Is #Trump planning to declare #MartialLaw on April 20? The frightening claim, explored

Story by Charlotte Simmons, March 14, 2025

"First, the essentials. Martial law is the term for when civilian government and legal processes (such as mayoral jurisdiction and police officers, respectively) are overtaken by state military, so as to make demands on behalf of the nation’s leader, and then enforce those demands with their wealth of resources. Typically, martial law is invoked in dangerous situations, such as natural disasters or major #CivilUnrest.

"This is different from the United States’ #InsurrectionAct, wherein those civilian enterprises are not replaced by military personnel and resources, but supplemented by them. More importantly, the official nature of the Insurrection Act allows the #POTUS to deploy the military domestically during emergencies, as the #PosseComitatus Act of 1878 prohibits the use of the military against American civilians. In short, the Insurrection Act can waive the rules of the Posse Comitatus Act to create a sort of #MiniMartialLaw. Remember this.

"Recently, fears have been rising over whether or not the United States could enter martial law on April 20 under Donald Trump. But why then? What is it about April 20 that holds significance? When Trump first took office back on January 20, he signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency at the United States’ southern border, requiring the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to submit a report about what the 'situation' is at said border, together with recommended actions for 'resolving' said 'situation.' This report needed to be submitted within 90 days.

"When this order was signed, Trump also declared that 'A #NationalEmergency exists at the southern border of the United States…I hereby declare that this national emergency requires use of the Armed Forces…' This, directly references the potential execution of the Insurrection Act.

"The Secretary of Defense? #PeteHegseth. The Secretary of #HomelandSecurity? #KristiNoem. Two of Donald Trump’s most prominent yes-men. And guess how many days January 20 and April 20 are apart? Ninety.

"So, essentially, on April 20, there’s a not-insignificant chance that those two aforementioned Trump yes-men are going to tell Trump whether or not he should deploy the military in the southern United States so as to crack down on immigration. Except, as we saw with the case of #MahmoudKhalil — a recent #ColumbiaUniversity graduate who played a major role in that student body’s recent #ProPalestinain campus occupations — it doesn’t matter if you have a green card or if you haven’t committed any crimes; under this presidency, #ICE will illegally detain you if they think you’re troublesome to the vision of #TrumpsAmerica. They’re trying to deport Khalil for speaking out against #genocide as we speak. This is a direct, wholly #unconstitutional attack on #FreeSpeech.

"And here’s why that distinction between the Insurrection Act and martial law was so important earlier. On April 20, Trump will constitutionally — through the Insurrection Act — be allowed to deploy the military against #AmericanCivilians, and his government has already demonstrated that legal American civilians who have not committed any crimes are at risk for detention and deportation. It’s not technically martial law, but this #Trumpian cocktail is just as bad, if not worse.

"#Khalil’s detention — again, occurring in response to his speaking out against the #genocide of #Palestinian people — was made on the grounds of Trump’s executive order prohibiting #AntiSemitism. How long before more executive orders (none of them made in good faith, let’s be clear on that) just so happen to limit more ways of speaking, acting, and thinking? A scary thought, and a horrifyingly pertinent one."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/is-trump-planning-to-declare-martial-law-on-april-20-the-frightening-claim-explored/ar-AA1AUIqy
#USPol #Authoritarianism #Fascism #Crackdown #CriminalizingDissent #NDAA #ExpandedPowers
#USPresidency #NationalEmergency #Terrorists #Activists #USPol #BorderEmergency #Gitmo #IllegalDetention #IndefiniteDetentionClause #IndefiniteDetention

#ICE Secretly Hauled #MahmoudKhalil to #Louisiana as Retaliation, Lawyers Allege

By moving the campus #activist to a new jurisdiction, ICE disrupted court proceedings and limited his legal access, his attorneys say.

by Jonah Valdez, March 11 2025,

"Mahmoud Khalil’s wife watched as agents from the Department of Homeland Security handcuffed her husband and whisked him away from their New York City apartment in an unmarked vehicle on Saturday evening.
Agents ignored the pleas of Khalil’s wife who tried to show them legal papers proving her husband was a green card holder. They wouldn’t heed her requests to share where they were taking him, according to court filings. Eventually, one of the agents offered a terse response: Check the local immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan.

"By next morning, however, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee locator indicated Khalil was no longer in New York. Instead, it showed him at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. When Khalil’s wife visited the jail, she was turned away.

"Without warning to Khalil’s wife or his immigration attorney Amy Greer, who the same morning had filed a petition to challenge her client’s arrest as a violation of his First Amendment free speech rights, ICE agents had transferred Khalil to a different facility. This time, they moved him thousands of miles south of his New York home to a facility in Louisiana. It wasn’t until Monday morning that Khalil’s exact whereabouts were updated in the ICE online system: the #LaSalleDetentionFacility in #JenaLouisiana, a #PrivateJail operated by the #GEOGroup.

"Attorneys for Khalil allege the move from the New York metropolitan area to Louisiana was a '#RetaliatoryTransfer' intended to restrict his access and to lawyers and family, and position what has grown into a closely watched #FirstAmendment case in a jurisdiction more friendly to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies.

"Three days after his detention, Khalil still has not been charged with a crime. The Department of Homeland Security has said it arrested Khalil, a lead negotiator for Palestine solidarity protesters at Columbia, for having “led activities aligned to Hamas.” President Donald Trump, who campaigned on deporting pro-Palestinian protesters, pledged that Khalil’s arrest is 'the first arrest of many to come' and that his administration would continue to target for deportations 'more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.'

"Although a Manhattan federal court ordered a temporary halt preventing the Trump administration from immediately deporting Khalil, attorneys remain concerned for his well-being and ability to access proper legal counsel. In a motion filed Monday evening by attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility project at the City University of New York School of Law, attorneys seek to reverse the ICE decision and to transfer Khalil back to New York."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/11/mahmoud-khalil-columbia-ice-louisiana/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/7uhSa
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #FloodingTheZone #ShockAndAwe #FirstAmendment #USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #FreeSpeech #FreePalestine #RightToProtest #Censorship #ColumbiaUniversity #Palestinian #Protests #FreeKhalil #DHS #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity #CenterForConstitutionalRights #TrumpRegime #HumanRightsAreNeverWrong #PrivatePrisons #IndefiniteDetention