Phil Williams: Fortress America
For some time, I have been working on the draft of an opinion piece I loosely entitled “Fortress Alabama.” The impetus for the piece was the deep concern I have for the loss of conservative positions in national politics, and the feeling that Alabama could become one of the last bastions of defense for those positions. But then Election Day came and the tide turned. We now stand on the brink of being able to reverse some of the most egregious overreaches of liberalism ever seen. Buoyed by the Republican victories led by President-elect Donald Trump, I have restyled my draft as “Fortress America”. What is a fortress? Standard dictionary definitions don’t do the word justice. You have to create a full mental image to grasp what a fortress really is. A fortress is a strong place situated on key terrain. It is a place of refuge and security from dangers that lurk outside its walls. A fortress is a secure place in which strategies are formed, ideals are preserved, and provisions are stored. It is a position from which attacks are launched against the enemies of those charged with the security of the land. The walls are thick, the ramparts are steep, and flags wave from the highest point. The view from the top of the fortress takes in all of the lands that are to be protected, routes the enemy might use, and the clear fields of fire designed to hold attackers at bay. A fortress is not an accidental location — it is an intentionally developed strategic location built with great labor and forethought. America once again has an opportunity to be a conservative fortress for the world. For the past eight years there has been a steady bludgeoning of conservatism from the bully pulpit in Washington. Constituents are calling me to voice concern over the massive premium increases they are experiencing under the inaptly named Affordable Care Act. American foreign policy has become one of “do no harm” as opposed to the projection of strength. The enemies of our nation have grown accustomed to tepid responses to their violence and extremism and have therefore become emboldened. On the home front, our southern border is porous and so-called sanctuary cities are not confronted. Meanwhile our courts have become a place where religious liberties and conservative values are deemed secondary to the advance of liberal activism. Status-quo liberals have denounced and fought the opportunity for parents to choose the best education for their children. Government regulations enacted by executive fiat have burdened free enterprise and destroyed jobs. I could cite example after example for each of the topics just noted, but I am sure that the readers have already referenced their own. I’m proud to be a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican — in that order. That’s my team. I have chosen not to remain ambivalent or fatalistic to the advance of liberal policies. While there may be those in elected positions who choose not to address hot issues, or who consider something a moot point because it is deemed by liberal progressives as inevitable, I pledge to lead. I was elected as a conservative by a conservative majority. There are pressing issues that demand our attention and the time we are in is suited for the struggle For the first time in many years, Republicans hold a majority in the vast number of state Legislatures. That strength in the states, combined with a Republican majority in the U.S. Congress and the coming inauguration of President-elect Trump, means conservatism is ready for a comeback. The people have spoken, and I’m expecting to participate in a turning of the tide that the world will take note of. Fortress America is the place that will provide refuge, provisions, and strength in an uncertain world — but only if the conservative mandate we have been given is acted upon without delay. In the end, when generations to come look back on this time, I will not be recorded as one who merely shrugged his shoulders and went blithely along his way. This nation is a fortress for good in the world and the world needs Fortress America. ••• Phil Williams represents Etowah, Cherokee, DeKalb and St. Clair counties in the Alabama Senate. Follow him on Twitter for the latest legislative updates: @SenPhilWilliams.
