More than half of Americans believe the First Amendment can go too far in the rights it guarantees, according to a new survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment–focused nonprofit.

The survey, released on Thursday, asked 1,000 American adults a range of questions about the First Amendment, free speech, and the security of those rights. Fifty-three percent of respondents agreed with the statement "The First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees" to at least some degree, with 28 percent reporting that it "mostly" or "completely" describes their thoughts.

Americans were further divided along partisan lines. Over 60 percent of Democrats thought the First Amendment could go too far, compared to 52 percent of Republicans.

"Evidently, one out of every two Americans wishes they had fewer civil liberties," Sean Stevens, FIRE's chief research adviser, said on Thursday. "Many of them reject the right to assemble, to have a free press, and to petition the government. This is a dictator's fantasy."

Further, 1 in 5 respondents said they were "somewhat" or "very" worried about losing their job if someone complains about something they said. Eighty-three percent reported self-censoring in the past month, with 23 percent doing so "fairly" or "very" often.

Just 22 percent of respondents said they believed the right to free speech was "very" or "completely" secure. But despite these concerns, over a third said they trusted the government "somewhat," "very much," or "completely" to make fair decisions about what speech is deemed "intimidating," "threatening," "harassing," and "indecent," among other labels.

In all, almost 7 out of every 10 respondents agreed that America is going in the wrong direction when it comes to free speech—though it's not clear whether respondents think our culture and government are becoming too tolerant, or not tolerant enough, of controversial speech.

This latest survey indicates that many Americans are concerned about the security of free speech rights, yet also eager to censor speech they personally find distasteful.

"Americans have little tolerance for certain forms of protected speech and a lot of tolerance for unprotected conduct, when it should be the other way around," Stevens said. "This poll reveals that the state of free speech in America is dire."

The post More Than Half of Americans Think the First Amendment Provides Too Many Rights appeared first on Reason.com.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was released from Russian captivity on Thursday as part of the largest prisoner swap between Russia and Western nations in decades. Gershkovich had been imprisoned for nearly 500 days and was recently sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony.

Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while on assignment in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Russian authorities claimed he was obtaining information for the CIA, though the allegations against Gershkovich are widely assumed to be false and have been denied strenuously by the Journal. 

Gershkovich was released around 11:20 a.m. Eastern time at an airport in Ankara, Turkey. Several other prisoners were also released, including Russia-critical journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, and American former Marine Paul Whelan, who had been imprisoned since 2018. Russian hit man Vadim Krasikov, who was imprisoned in Germany after receiving a life sentence for killing a Chechen rebel, was released back to Russia as part of the deal.

In total, the swap involved two dozen prisoners from at least six countries, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"The exchange is emblematic of a new era of state-sponsored hostage-taking by autocratic governments seeking leverage over rivals. It was negotiated as tensions soared between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine," the Journal reported on Thursday. "It also offers sobering evidence of the asymmetry between the U.S. and Russia in this new, piratical order. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can order foreigners plucked from restaurants and hotels and given lengthy prison sentences on spurious charges—something an American leader can't do."

While this is the largest prisoner swap the U.S. has engaged in in recent years to free citizens imprisoned in Russia, it isn't its first. In December 2022, WNBA player Brittney Griner was released in a swap for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout after being held for almost nine months on drug charges. While securing the release of Griner, Gershkovich, and other American citizens from wrongful Russian captivity is vital, it may also work to incentivize Russian authorities to continue jailing Americans on false charges.

"The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy," President Joe Biden said shortly after Thursday's prisoner swap. "Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over….I will not stop working until every American wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world is reunited with their family."

The post <i>Wall Street Journal</i> Reporter Evan Gershkovich Released From Russian Captivity appeared first on Reason.com.

Bombs kill people. When someone provides bombs to a government at war, those weapons will be used to kill people. It's a simple fact but one that seems to have eluded Democrats.

After voting to send bombs to the Israeli military, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) condemned the Israeli military for killing Palestinian civilians with an American-made bomb. And after urging the Israeli military to use smaller munitions, the Biden administration found itself scrambling to deal with a mass civilian casualty event caused by one of those smaller weapons.

On Sunday, the Israeli Air Force bombed Tel al-Sultan, a neighborhood of Rafah that Israel had previously designated a safe zone for fleeing civilians. The Israeli government claimed the airstrike successfully killed two senior Hamas commanders. But a fire started by the bomb spread through the densely-packed tent city, burning to death at least 45 people, including 12 women, eight children, and three elderly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the civilian deaths were a "tragic mistake."

British doctor James Smith called the fire "one of the most horrific things that I have seen or heard of in all of the weeks that I've been working in Gaza." CNN found pieces of a GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb, a type of 250-pound bomb that the U.S. military had rush-shipped to Israel following the Hamas attacks last October, with serial numbers from a California manufacturer.

"The Israeli bombing of a refugee camp inside a designated safe zone is horrific," Warren stated on social media. "Israel has a duty to protect innocent civilians and Palestinians seeking shelter in Rafah have nowhere safe to go. Netanyahu's assault of Rafah must stop. We need an immediate cease-fire."

Last month, Warren had voted for a $26.38 billion U.S. military aid package to Israel, as Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) pointed out. "Ma'am, you voted to send those bombs to Israel," he wrote in a response to Warren's statement.

Warren's office did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement last month, Warren noted that she voted for the aid package after the Biden administration agreed to certify that every military receiving U.S. aid "follows international law, protects civilians in war zones and allows for humanitarian aid."

On May 10, the administration ruled that there are "reasonable" accusations that Israel breaks the laws of war but that the Israeli government gave "credible and reliable" assurances about how it plans to use U.S. weapons. President Joe Biden also said that he would not be "supplying the weapons" for an Israeli invasion of Rafah that threatened the civilian population and held up a shipment of Mark 80 series bombs, which were responsible for some of the worst mass-casualty attacks in Gaza.

At a Senate hearing earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin presented the GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb as a safer alternative to the Mark 80 series: "A Small Diameter Bomb, which is a precision weapon, that's very useful in a dense, built-up environment, but maybe not so much a 2,000-pound bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage."

Last October, the Israeli military used two American-made 2,000-pound bombs to assassinate a Hamas commander, killing dozens of civilians in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Austin is right that 2,000-pound bombs, which can kill everything within 600 feet, are more likely to harm bystanders than lighter alternatives. And as the name suggests, the Small Diameter Bomb has a smaller lethal radius. However, that doesn't make the bombs any less lethal for people inside the radius—or people caught up in secondary fires caused by the weapon.

Much of the Israeli army's "precision" targeting is carried out by artificial intelligence programs. The Israeli publication +972 Magazine has reported that one AI targeting system called "Lavender" is allowed to kill a large number of civilians per Hamas fighter, and is believed to have a 10 percent error rate when identifying fighters in the first place.

Another program revealed by +972, called "Where's Daddy," targets Hamas fighters who have left the battlefield and gone home to their families.

In other words, the type of weapon matters but how the weapon is used matters more. Despite Biden's earlier threats and assurances over human rights, the Biden administration is keen to defer to Israeli claims.

"As a result of this strike on Sunday, I have no policy changes to speak to," White House spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday. "It just happened. The Israelis are going to investigate it. We're going to be taking great interest in what they find in that investigation. And we'll see where it goes from there."

The post Democrats Surprised To Learn Bombs Are Used To Bomb People appeared first on Reason.com.

