Saturday, March 28
11:30 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.
Embarcadero Plaza
Market and Steuart Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Since Inauguration Day, the radical pages of Project 2025 and the fever dreams of America’s corporate billionaires have come to life with a relentless assault on America’s workers.
America wasn’t built by greedy billionaires and corporations, it was built by hardworking people all across the country. And labor unions are taking action, speaking up and fighting back!
The labor movement will be in the streets on Saturday, March 28, for No Kings Day to powerfully say that our government doesn’t answer to a king—it answers to working people.
Our solidarity is more important than ever. Please join us Tuesday, March 24, for our #NoKings labor activist call to mobilize our movement before Saturday’s events.
WHAT: AFL-CIO No Kings Labor Activist Call
WHEN: Tuesday, March 24, at 7 p.m. ET
WHERE: Zoom:
https://events.zoom.us/ev/AhfntEDd3A6WigV8sDEo0UQFWnSGDmcgfG_dKiz7A7xOHhk7-1wd~AmXj963Ovz7D_AqVbqIEcfngPhfUVq4XdkdCcDTJGDH3HZylNMDHbB7XKw?link_id=3&can_id=a01528c390a5ad806523652f147b0074&source=email-join-or-host-a-no-kings-day-event-on-march-28&email_referrer=email_3154161&email_subject=join-or-host-a-no-kings-day-event-on-march-28&&
(on any internet-connected device or via call-in)
The Trump administration has committed the single biggest act of union-busting in history, attacked good jobs across the country, launched a brutal assault on immigrants, ripped health care from millions, jeopardized the essential services that working families rely on and threatened our fundamental freedoms. Enough is enough.
On the call, you’ll hear from union leaders, learn about your rights, how to take action safely, and how to host or join a #NoKings event and mobilize others to attend.
JOIN THE CALL:
https://events.zoom.us/ev/AhfntEDd3A6WigV8sDEo0UQFWnSGDmcgfG_dKiz7A7xOHhk7-1wd~AmXj963Ovz7D_AqVbqIEcfngPhfUVq4XdkdCcDTJGDH3HZylNMDHbB7XKw?link_id=3&can_id=a01528c390a5ad806523652f147b0074&source=email-join-or-host-a-no-kings-day-event-on-march-28&email_referrer=email_3154161&email_subject=join-or-host-a-no-kings-day-event-on-march-28&&
HOST AN EVENT:
https://www.mobilize.us/aflcio/c/no-kings-march-28/event/create/?link_id=7&can_id=a01528c390a5ad806523652f147b0074&source=email-join-or-host-a-no-kings-day-event-on-march-28&email_referrer=email_3154161&email_subject=join-or-host-a-no-kings-day-event-on-march-28&&
FIND AN EVENT:
https://www.mobilize.us/?q=No+Kings+AFLCIO&link_id=9&can_id=a01528c390a5ad806523652f147b0074&source=email-join-or-host-a-no-kings-day-event-on-march-28&email_referrer=email_3154161&email_subject=join-or-host-a-no-kings-day-event-on-march-28&&
Will you join us on Tuesday as we take back our power?
When working people peacefully come together and fight for each other, we can stand up to the wealthiest bosses and the most powerful politicians.
In solidarity,
Team AFL-CIO
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Veterans For Peace Condemns
U.S. Attack on Iran
Military Members and Civilians:
Resist Illegal Wars!
Veterans For Peace condemns the U.S./Israeli attack on Iran in the strongest possible terms. We call on our members, friends, and allies to resist this dangerous and illegal war. We offer our support to members of the military who decide to refuse illegal orders and resist an illegal war.
A War Based on Lies
The Trump administration’s ever-changing rationales for going to war against Iran are lies. Iran posed no threat to the United States. This military operation is not a defensive war, but rather a war of choice by Israel and the U.S., a war of aggression, a war for regime change – very much like the disastrous U.S. wars that killed millions of people in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan – wars that many veterans remember with horror and regret.