Tim Kaine says he’s not going to run for president in 2020
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine says he’ll seek re-election in 2018 but is ruling out a presidential bid in 2020. The former Democratic vice presidential nominee said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that his place is in the Senate and his decision not to run in 2020 is final. “Period. Full stop,” Kaine said. With a heightened national profile after campaigning across the country for more than three months as Hillary Clinton‘s running mate, Kaine could have chosen to pursue his own White House ambitions or tried and play a leading role charting a reeling Democratic Party’s direction in the Donald Trump era. But the first-term senator and former governor said he belongs in the upper chamber, where he will be part of a Democratic minority whose ability to filibuster will be “the only emergency brake there is” on Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress. Kaine has already been a vocal critic of Trump’s appointment of Steve Bannon as a senior advisor. Kaine said Bannon’s ties to white nationalism and anti-Semitism disqualify him from a senior role in the White House. Kaine said he would continue to guard against the “normalization” by Trump of what Kaine said were un-American values, but he added that he’s keeping an open mind about the billionaire businessman’s presidency. “I have a lot of concerns, but I don’t think it’s fair to the administration to just assume everything that was said during the campaign will be done,” Kaine said, noting that Trump had already shown some post-Election Day flexibility on issues like gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act. Kaine said there were some issues Democrats could work with Trump on, including increased infrastructure spending and raising the tax rate on carried interest, which is often used by managers for private equity firms and hedge funds to reduce tax payments. Kaine said he plans to use his higher national profile to continue to advocate for issues he’s long cared about, notably on increasing Congress’ role in war-making powers. “I’ve been willing to stand up and do that with a president of my own party and I tell you, I’m sure going to be willing to stand up to President Trump,” Kaine said. Kaine has twice come close to being vice president. He was on President Barack Obama‘s shortlist in 2008 and many expected Clinton to win this year. On the campaign trail this year, the deeply spiritual Kaine often told supporters that the election would work out the way things are supposed to. Kaine said Clinton’s loss was “hard” to take, but didn’t shake his faith that the outcome was for the best. “Maybe the whole reason I’m in the Senate was less being in the Senate when there was President Obama, who was a friend of mine. Maybe the reason I’m in the Senate is for the next four years,” Kaine said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Drought spreading southward in Alabama
A new report shows that a choking drought is spreading southward across Alabama. Federal statistics show nearly 90 percent of the state is now in a severe drought. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows 65 percent of the state is in an extreme or exceptional drought. Conditions are worst in the northern half of the state, where many areas haven’t had measurable rainfall in two months. The rainless period is setting records, and some places are more than 15 inches below normal rainfall for the year. No burn orders are in effect statewide, and Birmingham’s water system is charging extra for excessive water use beginning next month. No relief is in sight, because forecasters say no substantial rain is in the forecast. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Japan PM in NY for 1st meeting by foreign leader with Donald Trump
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe becomes the first world leader to meet President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday, seeking reassurances over the future of the U.S.-Japan security and trade relations. Abe meets with Trump in New York, where the incoming president is working on setting up an administration after his surprise election victory last week that has injected new uncertainty into old U.S. alliances. Trump’s campaign rhetoric caused consternation in many world capitals, including Tokyo. Trump has said he would demand that allies such as Japan and South Korea contribute more to the cost of basing U.S. troops in their countries. Such comments have worried Japan at a time when the threat from North Korea is rising, and China is challenging the U.S.-led security status quo in the Pacific. The State Department has said it had yet to hear from Trump’s transition team, raising the prospect of the Republican holding the meeting with Abe without any input from career diplomats with deep experience dealing with Japan. Both Japan and South Korea already pay considerable sums to support the U.S. bases, and note that it’s also in America’s strategic interest to deploy troops in the region. Trump has suggested that Japan and South Korea could obtain their own nuclear weapons, rather than rely on U.S. deterrence, which risks a triggering an atomic arms races in Northeast Asia. South Korea currently pays more than $800 million a year – about 50 percent of non-personnel costs of the U.S. military deployment on its soil – and is paying $9.7 billion more for relocating U.S. military bases, according to the Congressional Research Service. Japan pays about $2 billion a year, about half of the cost of the stationing U.S. forces. The Japanese leader may also try to sway Trump on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country trade agreement that the president-elect opposes. The pact was championed by President Barack Obama, and Trump’s victory has all but erased hopes of its early ratification by the U.S. Congress. The pact is expected to be discussed in a side meeting at the annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Community in Peru, where Abe heads after New York. Obama will also be at APEC. Abe is Japan’s most powerful leader in a decade, and he has invested political capital in overcoming strong domestic opposition to the TPP. He has also sought to increase the international role played by Japan’s military, which is constrained by a pacifist constitution. That could jibe with Trump’s desire to see U.S. partners shoulder more of the burden for their defense. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Chance of Dem challenge to Nancy Pelosi grows