Since the Supreme Court struck down longstanding affirmative action admissions policies this past summer in SFFA v. Harvard/UNC, institutions from a variety of sectors have grappled with how to stay true to their commitments to equal opportunity in light of the court’s ruling. But this week, the Supreme Court did something noteworthy: it refused to hear a challenge to a high school admissions policy designed to eliminate unfair barriers for students of color. In doing so, the justices sent a signal that institutions can continue to find innovative ways to ensure equal opportunity for all within the parameters of their relatively narrow decision on affirmative action.

The admissions policy at issue in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, is just that — a thoughtful approach to ensuring that highly qualified students from all backgrounds have a fair shot at getting into Thomas Jefferson High School (TJ), the top public high school in Virginia. Recognizing the importance of a diverse student body, TJ removed arbitrary and unfair barriers to eligible Black, Latine and lower-income students of all races and ethnicities. Instead of relying only on standardized tests, which can exclude well-qualified candidates of color, the new process considers a broad range of factors, including performance on a problem-solving essay. The school also adopted a percentage plan that guarantees seats to the most competitive candidates from all eligible middle schools — not just select “feeder” schools in wealthy neighborhoods. By declining to take up the case, the Supreme Court has effectively let this policy stand.

And earlier this month, the court reinforced that its decision in SFFA was a narrow one, allowing West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy to continue their race-based affirmative action programs, while challenges proceed in the lower courts. Although the court did not explore the constitutionality of these programs, by declining to hear these challenges, it is leaving the door open for institutions to design creative solutions for expanding opportunity and fostering diversity.

This mission is more critical now than ever. Discrimination and deep-seated racial inequities that so many educational institutions, businesses, and other entities are working to address remain critical challenges. Since the 1990s, public education in the U.S. has grown significantly more segregated by race. Black and Brown students are more likely to attend schools that are doubly segregated: racially isolated and with fewer resources but higher needs. In the employment sector, Black workers face persistent gaps in promotion, pay, and opportunity. The Black-white wage gap was larger in 2020 than it was in 1970. Black, Latina, and Native women make less than 65 cents for every dollar earned by a white man, a differential that adds up to nearly a million dollars lost over the course of a woman’s career.

This reality was not lost on the Supreme Court. Even in its decision to strike down Harvard and UNC’s affirmative action policies, the court reaffirmed that the pursuit of diversity is a “commendable goals”. In his concurrence, Justice Brett Kavanaugh stressed that schools “can, of course, act to undo the effects of past discrimination in many permissible ways.”

That said, under the new legal landscape we face, opening the doors of opportunity will require careful construction, clarity of conviction, and steadfast commitment in the face of a well-resourced movement against progress. In designing programs to foster principles of fairness and equality, institutions need to be mindful that courts will pay more exacting scrutiny to programs that consider an individual’s race. Further, institutions need to be prepared to face highly organized attacks, including “warning” letters and legal challenges blatantly distorting the state of the law. These attacks have created a culture of fear and legal uncertainty specifically intended to coerce institutions into abandoning their commitments to equal opportunity — in some cases, successfully.

We cannot let this happen. Proactive efforts to ensure full and equal opportunity are more, not less, urgent in light of the Supreme Court’s decision. Institutions should examine their admissions, scholarship and fellowship programs, as well as recruitment and hiring practices, to ensure that they expand pipelines of opportunity for all. Schools, businesses, and others must not shy away from their DEI efforts, offices, and trainings, but instead should double down on the many lawful and effective approaches that remain. Schools and workplaces should take steps to foster a climate in which people of all races and ethnicities belong and can meet their full potential. And institutions must still comply with anti-discrimination laws, including those that prohibit unnecessary barriers to opportunity for people based on race or ethnicity. As the values of diversity and equal opportunity are themselves under attack, we must continue to push even harder for progress. It is not only the right thing to do, but what the law both permits and requires.

