian takeovers of Democrat-led cities, more than 1,000 students from four universities in Washington, DC, walked out to protest the Republican's recent actions in the nation's capital.

Students from American University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, and Howard University are protesting Trump's deployment of National Guard troops and federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), which have also provoked a lawsuit from DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb and a congressional resolution that aims to stop his takeover.

"Students are showing the country that we won't be silent while Trump tries to strip DC residents of our rights," American University student organizer Asher Heisten said in a statement circulated Tuesday by the youth-led Sunrise Movement.

"When Trump sends federal forces into DC, he is trying to intimidate and silence us," Heisten continued. "But students are proving that we will fight back to reject Trump's dangerous authoritarianism."

The students were joined by a pair of progressive lawmakers, US Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).

"Trump's federal takeover is a direct attack on democracy and the people of Washington, DC," Jayapal said in a statement. "The students leading today's walkouts are showing the entire nation what it means to resist authoritarianism with strength and solidarity."

The congresswoman told a crowd at Georgetown, her alma mater, that "this is an unprecedented moment in our country, where we have an authoritarian leader who is deploying federal troops to Washington, DC—to cities across the country, militarizing our streets, kidnapping people on the streets."

"The only bulwark that we have is the people, and so what you are doing here today is so important, because, at the end of the day, the checks and balances that were supposed to be built into our Constitution so that we could protect our constitutional rights are not working right now," she stressed, calling out Republicans in Congress and US Supreme Court justices for refusing to hold Trump accountable.

Acknowledging the thousands of protesters who marched to the White House on Saturday, Jayapal declared that "we are not powerless," a line that drew loud cheers from the crowd.

Markey, in his remarks at Georgetown, noted that when the president's supporters stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in hopes of stopping the certification of his 2020 electoral loss, "Trump refused to send in troops."

"He allowed for that assault," Markey said of the attempted insurrection. "But now, here in DC, the president is attempting to create an impression that the crime rate is going up rather than down, that there is in fact a crisis here in the District of Columbia."

"And what he is doing, not just here in DC, but in Chicago, in LA, in Boston, is to try to characterize communities that are majority minority, that are majority Black and brown, as being unsafe to live," Markey noted. "And it's not a coincidence... It is to scare America. You cannot make America great again by making America hate again."

Markey argued that "this is not about policing, this is about political theater," and denounced Trump's DC takeover as a "charade."

Like the lawmakers, Georgetown student Scout Cardillo suggested that the DC takeover isn't just about the district. Cardillo told The Washington Post that "the effects of the occupation of DC and federalization of MPD is going to be felt throughout the country imminently, and it is on us to take a stand and fight back."

Three Democrats in the Missouri House of Representatives spent over 100 hours in the chamber protesting Republican efforts to rig the state's congressional map for US President Donald Trump and attack ballot initiatives during a legislative special session.

Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is pushing a congressional map that targets Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, and a measure that would require any ballot proposal to pass in a statewide vote and all eight congressional districts.

Democratic state Reps. Jeremy Dean (132), Elizabeth Fuchs (80), and Ray Reed (83) began their sit-in Thursday and stayed at the state Capitol throughout the weekend, after signing a letter to GOP House Speaker Jon Patterson (30) requesting a meeting.

"We're still on the Missouri House floor because democracy is worth the fight," Reed said in a social media post at the 100-hour mark. "The GOP is trying to rig our maps in the middle of the decade at Trump's demand. They want us tired, quiet, and invisible."

"Instead, we're louder, stronger, and shining a national spotlight on their corruption," he continued. "This sit-in isn't just resistance, it's a blueprint for the future of the Democratic Party. Young, new, and fresh leaders won't wait our turn. We're here. We're fighting. And we're not backing down."

The trio has shared updates online throughout their sit-in:

Other Democratic political leaders have expressed solidarity throughout the action. Former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump last November, "lifted our spirits, calling us during our sit-in on the Missouri House floor and sending pizza to keep us going," Reed said early Monday, sharing a clip of their phone conversation.

Sharing that post, Harris said on social media: "Missouri State Reps. Reed, Fuchs, and Dean: You are not in this alone. We are cheering you on, and we are so grateful for your courage as you fight for our democracy."

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin has expressed support for the trio, as has former Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who was part of the progressive "Squad."

Squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) also spoke with them by phone. She said on social media: "Solidarity with the Missouri House Democrats who have spent over 100 hours holding the floor to protest the Republican attempt to taint our democracy, reduce the voice of communities of color, and steal congressional seats. I thanked them for standing up to fascism."

Reed and Dean appeared on MSNBC over the weekend to discuss their protest of the Missouri GOP's effort, which comes after Texas Republicans passed a new congressional map during a special session at Trump's request.

St. Louis Public Radio reported on the Missouri push on Monday:

Republicans hold a commanding majority in the House. And unlike in the Senate, House leaders can easily cut off debate—meaning there's little leverage the Democrats have to stop either measure from moving through the process.

But Democrats have used this special session to accuse their Republican counterparts of being subservient to Trump. State Rep. Keri Ingle [D-36], added that the fact Trump needs GOP states to redraw maps that are already aligned against Democrats shows that they don't expect next year's election to go well for Republican candidates.

"The thing with pendulums is that they swing back," Ingle said. "This is an egregious overreach of power. It's shameless. And I know that a lot of you will feel shame and will text me later about it. And I'm not going to give you absolution."

Other members of the Missouri House returned to the chamber on Monday afternoon to debate the contentious proposals.

After several days of US President Donald Trump threatening a militarized invasion of Chicago, his administration on Monday announced "Operation Midway Blitz," claiming it is "in honor of" a young woman allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant accused of drunk driving about 140 miles south of the Illinois city.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled the immigration operation with a nearly five-minute video featuring Michelle and Joe Abraham, whose 20-year-old daughter Katie was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Urbana in January. The alleged driver, a Guatemalan national, was arrested in Texas a few days later.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation "will target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Chicago," even though the libertarian CATO Institute revealed in June that 65% of immigrants booked by the agency under Trump had no criminal convictions and over 93% were never convicted of violent offenses.

Like Trump has in recent days, McLaughlin took aim at Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, saying that he "and his fellow sanctuary politicians released Tren de Aragua gang members, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers on Chicago's streets—putting American lives at risk and making Chicago a magnet for criminals."

While Chicagoans have made their thoughts on a federal invasion clear, carrying signs that said "No Trump! No Troops!" and "No Nazis—No Kings" during a weekend protest, McLaughlin said that Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem "have a clear message: No city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens. If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return."

Pritzker and Chicago's Democratic mayor, Brandon Johnson, have forcefully pushed back against Trump's threats to launch a major anti-migrant operation in the city and possibly deploy the National Guard, as he has done in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, California.

In a New York Times opinion piece published hours before the widely anticipated DHS announcement, Johnson argued that "lowering crime rates here does not require an occupation of our city by armed members of the National Guard, as the White House continues to threaten us with. Chicagoans, including survivors of violence, have spoken out against such an extreme measure."

"If President Trump had listened to the city's leaders, he would recognize that Chicago just experienced record-low homicide numbers, making this the safest summer since the 1960s, a result of effective collaboration between communities and law enforcement," wrote the mayor, who signed an executive order ahead of the federal operation and is raising a family in Austin on the West Side, "one of the parts of our city where gun violence is most pervasive."

"My administration has managed to make progress in crime reduction with three interconnected strategies: effective and law-abiding policing, violence prevention, and addressing the root causes of crime," Johnson explained. "Our violence prevention work includes programs that employ former gang members to de-escalate conflicts as well as initiatives that connect people to jobs and resources."

"We have directed funding to neighborhoods that have suffered from chronic disinvestment to create jobs, provide mental health services, and more. We are on track to build, rehab, or preserve over 10,000 units of affordable housing," he continued. "We don't need the National Guard; we just need to invest in what works."

In a Monday statement, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates acknowledged "the successful efforts of our mayor in reducing crime and investing in our community," and similarly stressed that whatever Trump is "spending on his raids is better spent on building affordable housing, reopening school libraries, and funding social workers to support children through the trauma this administration is inflicting on an entire generation who are worried every day if they will ever see their parents again."

"As a history teacher, I can tell you that history will not look kindly on Donald Trump or the individuals who are acting as his personal army," Davis Gates also said. "For weeks, the people of Chicago have made it clear that we do not need federal agents in our city, whether that is to separate immigrant families or racially profile in our Black neighborhoods."