Reeling from an electoral shellacking, discontented House Democrats on Thursday signaled they may challenge Rep. Nancy Pelosi as minority leader. Republicans focused on wrapping up a short-term spending bill into early next year when an all-GOP government will rule. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan said he would decide soon on whether to run against Pelosi in party elections later this month. “I think there’s a lot of anxiety in the caucus and a lot of people want some change,” said the 43-year-old congressman. “I would think it has to be at the top “ Pelosi, well-known for her ability to count votes, said in announcing her candidacy on Wednesday that she has the backing of two-thirds of the caucus. Ryan dismissed that claim as disgruntled Democrats clamor for change after losing the White House and remaining in the minority in the House and Senate with minimal gains. In a closed-door session, Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., said she told her colleagues that “if we don’t, as a party, have our leaders accept responsibility for where we are, we can’t move forward and get to the point where our message is going to resonate with voters.” Pelosi, 76, is a survivor who enjoys enormous respect and goodwill among most Democrats, even as many of her closest allies have left Congress. She has managed to maintain unity within the diverse flock of House Democrats and is an unparalleled fundraiser for them, collecting more than $100 million in the past cycle alone. She was crucial in ensuring President Barack Obama‘s health care overhaul became law in 2010. Even in the minority under Obama, Pelosi has been a savvy negotiator with GOP leaders when Democratic votes were needed to advance legislation. The first female speaker of the House, Pelosi has led House Democrats since 2002. “When somebody challenges you, your supporters turn out, both internally in the caucus and in the country,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. Angry lawmakers expressed their frustration in the closed-door session, and some grew angrier after Pelosi left the room to hold her weekly news conference, according to those who attended the session and spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the session. In the meeting, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said he issued a challenge in the caucus “that anybody who is running for any position of leadership needs to come back and explain to us how we’re going to be able to survive one, the Trump years, but two, to not have the same excuse we have every two years where there’s some external factor that somehow causes us to not gain the seats that we need.” The elections had been scheduled for Thursday but were postponed until Nov. 30. On the budget front, House Republican leaders said President-elect Donald Trump wants a short-term spending bill to keep the government running through March of next year. The current stopgap spending bill runs out in less than a month, on Dec. 9. House and Senate negotiators are working on a bill they could pass before leaving for the holidays. House Republicans met Thursday behind closed doors with Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Speaker Paul Ryan told them the new administration prefers a four-month extension of spending. Such a move would let the Republican-controlled government boost military spending while making deep cuts in domestic programs next year. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Justice Samuel Alito rallies conservatives in tribute to Antonin Scalia
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued a rallying cry to conservatives Thursday in the wake of newfound strength following Donald Trump‘s election. Alito told the Federalist Society conference of conservative lawyers, judges and legal thinkers that religious freedom and gun rights are among “constitutional fault lines,” important issues at stake in the federal courts. He did not mention the election or the vacancy that was created by the death last February of Justice Antonin Scalia – an opening Trump will now fill. Alito paid tribute to Scalia, a longtime colleague and conservative ally in high court battles on hot-button social and political issues. Scalia, an early adviser to the Federalist Society and a hero to many of its 40,000 members, is sorely missed on the court, Alito said at the group’s meeting in Washington. “We are left to ask ourselves WWSD,” what would Scalia do, Alito said. The lettering is a play on the phrase “WWJD,” for what would Jesus do. The court has been operating with eight justices since Scalia’s death because Senate Republicans blocked action on President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland. Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas and nine judges on Trump’s list of potential high court picks were on the schedule at the conference, which has turned into an impromptu job fair for spots in the new administration. “The mood has changed. Everyone is going to be thinking, ‘Maybe someone here is going to be filling Justice Scalia’s shoes,’” said Abbe Gluck, a Yale Law professor who is not a member of the group but will participate in the conference. The Federalist Society got its start on college campuses when Ronald Reagan was in the White House. It was conceived as a way to counter what its members saw as liberal domination of the nation’s law-school faculties. Its influence was pronounced during the presidency of George W. Bush, when its leaders helped rally support for Senate confirmation of Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. The group was so successful that it spawned copycat liberal organizations. Speaking at a Federalist Society event in the Bush years was akin to an out-of-town preview of a Broadway show for conservative lawyers looking for administration jobs or judgeships, author Mark Tushnet has written. Over the past eight years, the group provided a forum for opponents of President Barack Obama‘s court choices and policies, although the Federalist Society itself does not endorse candidates or take policy positions. Some of its leaders backed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s refusal to act on Garland’s nomination. That political strategy paid unexpected and huge dividends for conservatives with Trump’s election. The society’s star again appears to be on the rise. “Anytime there’s a major shift in the power of government, it’s an enormous opportunity for what is probably the collection of the smartest, most talented and most publicly minded lawyers in the country to roll up their sleeves and help advance the cause of constitutional government,” said Leonard Leo, the group’s executive vice president. Leo met with Trump in New York on Wednesday and said afterward that Trump has yet to pare down his long list of names of Supreme Court hopefuls. Among those candidates are nine who will take part in panel discussions in the next few days: state Supreme Court Justices Allison Eid of Colorado, Joan Larsen of Michigan, David Stras of Minnesota and Don Willett of Texas, and federal appellate judges Steven Colloton, Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge, William Pryor and Diane Sykes. The group says 90 percent of its money comes from individuals and foundations, the rest from corporations. Charles and David Koch, Google and Microsoft are among donors who gave $100,000 or more, according to the society’s annual report for 2015. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and her husband, George, gave between $50,000 and $100,000. George Conway is a New York lawyer and Federalist Society member. When Scalia and Thomas were criticized for speaking at private dinners hosted by Charles Koch, the court said that travel and lodging expenses were paid not by Koch but by the Federalist Society. The close ties between the group and federal judges have frustrated Democratic officials and liberal interest groups. During the Bush years, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois complained that membership in the Federalist Society was “the secret handshake” of Bush court nominees. Nan Aron, the president of Alliance for Justice, said the Federalist Society “promotes a way of looking at the law which upholds the rights of the powerful and the wealthy.” Aron said it is “regrettable that so many nominees on Trump’s list are going to attend Federalist Society events.” Yet a conservative legal scholar who has been critical of Trump said the group’s involvement in identifying candidates for judgeships and other jobs in the new administration is not something to fear. “In fact, if the Federalist Society does play a role in identifying the president-elect’s nominees, that could be comforting to some who have reservations about Donald Trump’s administration, because such a role would suggest, at least in this area, continuity with longstanding, mainstream Republican practice,” University of Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett said in an email. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Martha Roby meets with military leaders, discusses Alabama installations
Upon returning to Washington, D.C. this week, Alabama 2nd District U.S. Rep. Martha Roby has been meeting with top military leaders to discuss the future of Alabama’s military installations. On Wednesday, Roby met with General David Goldfein, United States Air Force Chief of Staff, to discuss priorities going into the new year, including those related to Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery. Roby said items on her list to discuss were continuing Maxwell’s unique role in military education, the potential for the Alabama-based 187th Fighter Wing to land the F-35 program, and the the upkeep of on-base military housing, which has concerned community leaders recently. “Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base is such a vital part of not just the River Region but the entire State of Alabama, and I appreciated the opportunity to discuss Maxwell’s future as the intellectual center of the Air Force,” Roby said of her meeting. “When it comes to the military’s impact on Alabama, there is no shortage of topics. With an incoming presidential administration, there is obviously a lot changing. Part of my job is building relationships with our military leaders so that we can communicate clearly about decisions that will have an effect on Maxwell and other installations around the state.” On Tuesday, Roby met with Army Maj. Gen. Eric Peterson, who oversees Army Aviation at the Pentagon. Fort Rucker in the Wiregrass is home to the Army Aviation Center of Excellence, making this meeting particularly relevant to the 2nd District Congressman. Watch Roby discuss her meeting with General Goldfein below:
End Dodd-Frank? Unlikely, but consumer agency in crosshairs
