The immigration check points are out in full force and thousands are being detained. What’s next?
KaeLyn indicates we all should be fundamentally concerned. A question and answer interview was given as there was extended information KaeLyn wanted to portray to the readers about why every woman should be concerned about what is going on around them.
What is the most threatening thing going on under the current administration?
KaeLyn stated, “The most threatening thing under the Trump administration is so many core civil rights and civil liberties are under attack. This is a difficult question because the women of America are not a monolith. Like the Women’s march on Washington made clear, women’s issues are broad and intersectional.
Already it’s clear that the Trump administration is going to make good on their platform of proposals shaped by fear, hate and bigotry. Muslim women and girls are afraid for the safety of their families in their own communities. Transgender girls have to worry about their safety and privacy in schools while mothers of transgender children lose sleep over how they can protect their children from hate. Immigrant mothers worry about their families being harassed and torn apart. Black women are afraid for themselves and their children as Trump promises to push a law and order administration supporting aggressive and racially-biased policing tactics like stop-and-frisk.
With the ability to appoint a Supreme Court Justice many people feel that constitutional landmarked cases such as Roe v. Wade will be overturned sending reproductive healthcare back into the dark ages in many states. Trump has stated he is seeking to overturn Roe v Wade which protects the women’s constitutional right to have an abortion.
It’s so hard to pick just one issue that is “most threatening” when so many people feel threatened for who they are. So many women and girls are afraid right now and so many are angry right now. The reasons why are diverse and intersectional as the identities are of the women in America.
What do you feel about the immigration issues?
KaeLyn responded by saying, “The Trump administration’s immigration policies are deplorable and fundamentally un-America. These new rules released this month will result in thousands of lives being ruined and families being torn apart as more and more immigrants find themselves targeted by Trump’s mass deportation machine.
The most recent directives eliminate earlier policies that deprioritized the deportation of immigrants who pose no threat to and are integral members of our communities. The directives significantly expand “expedited” and “administrative “ removals allowing immigration and Customs Enforcement officers agents and Border Patrol officers to deport even more people not only at the border but throughout the United States without any court oversight. The directives promise a massive expansion of detention of children and families seeking asylum requiring with limited exceptions, that officers detain any undocumented immigrant found at or near the border.
These new rules would gut the due process rights of immigrants by assigning huge numbers of immigration decisions to the unchecked authority of ICE and Border Patrol officers instead of judges- a dangerous step toward destroying even the appearance of fair procedure.
The directives also reinstate the Secure Communities Program and emphasize the expansion of a program that recruits local police departments and sheriff’s offices to do the work of federal immigration officers-interfering with their ability to do their job keeping communities safe.
Police officers simply have no business doing the work of federal immigration agents. Deputizing local officers to carry out the work of ICE makes communities less safe while alienating immigrants from local law enforcement and encouraging racial profiling. Meanwhile, Trump’s unconstitutional anti-Muslim ban seeds hate and ignorance while doing nothing to keep America safe. It goes against everything this country represents from the very day it was founded”.
What will the NYCLU do to counter these issues? “We will fight, every single day, for the rights of all New Yorkers. We have been overwhelmed with support since the Trump administration took office and that’s a good thing because we’ve also been working hard every day to fight back,” KaeLyn says.
In NYC, we were on the ground when Trump’s Muslim and refugee ban went into effect and challenged the unconstitutional and un-American ban immediately in court. A federal court judge issued a stay that night, temporarily preventing refugees and immigrants from being deported. We have since jointed ACLU affiliates across the U.S. in demanding documents on the implementation of the ban will fight any unconstitutional ban targeting Muslim people, refugees, and immigrants.
In Rochester, we recently advocated with other organizations including the Worker Justice Center of NY, Roc/ACTS, ROCitizen, the Rochester Worker Center to build support and make recommendations for Rochester to pass a new sanctuary city policy. The new policy passed with our support and the unanimous support of Rochester City Council on February 21st. We’re now working to expand sanctuary work to cities, towns, and counties outside of Rochester.
We’ll work on police reform at the local and statewide level, from working to reform civilian review in Rochester to passing the Police-STAT Act in NYS. The Police-STAT (Police Statistics and Transparency) Act would allow the state to capture and publicly report vital information about policing in order to understand the impact of policing on communities, and how policing can be improved to advance justice and safety.
We’ll ensure that transgender youth in New York know they are protected by the Dignity for All Students Act and by state law. However, we must take proactive steps to protect transgender people in our state, given the hostility of the federal government towards transgender people. To do this, we must finally pass the Gender Identity and Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) in 2017, which will fix a loophole in the state Human Rights Law to ensure that it applies to students facing discrimination and will improve existing protections for all transgender people.
We must update our state’s antiquated abortion laws. New York has yet to fully codify Roe. v. Wade into state law. With this threat to Roe v. Wade and Supreme Court decisions hereafter under a President Trump Supreme court, the lapses in our state abortion law can no longer be ignored while politicians pass the buck again and again. If New York is a state that respects all people and the Constitution, it must act fast to make Roe v. Wade state law. We must also act to protect access to contraceptive coverage if Trump succeeds in dismantling the Affordable Care Act. New York should pass the Comprehensive Contraceptive Coverage Act (CCCA) which guarantees birth control coverage with no co-pay for the full range of birth control methods.
These are just some of the ways we are fighting back. We won’t give up or give in to tyranny because we recognize every New Yorker is in danger of losing their freedom. We will no longer stand for empty promises from politicians. We want actions to ensure a free New York — where everyone is free to exercise their rights regardless of who they are”.
KaeLyn Rich is a woman trying to make a difference in this world fighting to secure all of our rights. She is a world leader. She participates in our community helping to educate all of us about the jeopardy we are now facing under the new presidential regime. American ideals are under fire and we are becoming a country who doesn’t respect anyone’s rights anymore. No one is safe and we are all being targeted. KaeLyn is a woman we should all be proud of.
