Trump’s Immediate Assault on Human Rights Must Stop | Opinion

Today, we are witnessing a new systematic assault on human rights in the United States—and we all need to speak up. The new Trump administration has unleashed an unprecedented number of executive orders and administrative actions designed to chip away at the dignity and basic rights of our friends and family members. And we refuse to remain silent.

The open aggression toward the immigrant community in America, a nation built on the backs of immigrants, has been relentless. The lies and deliberate dehumanization of immigrants coming from the administration rings of some of the darkest moments in world history. From encouraging community members to inform on “suspected” immigrants to reversing protections of schools, hospitals, and churches from raids, the unfounded fear and manufactured hatred being generated is shocking. And the administration’s focus on the Latino community is the manifestation of an ugly racist agenda.

In January, as divers were searching the Potomac River for victims of the horrific plane crash in Washington, D.C., the new president used that moment to baselessly attack diversity programs. Aside from the lack of basic human compassion on display, this was a gross effort to equate diversity with incompetence. With absolutely no evidence or basis of fact, the president used a tragedy to promote the idea that striving for equal opportunity, diversity, and equity were dangerous ideals, rather than a long-needed response to historical inequality.

And much like the administration’s effort to erase the overwhelming science that is warning of climate change catastrophes, this administration is also ignoring the prevailing best medical scientific research, denying life-affirming health care, and trying to prevent transgender and non-binary people from participating in civic life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has already partially purged terms and some related data around “transgender,” “LGBT” and “pregnant persons,” from their websites. This is an egregiously unscientific effort that can threaten the lives and basic rights of millions. These ideological and political efforts will have real and disastrous impacts on the lives of people in our communities and all around the world.

For the global network of organizations and impacted communities working for environmental sustainability and social justice, science and data-based research are critical components to pressure corporations and banks to correct their course. Field investigations, community organizing, and satellite-based documentation can reveal that supply chains or lending policies by corporations or banks are causing forests to be destroyed or watersheds to be polluted. But when demanding change, respect for and protection of the human rights of communities affected by their policies is the primary demand and non-negotiable.

From child labor and human trafficking associated with palm oil plantations, to Indigenous lands being stolen for fossil fuel production, to communities forced to live with air and water pollution caused by resource extraction, corporations, insurance companies, and banks across the globe have been pressured by people-powered movements to improve their practices and policies.

Today, as we bear witness to this coordinated assault on basic human rights here in the United States, we cannot stand by silently. Because these assaults on humanity, these lines of division that are being drawn are not only cruel, they represent a strategy to distract us, to divide us, and to consolidate power. We have seen this before, and we know that the greatest progress comes when we unite.

We need strong pushback from Congress against the cynical agenda of this administration and all of us must fight with cross-movement solidarity for the rights and equality of all. We are stronger together.

Ginger Cassady is executive director of Rainforest Action Network.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.