"Chicago might have been built to keep our communities divided, but we are coming together now, like working people do against any bad boss, in radical solidarity to keep each other safe," the union leader added. "Donald Trump and his departments of alphabet boys and National Guard troops aren't welcome and aren't needed in Chicago."

Congressional Democrats who represent Illinois have also denounced the president's targeting of the country's third-largest city—including Sen. Dick Durbin, who took to the chamber's floor on Monday following the DHS announcement. Durbin accused Trump of attacking Chicago for "political theater."

While the Trump administration hasn't yet provided any update on the involvement of the National Guard, after the president moved to rename the US Department of Defense, he took to his Truth Social platform on Saturday morning with an image referencing the 1979 film Apocalypse Now and said, "Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR."

Appearing on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), said that "we don't have any indications of them getting ready to send troops into Chicago," but also that "the president of the United States essentially just declared war on a major city in his own nation. This is not normal... This is not acceptable behavior."

Responding to the recent developments in a Monday statement, Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the national advocacy group America's Voice, said that "we have gone from a supposed war on immigrants to a war on Americans."

"America's Voice has long said that immigration was merely the 'tip of the spear' for this administration to justify and lead an attack on all of us—including violating due process, constitutional rights, and core democratic norms and pillars, such as deploying the military against American communities," she noted. "Sadly, all are coming to pass."

Cárdenas continued: "Why is the American president openly threatening an American city, as he readies the deployment of American troops against those residents? It's not about immigration, just as the Washington, DC deployment wasn't about crime. Instead, it's for purposes of retribution; sowing fear and dissent; provoking violence and dividing us as a nation."

"Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court just sided with the president and his plans to target indiscriminately and racially profile with impunity, effectively making racial profiling now the law of the land," she added, citing a Monday decision from the chief justice. "Whether calling it 'authoritarianism' or something else, it's clear we are fighting not just for immigrants, but also for a different vision of America that's now imperiled."

Two judges appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit by President Donald Trump issued a Thursday decision that allows a newly established but already notorious immigrant detention center in Florida, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, to stay open.

Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida sought "to halt the unlawful construction" of the site. Last month, Judge Kathleen Williams—appointed by former President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida—ordered the closure of the facility within 60 days.

However, on Thursday, Circuit Judges Elizabeth Branch and Barbara Lagoa blocked Williams' decision, concluding that "the balance of the harms and our consideration of the public interest favor a stay of the preliminary injunction."

Judge Adalberto Jordan, an Obama appointee, issued a brief but scathing dissent. He wrote that the majority "essentially ignores the burden borne by the defendants, pays only lip service to the abuse of discretion standard, engages in its own factfinding, declines to consider the district court's determination on irreparable harm, and performs its own balancing of the equities."

The 11th Circuit's ruling was cheered by the US Department of Homeland Security, Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who declared in a video that "Alligator Alcatraz is, in fact, like we've always said, open for business."

Uthmeier's communications director, Jeremy Redfern, collected responses to the initial ruling by state and federal Democrats, and urged them to weigh in on social media. Florida state Sen. Shevrin "Shev" Jones (D-34) did, stressing that "cruelty is still cruelty."

In a Thursday statement, Florida Immigrant Coalition deputy director Renata Bozzetto said that "the 11th Circuit is allowing atrocities to happen by reversing the injunction that helped to paralyze something that has been functioning as an extrajudicial site in our own state! The Everglades Detention Camp isn't just an environmental threat; it is also a huge human rights crisis."

"Housing thousands of men in tents in the middle of a fragile ecosystem puts immense strain on Florida's source environment, but even more troublesome, it disregards human rights and our constitutional commitments," Bozzetto continued. "This is a place where hundreds of our neighbors were illegally held, were made invisible within government systems, and were subjected to inhumane heat and unbearable treatment. The fact that a facility embedded in so much pain is allowed to reopen is absolutely disheartening! The only just solution is to shut this facility down and ensure that no facility like this opens in our state!"

"Lastly, it is imperative that we as a nation uphold the balance of powers that this country was founded on," she added. "That is what makes this country special! Calling judges who rule against you 'activists' flies in the face of our democracy. It is a huge tell that AG Uthmeier expressed this as a 'win for President Trump's agenda,' as if the courts were to serve as political weapons. This demonstrates the clear partisan games they are playing with people's lives and with our democracy."

