Local ACLU Chapter Zeroes in on Civil Liberties Under President Trump

The Pasadena-Foothills American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Chapter and several allied organizations announced a public forum set for Tuesday evening to discuss how they are challenging Trump Administration policies they say jeopardize “freedom of religion and speech, the right to assembly, peaceful coexistence with other nations” and immigrants’ rights.

The open forum will bring together an experienced panel of human rights attorneys, activists and other experts who say they aim to educate the public about civil liberties and how you can protect your family during an Administration who they say intends to roll back decades of progress and place immigrant communities in jeopardy.

“All of our forums are conducted in the same way. We are there to educate so we are going to be educating the public about what civil liberties are, what civil liberties that the ACLU believes that Trump may be violating, we are going to talk about cases and giving an update of where we stand,” said Sharon Kyle, volunteer and Board member of the ACLU Pasadena-Foothills Chapter.

The forum is a part of a regular series held every other month by the ACLU Pasadena-Foothills Chapter and and co-sponsored by the ACLU-SoCal San Fernando Valley Chapter, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, Justice Not Jails and LA Progressive.

“This particular forum is getting more attention because of what’s been happening with airports across the nation and of course what appears to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increasing its deportation efforts,” said Kyle.

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is described as the nation’s guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States, according to the ACLU website.

“Lots of people don’t even know the difference between civil rights and civil liberties. We have a bunch of freedoms that have been enshrined in the Constitution, but the ACLU found that we actually have to fight to maintain those freedoms,” said Kyle.

A lot of the information is widely available to the public, according to Kyle, who said most people are just simply unaware of.

“The basic foundation about democracy is that all people should participate. All people should have a voice that we are a constitutional democracy meaning that we all embrace and honor what has been recorded in the Constitution,” said Kyle about why she thinks it is important for people to get involved in this discussion. “If we allow constitutional violation and go without saying anything, what we do is we normalize this unconstitutionality of the President’s acts and thereby degrade our democracy. If we want to have a stable society, we have to have a fully engaged democracy.”

The ACLU created a Constitutional Analysis of the public statements and policy proposals made by Donald Trump stemming from his campaign to now.

‘During the Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump campaign, Donald Trump made lots of statements that suggested that he might intend to violate civil liberties, so the ACLU kept track of what he was saying,”

The analysis, called the “Trump Memos”, was published in the form of a 27 page document that is available on the ACLU website.

It features six areas of concerns, which will also be topics of discussion at the forum and include President Trump’s positions on immigration, surveillance of Muslims and the creation of a Muslim “database”, and topics of torture, libel, mass surveillance and abortion.

The panel will include Campaign Strategist at the Asian American new media organizing group 18MillionRising Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA’s Policy Director Betty Hung, policy analyst on the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy’s Grocery-Retail Project Aiha Nguyen and will be moderated by ACLU Southern California member Unai Montes-Irueste.

The “Civil Liberties Under Trump” forum will take place Tuesday evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the L.A. Filipino Church of Christ located at 5080 N. Maywood Ave. in Eagle Rock.

The event is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.

To RSVP, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/civil-liberties-under-trump-tickets-31791071952