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pIn 1987, 15 years after the Women’s Rights Project was established at the ACLU, March was officially designated as Women’s History Month in the United States. This time is for the celebration of the women whose contributions and achievements have shaped our society. Such a celebration may feel painful at this moment, when we are facing the fall of iRoe v. Wade, /ithe Black maternal mortality crisis, as well as ongoing, systemic barriers including the gender wage gap, family policing, lack of affordable housing, and sexual harassment. Yet it is precisely at times like these we need reminders why we still fight – and that we still win. In the perpetual fight for justice and equity, women have not only been essential, but have also consistently led the way. Each March, we must celebrate the progress made, and acknowledge all the work that has been and has yet to be done./p pFor over 50 years, the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project (WRP) has been at the forefront of the fight for gender justice. And just as Women’s History Month continues to evolve each year, our work has expanded and developed, with a focus on taking an intersectional approach. Here are four ways we continue to fight for equality:/p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standard1. Challenging Discriminatory Dress Codes /h2 /div figure class=wp-image mb-8 img width=1110 height=740 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/our-voice-is-our-power.jpg class=attachment-original size-original alt=Three individuals holding ACLU branded posters. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/our-voice-is-our-power.jpg 1110w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/our-voice-is-our-power-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/our-voice-is-our-power-400x267.jpg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/our-voice-is-our-power-600x400.jpg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/our-voice-is-our-power-800x533.jpg 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/our-voice-is-our-power-1000x667.jpg 1000w sizes=(max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px / /figure pThe ACLU has led the way in fighting discriminatory dress codes that reinforce sexist and racist stereotypes in schools and at work. These discriminatory codes target girls, people of color, and members of the LBGTQIA+ community, particularly girls who live at the intersection of those identities. Many students and workers across the county are subject to senseless, sex-based restrictions such as skirts, dresses, and “modest clothing” for women and girls and short hair, pants, and no accessories for men and boys. We successfully a href=https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/supreme-court-rejects-appeal-from-public-charter-school-seeking-permission-to-violate-students-constitutional-rightschallenged/a a charter school’s “skirts only” rule for girls, which the school adopted based on the belief that every girl is a “fragile vessel.” The school sought to overturn the decision but, in 2023, the Supreme Court left the victory in place. This past year, we also reached a a href=https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/groundbreaking-consent-decree-requires-alaska-airlines-to-change-discriminatory-gendered-uniform-policyhistoric settlement/a with Alaska Airlines to remove all gendered restrictions from its uniform policy for flight attendants./p div class=mp-md wp-link div class=wp-link__img-wrapper a href=https://www.aclu.org/dresscodeform target=_blank tabindex=-1 img width=1200 height=628 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/a082360125c2d047aa848acb36042cee.jpg class=attachment-original size-original alt= decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/a082360125c2d047aa848acb36042cee.jpg 1200w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/a082360125c2d047aa848acb36042cee-768x402.jpg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/a082360125c2d047aa848acb36042cee-400x209.jpg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/a082360125c2d047aa848acb36042cee-600x314.jpg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/a082360125c2d047aa848acb36042cee-800x419.jpg 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/a082360125c2d047aa848acb36042cee-1000x523.jpg 1000w sizes=(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px / /a /div div class=wp-link__title a href=https://www.aclu.org/dresscodeform target=_blank Share Your Story: Dress Code Policies Based on Gender Stereotypes /a /div div class=wp-link__description a href=https://www.aclu.org/dresscodeform target=_blank tabindex=-1 p class=is-size-7-mobile is-size-6-tabletWe’d like to hear from you if your school or workplace maintains discriminatory dress and appearance policies./p /a /div div class=wp-link__source p-4 px-6-tablet a href=https://www.aclu.org/dresscodeform target=_blank tabindex=-1 p class=is-size-7Source: American Civil Liberties Union/p /a /div /div pAcross the country, we’ve sought to end the enforcement of discriminatory dress codes in a range of other contexts as well. We’ve fought to end discriminatory dress codes in schools that prevent boys and non-binary students from wearing their hair long, which prevents a class=Hyperlink SCXW6015916 BCX0 href=https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/my-sons-hair-is-part-of-a-thousand-year-old-tribal-culture-his-school-called-it-a-fad target=_blank rel=noreferrer noopenerNative American and Black students/a, among others, from expressing their cultural and religious traditions. We’ve also worked to end dress codes that a class=Hyperlink SCXW6015916 BCX0 href=https://www.aclu.org/news/womens-rights/why-im-challenging-my-schools-sexist-dress-code-policies target=_blank rel=noreferrer noopenerpenalize student athletes/a on the girls’ cross-country teams for training in weather-appropriate clothing, as well as those that forbid transgender seniors from attending a class=Hyperlink SCXW6015916 BCX0 href=https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-challenges-mississippi-high-schools-refusal-to-let-transgender-student-wear-dress-to-graduation-ceremony target=_blank rel=noreferrer noopenertheir high school graduation/a dressed as themselves./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standard2. Taking on Housing Policies that Blacklist Black and Brown Women/h2 /div figure class=wp-image mb-8 img width=1110 height=740 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/i-stand-with-black-women.jpg class=attachment-original size-original alt=Someone holding a sign saying Stand With Black Women. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/i-stand-with-black-women.jpg 1110w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/i-stand-with-black-women-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/i-stand-with-black-women-400x267.jpg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/i-stand-with-black-women-600x400.jpg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/i-stand-with-black-women-800x533.jpg 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/i-stand-with-black-women-1000x667.jpg 1000w sizes=(max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px / /figure pIn our fight for housing justice, we have taken on “No-Eviction” policies and other screening policies that disproportionately discriminate against Black renters, particularly Black women. These screening policies block potential renters from housing simply because they are connected to any previous eviction case, even if the case was very old, they ultimately won it, or the legal action against them was unlawfully filed in the first place. Black women are significantly more likely to have eviction cases filed against them by landlords, so these policies in turn impact and destabilize Black women, further perpetuating systemic inequality and segregation. In 2023, we filed a class=Hyperlink SCXW192197316 BCX0 href=https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/advocates-challenge-discriminatory-eviction-screening-policies-enforced-by-two-cook-county-landlords target=_blank rel=noreferrer noopenertwo/a challenges against the use of these screening policies by Chicago-area landlords. These cases were among the first of their kind in the United States and aim to set a precedent for disrupting discriminatory housing practices./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standard3. Advocating for Pregnant and Lactating Workers/h2 /div figure class=wp-image mb-8 img width=1110 height=740 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/pregnant-workers-fairness-act.jpg class=attachment-original size-original alt=A group of women wearing t shirts saying Pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/pregnant-workers-fairness-act.jpg 1110w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-400x267.jpg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-600x400.jpg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-800x533.jpg 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/pregnant-workers-fairness-act-1000x667.jpg 1000w sizes=(max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px / /figure pWe have long been at the forefront of fighting for the rights of pregnant and breastfeeding workers who experience discrimination in the workplace. Over the past few years, the ACLU was a key advocate for the enactment of the a class=Hyperlink SCXW136550188 BCX0 href=http://pregnan/ target=_blank rel=noreferrer noopenerPregnan/at Workers Fairness Act and the a class=Hyperlink SCXW136550188 BCX0 href=https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-applauds-senate-passage-pregnant-workers-fairness-act-and-pump-nursing-mothers target=_blank rel=noreferrer noopenerPUMP for Nursing Mothers Act/a. These new landmark laws ensure that millions of pregnant and lactating workers have access to reasonable accommodations that allow them to continue working, instead of forcing them to choose between their paycheck and a healthy pregnancy and nursing period. We continue to litigate on behalf of employees who are denied pregnancy-related accommodations and those discriminated against for being pregnant./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standard4. Fighting the Separation of Black and Brown Families/h2 /div figure class=wp-image mb-8 img width=1110 height=740 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/womens-rights-are-human-rights.jpg class=attachment-original size-original alt=A sign that says Women#039;s Rights Are Human Rights. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/womens-rights-are-human-rights.jpg 1110w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/womens-rights-are-human-rights-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/womens-rights-are-human-rights-400x267.jpg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/womens-rights-are-human-rights-600x400.jpg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/womens-rights-are-human-rights-800x533.jpg 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/womens-rights-are-human-rights-1000x667.jpg 1000w sizes=(max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px / /figure pAs part of our work on behalf of families of color who are disproportionately impacted by the child welfare system, we have been a strong voice in raising awareness about the widespread use of automated tools by local governments to determine which families to investigate – tools that often heighten the risk of disintegration for Black and Brown families in the United States. In 2023, the ACLU published a a href=https://www.aclu.org/news/womens-rights/how-policy-hidden-in-an-algorithm-is-threatening-families-in-this-pennsylvania-countyreport/a on the discriminatory effects of Allegheny County’s “Family Screening Tool,” which could disproportionately flag family members who were Black or had disabilities for investigation. The ACLU’s report prompted in-depth reporting from the Associated Press and an investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice./p div class=mp-md wp-link div class=wp-link__img-wrapper a href=https://www.aclu.org/the-devil-is-in-the-details-interrogating-values-embedded-in-the-allegheny-family-screening-tool target=_blank tabindex=-1 img width=1000 height=494 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1339bada98bced1fc0221fb7c78bd574.jpg class=attachment-original size-original alt= decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1339bada98bced1fc0221fb7c78bd574.jpg 1000w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1339bada98bced1fc0221fb7c78bd574-768x379.jpg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1339bada98bced1fc0221fb7c78bd574-400x198.jpg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1339bada98bced1fc0221fb7c78bd574-600x296.jpg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1339bada98bced1fc0221fb7c78bd574-800x395.jpg 800w sizes=(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px / /a /div div class=wp-link__title a href=https://www.aclu.org/the-devil-is-in-the-details-interrogating-values-embedded-in-the-allegheny-family-screening-tool target=_blank The Devil is in the Details: Interrogating Values Embedded in the Allegheny Family Screening Tool /a /div div class=wp-link__description a href=https://www.aclu.org/the-devil-is-in-the-details-interrogating-values-embedded-in-the-allegheny-family-screening-tool target=_blank tabindex=-1 p class=is-size-7-mobile is-size-6-tabletWe're examining how algorithmic design choices can function as policy decisions through an audit of a deployed algorithmic tool, the Allegheny Family /p /a /div div class=wp-link__source p-4 px-6-tablet a href=https://www.aclu.org/the-devil-is-in-the-details-interrogating-values-embedded-in-the-allegheny-family-screening-tool target=_blank tabindex=-1 p class=is-size-7Source: American Civil Liberties Union/p /a /div /div pWhile there is still much work ahead of us, our recent victories give us hope for progress toward a more equitable world for everyone, regardless of gender. We will continue the fight for gender justice alongside everyone who has been and continues to be a part of the movement with us./p div class=rss-cta__titleWe need you with us to keep fighting/diva href=https://action.aclu.org/give/now class=rss-cta__buttonDonate today/a/div

Well… this is an unexpected (and fun!) turn of events. The EU Commission has spent most of the last couple of years trying to talk EU members into voting in favor of weakened encryption, if not actual encryption backdoors. You know, for the children.

On the table are things ranging from mandated client-side content scanning to the compelled breaking of encryption whenever law enforcement wants access to communications. These plans — including parallel efforts by the UK government (which is no longer an EU member) — have attracted more opposition than support, but that hasn’t stopped the commission from moving forward with these efforts, even when its own legal counsel has stated these mandates would violate EU laws.