President-elect Donald Trump pledged in his campaign to throw out what he called stifling regulations, including the stricter financial rules that Congress built to prevent another crisis. Now, as his transition team asserts itself, an all-out repeal of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law – Trump called it a “disaster” and a “disgrace” – seems unlikely. But experts foresee a gradual but potentially significant chipping away of key parts of the law. “I don’t think it eviscerates Dodd-Frank, but I think it takes away some parts,” James Cox, a Duke University expert on securities law, said of the Trump team’s approach. The transition team’s stated goal is a stark one: “To dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act and replace it with new policies to encourage economic growth and job creation.” Republicans have long attacked Dodd-Frank and a central component, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB vastly expanded regulators’ ability to police consumer products – from mortgages to credit cards to student loans. Critics say Dodd-Frank and the CFPB went too far to hinder banks from making loans that people and businesses need to spend and hire. Yet many experts say a relaxing of Dodd-Frank’s rules – the most sweeping such changes since the Depression – could raise the likelihood of another crisis fed by high risk-taking. Dodd-Frank limits many of the high-risk practices that ignited the 2008 financial crisis and led to a recession that wiped out $11 trillion in household wealth. Taxpayers were stuck bailing out Wall Street giants and other financial firms. Beyond the CFPB, other elements of Dodd-Frank that could be vulnerable to a Trump-driven attack are: The Financial Stability Oversight Council. The council, made up of top regulators, monitors the banking system for any risks that could trigger another crisis. It can label a company as so big and entwined with the financial system that its fall could imperil the economy. That label then puts the company under tighter oversight. Critics say the council, which makes decisions behind closed doors, wields excessive power. Rules that critics say especially hurt regional and community banks that had little to do with the financial crisis. Their cost of complying with the new rules is so high, critics charge, as to impede their ability to lend and help fuel economic growth. The Volcker Rule, which in most cases bars the biggest banks from trading for their own profit. The idea was to prevent high-risk trading bets that could implode at taxpayer expense. Many banks argue that the Volcker Rule stifles legitimate trading on behalf of customers and the banks’ ability to limit risks. If opponents manage to weaken those parts of Dodd-Frank, they could leave the law with much of its core intact yet without crucial elements. Among the elements left in place could be these: Stricter requirements for how much capital large banks must hold to protect against potential losses and for what proportion of their holdings must be high quality. Expanded oversight and greater transparency involving derivatives, the risky financial tools that helped ignite the 2008 crisis. Scrutiny of hedge funds, which had previously faced scant oversight and now must reveal information about investments and business partners. Restrictions on the mortgage system to discourage risky lending. The right of shareholders to provide a nonbinding vote on executive pay packages. Among the provisions Cox thinks may be eliminated is one that empowers the Securities and Exchange Commission to impose a stricter standard for brokers when they provide investment advice. Like investment advisers, brokers would have to put their clients’ interests first. All that said, no one is sure what critics will manage to achieve. Though Republicans control the House, they’ll have only 52 seats in the 100-member Senate, well short of the 60 needed to defeat filibusters and advance most legislation. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the liberal Democrat and fiery critic of Wall Street, will likely lead the resistance through filibusters. Warren was the architect of the CFPB, and President Barack Obama tried to install her as its first director but was blocked by her Republican opponents. For all the attacks on Dodd-Frank, most Wall Street banks already have baked in many of its rules and aren’t clamoring to unwind them. They have, for example, built up capital buffers against major potential losses and are on track to meet regulators’ requirements ahead of deadlines. And since Trump’s victory, financial stocks have surged, partly in anticipation of an easing of Dodd-Frank rules. Still, the CFPB remains a bullseye for critics, and among their targets is the agency’s leadership structure. Opponents want to eliminate a single director in favor of a new five-member commission. That would lessen the power of the director, who’s appointed by the president. Those critics got a boost last month when a federal appeals court ruled that the CFPB’s structure was unconstitutional because it allowed the president to fire the director only for cause. The court said the president must have authority to dismiss the director at will. Opponents also want to put the agency’s funding under Congress’ power rather than coming from the Federal Reserve as it does now. Whatever happens, the CFPB and the broader Dodd-Frank law are almost sure to be modified. The details, though, remain far from clear. “We’ll see some significant changes to Dodd-Frank,” says Tom Quaadman, a Chamber of Commerce executive. “We’re not necessarily going to see a wholesale repeal.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Bernie Sanders calls on Donald Trump to apologize for campaign rhetoric