While Alligator Alcatraz has drawn widespread criticism for the conditions in which detainees are held, the suit is based on the government's failure to follow a law that requires an environmental review, given the facility's proximity to surrounding wetlands.

In response to the ruling, Elise Bennett, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Associated Press that "this is a heartbreaking blow to America's Everglades and every living creature there, but the case isn't even close to over."

Graham Platner, the Democratic hopeful in Maine looking to unseat Sen. Susan Collins next year, received the largest applause of his Labor Day speech in Portland on Monday when he railed against the ill-spent taxpayer money used to support the Israeli genocide in Gaza—a sharp contrast with many in the party who have shied away from such direct criticism of Israeli's assault and the backing it receives from the US government.

Even as support for Israel's assault on Gaza has plummeted among US voters and Americans across the political spectrum have increasingly demanded an arms embargo on the country, a number of Democratic politicians have struggled to keep up with the electorate in recent weeks.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the conflict in Gaza that's killed more than 63,000 Palestinians and starved hundreds of people "complicated," while Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) last week accused a Jewish comedian of "justifying antisemitism" for noting that more than 80% of people killed by the Israel Defense Forces were civilians. Both responses garnered condemnation from Palestinian rights advocates and progressive commentators.

But on Monday—before a packed house of more than 6,500 in Portland—Platner took a much different approach.

"Our taxpayer dollars can build schools and hospitals in America, not bombs to destroy them in Gaza," said Platner, leading the audience to stand up and applaud for a full 30 seconds.

Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer who is challenging Collins—a vehement supporter of Israel—has previously spoken about Gaza in an interview for Zeteo, calling Israel's US-backed attack on the territory "the moral test of our time."

He repeated his message on social media Tuesday, saying: "It's not complicated: Not one more taxpayer dollar for genocide."

Platner was speaking at a rally hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as part of the senator's ongoing Fighting Oligarchy tour—a project that some establishment Democrats have claimed is out of touch with the views of Democratic voters even as Sanders has filled arenas in both red and blue districts across the country.

Rep. Eliss Slotkin (D-Mich.) has claimed the term "oligarchy" is unfamiliar to Americans, but the audience of a reported 6,500 people in Portland evidently didn't have trouble understanding Platner when he named oligarchy as "the enemy" of working Americans.

The line also garnered a standing ovation.

"I've been waiting my entire life," said journalist David Sirota, "for a politician other than Bernie Sanders to just say this."

President Donald Trump continued his "authoritarian takeover of our election system" over the weekend, threatening an executive order requiring every voter to present identification, which experts swiftly denounced as clearly "unconstitutional."

"Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late Saturday. "I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!! Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!!!"

Less than two weeks ago, Trump declared on the platform that "I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we're at it, Highly 'Inaccurate,' Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES." He claimed, without evidence, that voting by mail leads to "MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD," and promised to take executive action ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Those posts came as battles over his March executive order, "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections," are playing out in federal court. The measure was largely blocked by multiple district judges, but the president is appealing.

Trump's voter ID post provoked a new threat of legal action to stop his unconstitutional attacks on the nation's election system.

"Go ahead, make my day Mr. Trump," said Norm Eisen, who co-founded Democracy Defenders Fund and served as White House special counsel for ethics and government reform during the Obama administration.

"We at Democracy Defenders Fund immediately sued you and got an injunction on your first voting EO," he noted. "We will do the same here if you try it again. The Constitution gives this authority to the states and Congress, not you!"

In addition to pointing out that Trump is "an absentee voter himself," Democracy Docket explained Sunday that "the US Constitution gives the states the primary authority to regulate elections, while empowering Congress to 'at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.' The Framers never considered authorizing the president to oversee elections."

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, "Thirty-six states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls. The remaining 14 states and Washington, DC use other methods to verify the identity of voters."

Those laws already prevent Americans from participating in elections, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

"Overly burdensome photo ID requirements block millions of eligible American citizens from voting," the center's voter ID webpage says. "As many as 11% of eligible voters do not have the kind of ID that is required by states with strict ID requirements, and that percentage is even higher among seniors, minorities, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and students."