While it’s possible (but extremely unwise) to blow off your own internal legal guidance to get with the encryption breaking, it’s much more difficult to ignore overriding external legal guidance that says what you’re trying to do is blatantly illegal. You can always hire more subservient lawyers if you don’t like what’s being said by the ones you have. But you can’t blow off the European Court of Human Rights quite as easily.

As Thomas Claburn reports for The Register, a long-running case involving (of all things) the Russian government’s attempt to force Telegram to decrypt communications has resulted in a loss that will be felt by all of the EU’s anti-encryption lawmakers.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that laws requiring crippled encryption and extensive data retention violate the European Convention on Human Rights – a decision that may derail European data surveillance legislation known as Chat Control.

The court issued a decision on Tuesday stating that “the contested legislation providing for the retention of all internet communications of all users, the security services’ direct access to the data stored without adequate safeguards against abuse and the requirement to decrypt encrypted communications, as applied to end-to-end encrypted communications, cannot be regarded as necessary in a democratic society.”

Ouch. Good luck pushing anti-encryption mandates when the court has declared them unnecessary in a democratic society. And, somehow, we have the Russian government to thank for this turn of events.

The case dates back to 2017, which is when Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) tried to force Telegram to engage in compelled decryption of Anton Podchasov’s communications. Podchasov challenged the order in Russia but the Russian court dismissed it. So, Podchasov brought the matter to the ECHR because — prior to its 2022 invasion of Ukraine — Russia was still part of the Council of Europe and (at least theoretically) subject to ECHR rulings.

Well, Russia may have exited the Council with its illegal invasion, but the courtroom challenge was still active. The final ruling — which will have zero effect on how Russia handles compelled decryption — is throwing a considerably sized wrench into the mechanations of anti-encryption legislators in the EU government.

The court concluded that the Russian law requiring Telegram “to decrypt end-to-end encrypted communications risks amounting to a requirement that providers of such services weaken the encryption mechanism for all users.” As such, the court considers that requirement disproportionate to legitimate law enforcement goals.

The EU Commission dropped its anti-encryption demands last summer following considerable pushback from EU member governments. But that doesn’t mean those desires aren’t still there, even if they’re dormant at the moment.

But this ruling will make it almost impossible to resurrect most of the EU Commission’s anti-encryption efforts. The court’s ruling makes it clear there’s no legally justifiable reason for breaking end-to-end encryption. And the ancillary stuff — like client-side scanning and extensive logging demands — is far less likely to receive a warm welcome from member states, not to mention EU courts, following this ruling (even as the European Court of Human Right is not a part of the EU, its judgments cover the EU members as well as other members in the Council of Europe).

Most of the stuff the EU Commission has been trying to enact over the past few years has been declared illegal. If it wants to do these things, it will have to change several other laws first. And that effort is far less likely to succeed, since changing these laws means breaking the law. You can always write illegal laws. You just can’t enforce them.

So, unless the EU Commission has the power to talk its members into backing its preferred brand of friendly fascism, it will just have to dial back its expectations. Sure, those who think any means can be justified by the ends will throw up their hands in despair and proclaim this is the beginning of a new criminal apocalypse. But for everyone else, this ruling means their communications will remain secure — both from EU government agencies as well as entities far more malicious.

Last year, the Supreme Court overturned its prior holdings on affirmative action, effectively ending race-conscious admissions practices in most colleges and universities and, consequently, restricting the ability of schools to address systemic racial inequalities that persist in higher education. But the court’s decision was left with one exception: military service academies. Now, the same group that brought to the Supreme Court the case that overturned affirmative action, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), is suing the U.S. Naval Academy and West Point, alleging in two separate lawsuits that the military academies’ use of race in their admissions processes is unconstitutional.

Affirmative action at service academies is essential for confronting our military’s discriminatory history, which continues to impact service members of color. The ACLU, the ACLU of Maryland, and NYCLU, along with our partners NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the National Association of Black Military Women, filed two amicus briefs in New York and Maryland in support of affirmative action, highlighting the experiences of people of color, specifically the unique experience of Black women in the military.

We recently spoke with three veterans who are members of the National Association of Black Military Women. They shared insight into their personal experiences and challenges within the military — from facing unachievable uniform requirements to highlighting the importance of representation. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

ACLU: Could you tell us about your time in the military and why you decided to join?

Veteran Todd: I was working a few jobs, going to school, and times were tough. This was a way to get out of Detroit and also do something really amazing and scary. It was very important for me to take some time to find myself, grow up a little bit, explore the world, and see what the American dream was about. I’ve always been in jobs that were geared towards service. For me, it was just important to learn to take care of myself and then taking care of others just came naturally.

ACLU: How important is it to have military leadership that represents the diversity of service members?

Veteran Todd: Having a role model, mentorship, and someone who is culturally competent of what African Americans go through, while also allowing others to get some exposure to that type of leadership, is important in addressing discrimination. It definitely affects morale and the cohesion of the group to walk into a room and look around, and no one looks like you at your job, at a hearing, or at a base. It’s also super important when you think about retention and recruitment. If I am not comfortable or I’m not in a place where I feel like I’m in alignment with who I’m surrounded by, it’s really tough. You don’t feel accepted, welcomed, or valued. The other part of this is seeing what’s possible, and being able to learn from each other and what their experiences were. Seeing those positive examples and building credibility and trust with people that are not like you – that exposure opens up your mind.

ACLU: The military imposes certain uniform requirements that can disproportionately impact people of color. Did the uniform requirements affect your time in the military?

Veteran Todd: That was a big deal for me in the military. When it came to uniforms, the regulations were not put in place for us. It was put in place for people with hair that could conform to those regulations. Our hair doesn’t do that. We have to do a little more extra. I was the yeoman that kept instructions in my pocket because they were up for interpretation. I used to get stopped all the time about my hair. There was this one time where I was actually put at attention by a superior. He said I was distracting the sailors and needed to do something about myself. I didn’t have any makeup on, my hair was natural, and I had on overalls and big boots, so I didn’t know what he wanted me to change. I looked around at every other Black girl on that ship; their hair was shaved off. Then I looked at some of our counterparts who had flipped up hair and all this extra stuff. Were they getting pulled to the side? Absolutely not. I’m really glad that they began to change some of those regulations.

ACLU: Could you tell us about your time in the military and why you decided to join?

Retired Chief Master Sgt. Flagg-Briggs: It was rewarding. It was awesome and it was tough. I joined the military because I wanted to do more for my community. I felt the need to serve others and in my mind, the best way was to serve my country. I would be serving everybody by joining the military.

ACLU: Our amicus highlights that people of color collectively make up as much as 37 percent of the enlisted ranks, but only 14.8 percent of the highest pay grade officers. How do you think this affects the experiences of service members of color?

Retired Chief Master Sgt. Flagg-Briggs: When I first came into the military, there was no one that looked like me in a lot of the rooms that I entered. When you don’t see people in the room that represent you, you don’t feel heard. They don’t understand where we’re coming from or how it makes us feel to not see someone that looks like us in higher rank positions. How can they decide uniform policies like how my hair should be, or how the makeup fits my face, or what color is my natural hair color? Those things came up a lot in the military. It affects morale, and it affects people wanting to join.

I was very heavy on joining an organization that promoted diversity because I thought it was important that men, women, Black, white, different nationalities be represented. It gave me a greater understanding of their perspective, and I was able to share my perspective. We were able to gather our thoughts, our differences, and come up with a common solution that would make everybody feel included.

ACLU: Disciplinary hearings affecting service members are reviewed by the military’s own judge panel. How important is it to have leadership that represents the diversity of service members and understands different upbringings?