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called on Donald Trump to apologize for his inflammatory rhetoric during the presidential campaign and asked him cut ties with campaign CEO Steve Bannon. The president-elect named Bannon as a top White House adviser on Monday, sparking an outcry from Democrats who blasted the conservative media CEO as peddling conspiracy theories and white supremacy. Sanders, who lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton, says his office received “many, many” calls asking Trump to withdraw the appointment. “What we are seeing all over this country is extraordinary fear,” Sanders said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. He said Trump should try to “make the American people feel comfortable” by rescinding Bannon’s nomination. The self-identified independent also said there may be opportunities for Democrats to work with Trump on some of his campaign promises including curbing high pharmaceutical drug pieces, renegotiating trade deals, cutting the influence of Wall Street and other ideas that will “improve life for working people.” “He said a whole lot of things. Was he serious or were these just campaign slogans?” he said. “We will hold him accountable.” Sanders told reporters that he hasn’t spoken personally to Clinton but believes she has an important role to play in the party’s future. She made her first public remarks since her concession speech in Washington on Wednesday evening, urging her supporters to “stay engaged” in political activism. Democrats, he said, must do some “soul searching” in the coming months. He’s backing Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison head up the Democratic National Committee, arguing the first Muslim-American member of Congress could bring some fresh ideas to the party. “It is time for the Democratic party to reassess what it stands for and where it wants to go,” he said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
College students around the country protest Donald Trump deportation plans
College students at campuses around the United States marched and rallied Wednesday, urging administrators to protect students and employees against immigration action under a Donald Trump presidency. Rallying supporters on social media with the hashtag #SanctuaryCampus, organizers said actions were planned at more than 80 schools, including Vermont’s Middlebury College, where about 400 people gathered, and Yale University, where demonstrators numbered about 600. Students sought assurances that their schools would not share their personal information with immigration officials or allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on campus. “Can you imagine the fear that it would inflict on college campuses if having ICE agents walk into a campus becomes the status quo?” organizer Carlos Rojas of the group Movimiento Cosecha, said by phone from New Jersey. “It would be terrifying.” The actions continued days of demonstrations that have broken out in cities and high school campuses following Trump’s election victory last week. The Republican’s campaign promises included a vow to deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally. “I’m very fearful,” Miriam Zamudio, whose parents brought her to the U.S. from Mexico as a child, said by phone as she prepared to join a protest at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She worries that the family information she provided on her application for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status will endanger her parents, who are living in the country without legal permission. “We don’t know what Trump is going to do,” Zamudio said. “We don’t know if he is going to demand this information, and we want our administration and our school to stand with us.” Several hundred people, mainly high school and college students, rallied at the federal building in downtown San Diego to protest Trump’s election. Some held signs or banners saying “we are not criminals” and “make racists afraid again.” An 18-year-old was arrested after he allegedly punched a police officer, police said. In one non-campus protest on Wednesday night, hundreds of people rallied on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall to protest Trump’s appointment of Steve Bannon as a senior adviser. Faculty and staff at several universities have signed petitions in support of making their campuses sanctuaries for people threatened with deportation – or anyone who faces discrimination. “We are alarmed at the vitriol that students and community members are experiencing across the United States in the aftermath of the recent election,” the petition to administrators at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said. “Reports of gross imitations of disabled youth, threats to aid in the deportation of students and their families, renewed deployments of the ‘N’ word, sexual aggressions against young women, bullying of Muslim and LGBTQ+ youth, reappearances of swastikas, among other acts, point to hostilities that infiltrate our campus.” At the University of Memphis, students chanted “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here” and “No racists, no KKK, no fascist USA,” The Commercial Appeal reported. Junior Luke Wilson stood nearby, holding a sign that said “You’re all cry babies.” Similar sentiments appeared on Twitter and other social media platforms, along with messages of support. “We know that there are going to be people on both sides of the issue,” Rojas said. “But I think that what no one could argue with is that a university and a college campus have a moral responsibility to make the students that are paying tuition and just want to get an education feel safe.” Department of Homeland Security Press Secretary Gillian Christensen said existing ICE and Customs and Border Protection policies guide enforcement at “sensitive locations,” which include colleges and universities. “The ICE and CBP sensitive locations policies, which remain in effect, provide that enforcement actions at sensitive locations should generally be avoided, and require either prior approval from an appropriate supervisory official or exigent circumstances necessitating immediate action,” Christensen said by email. “DHS is committed to ensuring that people seeking to participate in activities or utilize services provided at any sensitive location are free to do so without fear or hesitation.” Yale Ph.D. student Ramon Garibaldo told the crowd to remain hopeful. “I fear for my existence every day,” said Garibaldo, whose parents brought him from Mexico. “My mom, my dad they crossed borders for me to be here. So we aren’t going to bow down to the orders of one man.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
