PBI-USA begins “Trump Watch” as rights-violating Executive Orders assault civil and human rights in the United States
Image from PBI-USA website.
The e-mail subject line of the most recent Peace Brigades International-USA e-newsletter is “Trump Watch has begun”.
PBI-USA notes: “It has been almost two months since Trump’s inauguration and the beginning of his issuance of a slew of rights-violating Executive Orders and each week we are facing a new assault against civil/human rights and the social safety net in the U.S.”
They add: “As the Trump administration continues its assault against our rights, it’s even more important that we come together in community to strengthen our ability to stand in solidarity when we are needed most.”
Photo: PBI-USA director Amelia Parker.
Implications for PBI accompanied defenders
A new feature article by PBI-USA titled Trump administration targets those lawfully in the U.S. (March 17, 2025) highlights: “The Trump administration’s targeting of those with temporary or even permanent legal status has immediate impacts on PBI-USA as a key part of our work is supporting the visits of human rights defenders to the U.S. for meetings with U.S. and international officials.”
Photo: PBI-USA hosts a visit from PBI-Mexico accompanied defender Mariana Azucena Villarreal Frías of the Network in Defence of Indigenous Territories of Sierra Tarahumara (REDETI), October 24, 2023.
Trump targets protest leader Mahmoud Khalil
The PBI-USA article also cites the example of Mahmoud Khalil.
They note: “On Saturday, March 8, reports began to surface of the arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials of a student protest leader at Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil, who has legal permanent resident status and is now a graduate of the university.”
Image and video from Democracy Now!
“Epic first amendment battle”
Yesterday, The Guardian reported: “Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who became a leader of pro-Palestinian protests on the campus, was arrested on 8 March by immigration agents. After his arrest, immigration officials said they were seeking to deport him under a provision of federal law that gives the US secretary of state, currently Marco Rubio, the power to deport someone if their presence in the country is deemed to ‘have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States’.”
Monitoring Trump’s policies
The PBI-USA article concludes: “We will continue to monitor Trump’s immigration policies, especially as it relates to our ability to host our partners and the human rights defenders we accompany.”
Implications for Canada
PBI-Canada is also monitoring the implications of Trump’s policies on Canada, including for migrant rights and Indigenous rights.
Photo: Heavily armed RCMP officers onboard a Black Hawk helicopter near the Alberta-Montana border, January 29, 2025.
In the context of Trump’s comments about US-Canada border security, threats about the U.S. annexing Canada (as the 51st state) and the imposition of tariffs of Canadian products imported by the U.S. we have posted these articles:
1- Trump’s threats to annex Canada for critical minerals could put Indigenous land defenders at increased risk (March 17, 2025)
2- The integration of Canadian and US military production puts Canada at risk of complicity in violence against human rights defenders (March 5, 2025)
3- The rush to deploy “frontline personnel” to the border to avoid Trump’s tariffs overlooks human rights concerns about militarization (February 4, 2025)
4- Implications of pause and possible closure of USAID on HRDs in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia (February 3, 2025)
5- What implications might the Trump presidency have on PBI’s accompaniment of human rights defenders? (January 20, 2025).
Stay in touch with PBI-USA
You can find the PBI-USA website here and their BlueSky social media here.
To subscribe to the PBI-USA e-newsletter, click here.
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