Retired Chief Master Sgt. Flagg-Briggs: That is extremely important. Sometimes when the decisions are made, it perpetuates in your mind that there’s no way they understand who I am or what I represent, because that opinion doesn’t sound like it is for me. There have been examples where there was one type of solution or punishment that was going to be put upon a person and because I was in the room, I helped them understand that it wasn’t as they saw it. The relief that they got from having me in the room was astounding. Many times I was the only woman of color or the only person of color in the room, and I was always opinionated and spoke for folk that were on the line. That was truly important during my 35 years of service. Rising to the rank of Chief, it made me more aware. It helped me help others to understand why it’s important to get in the room, earn more rank, so that we can be better understood, and we could share our experiences and other folks would understand as well.

ACLU: Could you tell us about your time in the military and why you decided to join?

Veteran Mintlow: When I joined, it was about me getting money for school. But as you’re gaining education and knowledge of what this branch has gone through, the wars it has fought and won for our country, and you built a relationship with the branch, you learn the importance. So then it becomes, I served my country, I did my part, I put my life on the line.

ACLU: The military imposes certain uniform requirements that can disproportionately impact people of color. Did the uniform requirements affect your time in the military?

Veteran Mintlow: It wasn’t necessarily uniforms that were my issue. It was the weight requirement. Once you hit the maximum weight requirement, they will do what’s called a body fat measurement. When they do that for women, they measure our necks, our waists, and hips. I still believe that is not a fair measurement for women of color. In my culture and as a Black woman, the widest part of my body is my hips, and there is nothing I can do about it. There are some things that we cannot fix, and to have that held against me, it negatively impacted my military career. I was at a point in my career where I was supposed to get a meritorious promotion, but did not get it because I was considered overweight by their metrics.

ACLU: Why is it important to have representation in the military?

Veteran Mintlow: It’s important to have a diverse population amongst enlisted members and officers so that people who are not in the military have an opportunity to see themselves in the military. When I wasn’t in the military, every person I saw in the Marine Corps was a man. So while I was at my recruiter’s office, they had a poster on the wall of a Black woman in a blue dress, and I said, I need to see her in real life. When I went to the Military Entrance Processing Station, which is where you do your swearing in and you sign all your paperwork, I met a Black woman. She was my visual. I knew I could do this because she looked like me and she did it. It’s very important to have those role models and those mentors in real life. When we see people who are like us, doing these things, it gives us the initiative, the drive, and the inspiration to know that we can do those things, too.

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pOver the last decade, California has built up some of the nation’s strongest driver privacy protections, thanks to the hard work of activists, civil rights groups, and elected leaders./p pOne law in particular, often called a href=https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB34SB 34/a, prohibits police from circulating detailed maps of people’s driving patterns with the federal government and agencies in other states– a protection that has only grown more important with the end of iRoe v. Wade/i and the subsequent surge in abortion criminalization./p pBut dozens of California police departments have decided to defy the law, even after receiving a href=https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/2023-dle-06.pdfclear guidance/a from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the chief law enforcement officer in the state. Last month the ACLU of Northern California and our partners a href=https://www.aclunc.org/sites/default/files/2024-01-31_letter_to_ag_bonta_re_sb_34_final.pdfsent Attorney General Bonta a letter/a listing 35 police agencies that have refused to comply with the law and protect driver privacy./p pWe should all be able to drive to a doctor’s office, place of worship, or political rally without being tracked and cataloged by police agencies. But for years now, police have used automated license plate readers (ALPRs) to record and track the movements of drivers on a previously unseen scale. These a href=https://www.aclu.org/documents/you-are-being-tracked-how-license-plate-readers-are-being-used-record-americans-movementssystems/a allow police to collect and store information about drivers whose cars pass through ALPR cameras’ fields of view, which, along with the date and time of capture, can reveal sensitive details about our movements and, as a result, our private lives./p div class=mp-md wp-link div class=wp-link__img-wrapper a href=https://www.aclu.org/documents/you-are-being-tracked-how-license-plate-readers-are-being-used-record-americans-movements target=_blank tabindex=-1 img width=1120 height=788 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-12.35.20-PM.png class=attachment-4x3_full size-4x3_full alt=A highway with fast moving cars. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-12.35.20-PM.png 1120w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-12.35.20-PM-768x540.png 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-12.35.20-PM-400x281.png 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-12.35.20-PM-600x422.png 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-12.35.20-PM-800x563.png 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-12.35.20-PM-1000x704.png 1000w sizes=(max-width: 1120px) 100vw, 1120px / /a /div div class=wp-link__title a href=https://www.aclu.org/documents/you-are-being-tracked-how-license-plate-readers-are-being-used-record-americans-movements target=_blank You Are Being Tracked: How License Plate Readers Are Being Used to Record Americans' Movements /a /div div class=wp-link__source p-4 px-6-tablet a href=https://www.aclu.org/documents/you-are-being-tracked-how-license-plate-readers-are-being-used-record-americans-movements target=_blank tabindex=-1 p class=is-size-7Source: American Civil Liberties Union/p /a /div /div pThe ACLU has long seen the danger ALPR surveillance poses, and working alongside communities on the ground, has fought to bolster California’s legal protections for driver privacy. For over a decade, we have conducted investigations, advocacy, and litigation focused on how police agencies use ALPR to track law-abiding drivers, amass hordes of sensitive information, and use it to harm people./p pIn the wake of a href=http://chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/071613-aclu-alprreport-opt-v05.pdfACLU’s groundbreaking report/a on ALPR across the US, a href=https://www.aclunc.org/blog/use-automated-license-plate-readers-expanding-northern-california-and-data-shared-fedswe called out/a police use of ALPRs in 2013 as a threat to driver privacy and warned that California lacked statewide driver privacy protections. In 2016, thanks in part to the advocacy of the ACLU and a href=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/success-sacramento-four-new-laws-one-veto-all-victories-privacy-and-transparencyallies/a, the California legislature passed a href=https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB34SB 34/a, the law at issue today. In a href=https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/documents-reveal-ice-using-driver-location-data2019/a we discovered Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) exploitation of ALPR-collected information to track and target immigrants in California and across the United States./p pFrom there, we took action to enforce California’s driver privacy protections. In a href=https://www.aclunc.org/news/california-activists-sue-marin-county-sheriff-illegally-sharing-drivers-license-plate-data-ice2021/a we sued Marin County, California for illegally sharing millions of local drivers’ license plates and locations with federal and out-of-state agencies, including ICE. The sheriff eventually agreed to comply with SB 34 as part of a a href=https://www.aclunc.org/our-work/legal-docket/lagleva-v-doyle-license-plate-surveillance#:~:text=In%20May%202022%2C%20the%20plaintiffs,54.settlement agreement/a, but we believed that many other California police agencies were still violating SB 34./p pWe rang the alarm again in the wake of the iDobbs /idecision overturning iRoe v. Wade./i Alongside our partners at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU of Southern California, we a href=https://www.aclunc.org/news/civil-liberties-groups-demand-california-police-stop-sharing-drivers-location-data-police-antisent letters to over 70 law enforcement agencies in California/a demanding they stop sharing people’s driving patterns with states that have criminalized abortion care. We also notified the attorney general’s office of these violations./p pFollowing our letters, the attorney general issued a href=https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/2023-dle-06.pdfinstructions/a to police across the state to follow SB 34’s plain text and cease sharing license plate information with state and federal agencies outside California. While some agencies have come into compliance, many police are digging in and refusing to follow the law. Police lobbyists have even a href=https://www.eff.org/files/2024/01/23/bulletin_reponse_letter.03_jrt_final.khb_.02.pdfasked/a the attorney general to withdraw his interpretation of the law./p pSimply put, the position touted by police agencies and their lobbyists puts Californians at risk. SB 34 is important because when police track and share the locations of law-abiding drivers, that information can easily be used to facilitate racist policing, a href=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexcampbell/the-ticket-machinepunitive fees/a, and the a href=https://www.ap.org/ap-in-the-news/2012/with-cameras-informants-nypd-eyed-mosquesdiscriminatory targeting/a of people in California and beyond. And, as a href=https://www.eff.org/files/2023/05/24/tracy.pdfour letters warned/a, when California shares ALPR information with authorities in states with anti-abortion or anti-trans laws, police and prosecutors gain new power to track and prosecute people who traveled to California to receive reproductive or gender-affirming care./p pWe should all be able to travel safely on the state’s roads without our movements being handed to authorities outside the state. That is why we have continued to push California police agencies to follow California’s driver privacy law. And it’s why we have supported localities a href=https://www.aclunc.org/blog/alameda-rejects-surveillance-deal-company-tied-icethat reject/a ALPR programs at odds with their values./p pIt is unacceptable that police agencies charged with enforcing laws are refusing to comply with this one. While we are pleased with Attorney General Bonta’s strong statement on SB 34, we urge the attorney general to use all available means at his disposal to ensure compliance. And rest assured, that the ACLU will continue fighting to enact and enforce protections that keep all of us safe, no matter where we go in the state./p piThis article was a href=https://www.aclunc.org/blog/californians-fought-hard-driver-privacy-protections-why-are-police-refusing-follow-themoriginally featured/a on the blog of the ACLU of Northern California./i/p div class=rss-cta__titleWe need you with us to keep fighting/diva href=https://action.aclu.org/give/now class=rss-cta__buttonDonate today/a/div

pSeeking lives of safety and opportunity, people coming to the United States as migrants and asylum-seekers may carry only their most essential and beloved possessions. When they arrive in the U.S. and are taken into Border Patrol custody, many migrants endure the devastating loss of their property: Border Patrol agents routinely confiscate, trash, or force them to throw away their precious belongings./p div class=mp-md wp-link div class=wp-link__img-wrapper a href=https://www.aclu.org/publications/from-hope-to-heartbreak-the-disturbing-reality-of-border-patrols-confiscation-of-migrants-belongings target=_blank tabindex=-1 img width=1216 height=680 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.02.10-PM.png class=attachment-4x3_full size-4x3_full alt=An individual holding a small bag of important belongings and documents. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.02.10-PM.png 1216w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.02.10-PM-768x429.png 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.02.10-PM-400x224.png 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.02.10-PM-600x336.png 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.02.10-PM-800x447.png 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.02.10-PM-1000x559.png 1000w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.02.10-PM-1200x671.png 1200w sizes=(max-width: 1216px) 100vw, 1216px / /a /div div class=wp-link__title a href=https://www.aclu.org/publications/from-hope-to-heartbreak-the-disturbing-reality-of-border-patrols-confiscation-of-migrants-belongings target=_blank From Hope to Heartbreak: The Disturbing Reality of Border Patrol's Confiscation of Migrants' Belongings /a /div div class=wp-link__source p-4 px-6-tablet a href=https://www.aclu.org/publications/from-hope-to-heartbreak-the-disturbing-reality-of-border-patrols-confiscation-of-migrants-belongings target=_blank tabindex=-1 p class=is-size-7Source: American Civil Liberties Union/p /a /div /div pIn a new report published in partnership with organizations working on the southern border, From Hope to Heartbreak, we document routine cases of this abusive treatment focusing on confiscation of medication and medical devices, legal and identity documents, religious items, and items of financial, practical, or sentimental value./p pThe report relies heavily on hundreds of intakes conducted by the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), which runs a migrant aid center along Mexico’s border with Arizona, and ProtectAZ Health, which offers free medical screenings and care to migrants in Phoenix./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standardMedications and Medical Devices/h2 /div figure class=wp-image mb-8 img width=1280 height=960 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Medications-Near-Yuma-Arizona-December-2023.jpeg class=attachment-original size-original alt=A pile of various medical materials. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Medications-Near-Yuma-Arizona-December-2023.jpeg 1280w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Medications-Near-Yuma-Arizona-December-2023-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Medications-Near-Yuma-Arizona-December-2023-400x300.jpeg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Medications-Near-Yuma-Arizona-December-2023-600x450.jpeg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Medications-Near-Yuma-Arizona-December-2023-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Medications-Near-Yuma-Arizona-December-2023-1000x750.jpeg 1000w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Medications-Near-Yuma-Arizona-December-2023-1200x900.jpeg 1200w sizes=(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px / /figure pBorder Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), have routinely confiscated life-saving medications and medical devices from adults and children who have illnesses such as seizure disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and genetic conditions./p pCBP agents took a 5-year-old girl’s epilepsy medications away from her mother. When the little girl, whom we are calling Rosa, experienced convulsions, she was taken to the hospital. When she was discharged from the hospital and returned to CBP custody with new medications and special dietary supplements, CBP agents confiscated those. Not until the family was released to a shelter in Las Cruces, New Mexico, did Rosa receive the medical care she needed./p pDepriving people of their necessary medication obviously risks their health and safety. It also adds stress to local hospital systems, as people need to visit the emergency room or be hospitalized because their health deteriorates from missing their medication./p pProtectAZ received a 13-year-old boy, whom we are calling Leonel, at their shelter. Leonel has a genetic condition in which he lacks a necessary amino acid that prevents the build up of ammonia in his body. The condition can have serious consequences if untreated, including seizures, coma and death. Leonel needed to take daily supplements, but they were confiscated by Border Patrol in Casa Grande, Arizona. At the ProtectAZ shelter, Leonel’s health deteriorated, and he had to be admitted to the hospital for a week to stabilize his condition./p pIn a separate occurrence, a 7-year-old boy with moderate-persistent asthma was detained for two days. His inhaler was taken away, and he wasn#8217;t given a replacement. After being released, he developed respiratory symptoms, and his condition worsened quickly. His family took him to the emergency department, and he was transferred to a pediatric intensive care unit./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standardLegal and Identity Documents/h2 /div figure class=wp-image mb-8 img width=3000 height=2335 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-scaled.jpeg class=attachment-original size-original alt=A honduran passport. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-scaled.jpeg 3000w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-768x598.jpeg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-1536x1196.jpeg 1536w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-2048x1594.jpeg 2048w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-400x311.jpeg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-600x467.jpeg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-800x623.jpeg 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-1000x778.jpeg 1000w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-1200x934.jpeg 1200w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-1400x1090.jpeg 1400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Honduran-passport-and-birth-certificate-Near-border-wall-in-South-Texas-September-2021-Photo-credit_-Scott-Nicol-1600x1246.jpeg 1600w sizes=(max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px / /figure pConfiscating or destroying legal and identity documents, such as birth certificates, passports, medical records, and documents to substantiate asylum claims, has been a hallmark of Border Patrol’s operations./p pOne man told KBI that Border Patrol agents tore his birth certificate up in front of him. He managed to save his Mexican identity card because he had hidden it in his shoe. Advocates in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas report finding discarded documents that could be important in substantiating asylum claims, such as police reports and medical records. Volunteers with the Borderlands Collective in San Diego say document confiscation is especially concerning for parents of minor children, who may not be able to prove that they are family without their children’s birth records./p p“Passports are very important here,” one person had shared. “To open an account, to identify yourself, and I don’t have that document. I don’t have the children’s birth records because they took them from me. That makes me feel terrible.”/p pMigrants who are deported, expelled or returned to Mexico cannot withdraw or receive money without identity documents. Confiscated or destroyed documents pose a significant barrier to asylum-seekers’ ability to substantiate their claims. The Children’s Legal Center sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on behalf of 68 asylum-seekers whose documents the agency had confiscated. The lawsuit argues the confiscation violates the plaintiffs’ due process rights to seek work authorization and to support their asylum cases./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standardReligious Items/h2 /div figure class=wp-image mb-8 img width=1280 height=960 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Religious-items-Near-Yuma-Arizona-April-2023.jpeg class=attachment-original size-original alt=A pile of religious items, including a small Buddha statue and an image of the Virgin Mary. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Religious-items-Near-Yuma-Arizona-April-2023.jpeg 1280w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Religious-items-Near-Yuma-Arizona-April-2023-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Religious-items-Near-Yuma-Arizona-April-2023-400x300.jpeg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Religious-items-Near-Yuma-Arizona-April-2023-600x450.jpeg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Religious-items-Near-Yuma-Arizona-April-2023-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Religious-items-Near-Yuma-Arizona-April-2023-1000x750.jpeg 1000w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Religious-items-Near-Yuma-Arizona-April-2023-1200x900.jpeg 1200w sizes=(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px / /figure pOver the summer of 2022, there was a spike in reports of Border Patrol taking away Sikh asylum-seekers’ turbans. Forcing a Sikh person to remove their turban is a serious violation of their faith. #8220;They told me to take off my turban. I know a little English, and I said, ‘It’s my religion.#8217; But they insisted.#8221; The man pleaded with the officers, but they forced him to remove his turban and toss it in a pile of trash. He asked if he could at least keep his turban for when he was released from custody, but they told him no./p pWhile Border Patrol has since taken positive steps forward on how it handles turbans and other Sikh articles of faith, the agency’s religious freedom violations aren’t limited to people of the Sikh faith. A person told KBI that Border Patrol agents took his Bible, which he told them had significant spiritual meaning to him, and trashed it in front of him. Border Patrol agents in Yuma told several Muslim migrants they had to throw away their prayer mats. One of the men said his prayer mat had been in his family for more than 100 years./p div class=mp-md wp-link div class=wp-link__img-wrapper a href=https://action.aclu.org/petition/border-patrol-must-stop-trashing-migrant%E2%80%99s-cherished-belongings target=_blank tabindex=-1 img width=1000 height=655 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.21.07-PM.png class=attachment-4x3_full size-4x3_full alt=An illustration of a young woman walking nervously with a backpack. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.21.07-PM.png 1000w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.21.07-PM-768x503.png 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.21.07-PM-400x262.png 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.21.07-PM-600x393.png 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-1.21.07-PM-800x524.png 800w sizes=(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px / /a /div div class=wp-link__title a href=https://action.aclu.org/petition/border-patrol-must-stop-trashing-migrant%E2%80%99s-cherished-belongings target=_blank BORDER PATROL MUST STOP TRASHING MIGRANT’S CHERISHED BELONGINGS /a /div div class=wp-link__description a href=https://action.aclu.org/petition/border-patrol-must-stop-trashing-migrant%E2%80%99s-cherished-belongings target=_blank tabindex=-1 p class=is-size-7-mobile is-size-6-tabletIf you believe that people seeking refuge in our country deserve to be welcomed with dignity, join us by advocating for change./p /a /div div class=wp-link__source p-4 px-6-tablet a href=https://action.aclu.org/petition/border-patrol-must-stop-trashing-migrant%E2%80%99s-cherished-belongings target=_blank tabindex=-1 p class=is-size-7Source: American Civil Liberties Union/p /a /div /div pMigrants’ religious freedom is protected both by the First Amendment and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which provides additional protection for the free exercise of religion. Some asylum-seekers are fleeing religious persecution in their home countries, and the experience of CBP violating their religious faith can be a retraumatizing experience. CBP has been made aware of their violations for years, suggesting a failure of CBP policy and practice to fully respect the religious freedom rights of migrants and asylum-seekers./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standardItems of Practical, Financial, or Sentimental Value/h2 /div figure class=wp-image mb-8 img width=1200 height=980 src=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Personal-documents-including-vaccination-records-money-and-a-cellphone-Near-Lukeville-AZ-May-2023.jpeg class=attachment-original size-original alt=A collection of documents, money, and a damaged smartphone. decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Personal-documents-including-vaccination-records-money-and-a-cellphone-Near-Lukeville-AZ-May-2023.jpeg 1200w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Personal-documents-including-vaccination-records-money-and-a-cellphone-Near-Lukeville-AZ-May-2023-768x627.jpeg 768w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Personal-documents-including-vaccination-records-money-and-a-cellphone-Near-Lukeville-AZ-May-2023-400x327.jpeg 400w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Personal-documents-including-vaccination-records-money-and-a-cellphone-Near-Lukeville-AZ-May-2023-600x490.jpeg 600w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Personal-documents-including-vaccination-records-money-and-a-cellphone-Near-Lukeville-AZ-May-2023-800x653.jpeg 800w, https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAPTION_-Personal-documents-including-vaccination-records-money-and-a-cellphone-Near-Lukeville-AZ-May-2023-1000x817.jpeg 1000w sizes=(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px / /figure pMigrants have regularly reported Border Patrol agents confiscate their money and cellphones. These items are of clear value and represent a devastating loss: impoverishment and loss of contact with loved ones. Several migrants told KBI they lost the equivalent of hundreds of dollars to Border Patrol. One man described seeing a Border Patrol agent take 3,000 pesos from another man and rip it up in his face. Other migrants described the loss of family photos on their confiscated cellphones./p pConfiscation of clothing appears to be widespread in Border Patrol custody, leaving migrants with only a single layer of clothing. “The official asked me how many shirts I had, and I responded that I had two shirts plus a sweater. The official started laughing and told me I had to take everything off but one shirt,” one person recounted./p pVolunteers and shelters supporting migrants are critical of this practice, especially during the winter and if migrants are traveling north. One shelter in Las Cruces, New Mexico, said it spent $100,000 every month to provide clothes to migrants. Once the Border Patrol sectors in New Mexico reduced their confiscation of people’s clothes, the shelter reported reducing costs for clothing people by half./p pFinally, migrants report having their cherished belongings confiscated or trashed – children’s toys, heirloom jewelry, and even a loved one’s ashes. One man said Border Patrol agents forced him to throw away his father’s ashes – his father had died while journeying to the U.S. from Nicaragua./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standardThe Systematic Confiscation of Migrants' Belongings at the U.S. Southern Border, Despite the Vast Resources Available to Border Patrol, is Indefensible/h2 /div pCBP’s practice of property confiscation and destruction isn’t only cruel, unnecessary, and, in some cases, life-threatening, in many cases, it likely violates federal law and policy. We outline achievable policy changes that CBP can adopt to protect the dignity, safety, and rights of people arriving in the U.S./p pBorder Patrol must ensure migrants in its custody and those released from custody have continuous access to their medications and medical devices. Migrants should be allowed to keep as many of their personal belongings as possible in custody and after they are released. CBP must change its policies to comply with federal safeguards of religious freedom in its treatment of people’s religious garb and religious items./p pThe bottom line is that CBP can and must do better to live up to our nation’s values and commitments to people seeking safety within our borders. People seeking refuge in the U.S. deserve to be welcomed with dignity./p div class=rss-ctadiv class=rss-cta__subtitleWhat you can do:/divdiv class=rss-cta__titleTell Congress: Protect families seeking asylum/diva href=https://action.aclu.org/send-message/tell-congress-protect-families-seeking-asylum class=rss-cta__buttonSend your message/a/div

pThe Senate voted on Wednesday against a bill that would have been the first major overhaul of asylum and immigration law in a generation — and would have been a disastrous retreat from basic principles of fairness. As our elected leaders continue to debate immigration reforms, they must instead advance humane and sensible solutions that help manage the border without compromising our nation’s values and the safety of people fleeing danger./p pAlthough branded as a compromise bipartisan “border security” package, this bill would have been a major rewrite of our nation’s long-standing asylum laws. To make matters worse, these changes were attached to a supplemental funding bill that also included a massive investment in failed and punitive immigration enforcement policies, such as funding to finish former President Trump’s border wall, an expansion of nationwide immigration detention, and a significant increase in surveillance targeting immigrant families. Although ostensibly dead, Senate Republicans are reportedly trying again to push for another vote on this immigration package as an amendment to foreign aid, plus additional extremist policies that would remove protections from unaccompanied children./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standard1. It would have shut down the U.S.-Mexico border to asylum seekers/h2 /div pAt its core lay a new rule that would have fundamentally blocked asylum for the vast majority of people who come to our southern border seeking protection. Under this new rule, once an average of 5,000 people arrive at the border daily over a seven-day period, or 8,500 people on a single day, no one would be eligible to apply for asylum between ports of entry. Furthermore, the government would have gained the power to enforce this “no-asylum” rule when there is an average of 4,000 people per day over a seven-day period./p a href=https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/showing-up-to-protect-the-right-to-seek-asylum class=wp-link mb-8 target=_blank div class=p-4-mobile p-6-tablet div class=mb-4 div class=wp-link__img-wrapper is-relative img width=1200 height=628 src=https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/26f980d9135735ce0b525d8e63cce9ca.jpg class=attachment-original size-original alt= decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/26f980d9135735ce0b525d8e63cce9ca.jpg 1200w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/26f980d9135735ce0b525d8e63cce9ca-768x402.jpg 768w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/26f980d9135735ce0b525d8e63cce9ca-400x209.jpg 400w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/26f980d9135735ce0b525d8e63cce9ca-600x314.jpg 600w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/26f980d9135735ce0b525d8e63cce9ca-800x419.jpg 800w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/26f980d9135735ce0b525d8e63cce9ca-1000x523.jpg 1000w sizes=(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px / /div /div div class= div class=wp-link__title h3 class=is-size-6-mobile pr-4 Showing Up to Protect the Right to Seek Asylum /h3 /div div class=wp-link__description pr-3 mt-1 p class=is-size-7-mobile is-size-6-tabletFor decades, the ACLU has worked to protect the rights of asylum seekers./p /div /div /div div class=wp-link__source p-4 px-6-tablet p class=is-size-7Source: American Civil Liberties Union/p /div /a pThis was poised to become an operational nightmare, and there’s no need for speculation regarding the horrible consequences if the government implemented this rule. We need only to look back at the chaotic and violent days under the Trump era Title 42 policy, which similarly closed our asylum system under the guise of public health. During that period a href=https://humanrightsfirst.org/title-42/#:~:text=As%20of%20December%202022%2C%20Human,since%20President%20Biden%20took%20officeover 13,480/a people were raped, murdered, kidnapped, tortured, or extorted while waiting for the border to reopen. As history has taught us, this new rule would not have stopped people from seeking safety in the U.S., but people who have undoubtedly been sent back to danger as a result./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standard2. This plan would have fundamentally changed our country’s core protections for people seeking safety/h2 /div pEven when people were allowed to apply for asylum, they would have been subject to a mind-boggling and dangerous fast-track deportation process, with punishing timelines for those who could not meet new restrictive screening tests./p pIf passed, the vast majority of asylum seekers would no longer be able to seek court review of their cases, representing a major shift from our asylum and legal system. This would have denied them one of the most essential due process safeguards in a system riddled with errors. Independent judicial review has been a life-saving protection, with courts a href=https://humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Preserve_Judicial_Review_of_Asylum_Decisions-formatted.pdfconsistently finding /athat asylum officers wrongly denied people protection. Asylum officers currently conduct their case screenings and interviews with the understanding that their work will be checked by an immigration judge. Eliminating that legal review would have meant sacrificing basic fairness in cases where life or death is at stake./p div class=wp-heading mb-8 h2 id= class=wp-heading-h2 with-standard3. An unprecedented increase in funding for punitive immigration policies would have been a waste of taxpayer dollars/h2 /div pThe other major story about this bill is the money. It was a shockingly punitive, pro-detention bill that revived the construction of Trump’s failed border wall and included an unprecedented $3.2 billion for immigration detention — more than even allocated or requested under the previous administration. The bill also included over a billion dollars for surveillance technology that would subject individuals and a href=https://www.aclu-or.org/en/news/whats-hiding-immigration-border-deal-more-mass-surveillancefamilies/a to 24-hour suspicionless surveillance. This amounted to $4.5 billion dollars directed towards harmful and punitive immigration enforcement measures that would have impacted all immigrant families throughout the United States. Most of that funding would have lined the pockets of the for-profit prison industry, which stands to get a href=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/07/us-immigration-surveillance-ice-bi-isapbillions more/a in taxpayer dollars and without the overdue oversight and accountability./p a href=https://www.aclu-or.org/en/news/whats-hiding-immigration-border-deal-more-mass-surveillance class=wp-link mb-8 target=_blank rel=noreferrer noopener div class=p-4-mobile p-6-tablet div class=mb-4 div class=wp-link__img-wrapper is-relative img width=1200 height=630 src=https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2168519ceac1da204c4f825d20480d5a.jpg class=attachment-original size-original alt= decoding=async loading=lazy srcset=https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2168519ceac1da204c4f825d20480d5a.jpg 1200w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2168519ceac1da204c4f825d20480d5a-768x403.jpg 768w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2168519ceac1da204c4f825d20480d5a-400x210.jpg 400w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2168519ceac1da204c4f825d20480d5a-600x315.jpg 600w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2168519ceac1da204c4f825d20480d5a-800x420.jpg 800w, https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2168519ceac1da204c4f825d20480d5a-1000x525.jpg 1000w sizes=(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px / /div /div div class= div class=wp-link__title h3 class=is-size-6-mobile pr-4 What’s Hiding in the Immigration Border Deal? More Mass Surveillance /h3 /div div class=wp-link__description pr-3 mt-1 p class=is-size-7-mobile is-size-6-tabletCongress is considering expanding a harmful surveillance program. A second Trump presidency could make those risks even more severe./p /div /div /div div class=wp-link__source p-4 px-6-tablet p class=is-size-7Source: ACLU of Oregon/p /div /a pIn addition to the unimaginable harm inflicted on immigrant families, the bill would have permanently undermined our moral standing in the world, and ensured the return of people to danger and even death./p pThere is no denying the need for real changes at our southern border. However, none of these callous and extremist policies were ever going to “fix” the border: they wouldn’t have created a fairer immigration system or helped cities, states, and communities support and welcome new immigrants. What’s more, they wouldn’t even have deterred people from seeking protection or opportunities here in the U.S., as their proponents suggested. This bill would have essentially altered who we are as a country without improving the situation at the border from any perspective./p pWith thanks to Senators Markey, Menendez, Padilla, Sanders, and Warren, all of whom voted against this deal, this harmful legislation will no longer move forward — but our work here isn’t done just yet. Now it’s time for all our elected leaders to take this failed vote as an opportunity to finally get immigration reform right and ensure we pass sensible and humane solutions to address the challenges at the border./p div class=rss-ctadiv class=rss-cta__subtitleWhat you can do:/divdiv class=rss-cta__titleTell Congress: Protect families seeking asylum/diva href=https://action.aclu.org/send-message/tell-congress-protect-families-seeking-asylum class=rss-cta__buttonSend your message/a/div