Contrary to President Trump’s oft-repeated lie, Iran has repeatedly stated that it has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. Rather, the United States, the only country to attack another nation with nuclear weapons, has unilaterally abrogated multiple arms control treaties, and is investing Two Trillion Dollars in a new generation of nuclear weapons. It was the U.S., not Iran, that violated and withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. Israel also has nuclear weapons – undeclared and uninspected. Two nuclear powers attacking Iran, claiming to stop it from pursuing a nuclear program, is the height of hypocrisy.
The aggression against Iran follows by less than two months the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the unlawful abduction of its president and wife. It comes amid the ongoing war threats and oil blockade of Cuba. This complete disregard and abuse of the process of negotiations only encourages nuclear proliferation around the world.
Illegal and Unconstitutional
The U.S. war on Iran is illegal in multiple ways. It is a violation of the UN Charter, a treaty which is the “supreme law of the land” under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter states, “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
The unilateral war of aggression against Iran is a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly grants Congress the sole authority to declare war. This power was intentionally given to the legislative branch to prevent unilateral military action by a single executive.
These legal and constitutional issues may seem quaint to those of us who have seen them routinely violated by president after president with the complicity of a supine Congress. Nonetheless, they constitute both international and domestic law. They are the legal codification of a moral framework for international peace and cooperation. Peace-loving people must struggle to ensure that these laws are followed. We must hold our government officials accountable when they are not.
Refuse Illegal Orders – Resist Illegal Wars
Veterans For Peace reminds our sisters and brothers, children, and grandchildren in the U.S. military that an order to participate in an illegal war is, by extension, an illegal order. You have the right and even the duty to refuse illegal orders. Veterans For Peace and many others will stand with you when you do, and provide helpful information and resources. Whatever legal consequences you may endure pale compared to risking your life in an illegal war or living with Post Traumatic Stress and Moral Injury.
Veterans and civilians also have the right and the responsibility to resist the illegal actions of our government at home and abroad. This attack is a very critical moment in the history of the United States and the world. We must be in the streets protesting. We must be on our phones telling our representatives to Vote Yes on the Iran War Powers resolution. We must be on our keyboards, writing letters to the editors. Tell them to:
IMMEDIATELY HALT U.S. MILITARY ATTACKS ON IRAN!
· End U.S. Support for Israel and Genocide in Palestine!
· End Economic Warfare against Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba!
· End ICE and Authoritarian Repression in U.S. Cities!
· Abolish Nuclear Weapons and War!
PEACE AT HOME, PEACE ABROAD!
https://prod.cdn.everyaction.com/emails/van/EA/EA015/1/94223/Alqa3p0mdFGQOfwCaEOYO6dpWCJEn2qC1GPoEaid_7O_archive?emci=6196a802-9415-f111-a69a-000d3a57593f&emdi=d3c0d4a7-a515-f111-a69a-000d3a57593f&ceid=10474381
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Hands Off Rick Toledo, Pro-Palestine Grad Student at Cal Poly Humboldt! Give Him His Electronics Back!
Don't forget to sign this sign-on letter for Toledo here:
https://stopfbi.org/news/hands-off-rick-toledo-pro-palestine-grad-student-at-cal-poly-humboldt-give-him-his-electronics-back/
Please email any statements of solidarity to:
stopfbi@gmail.com
On the night of March 19, 2026, University Police Department returned with a warrant to the apartment of Rick Toledo, Students for a Democratic Society organizer at Cal Poly Tech Humboldt, and seized his laptop, phone, and other electronics such as a camera. They attempted to force him to give up his passcodes, and he told them no. He did the right thing.
This violation of his privacy comes as part of their effort to charge him with four bogus felonies - false imprisonment, conspiracy, battery, and assault - related to the student protest on Feb 27. This is the latest in their string of acts to suppress any campus free speech for Palestine and divestment from Israel, along with suspending and firing him from his university teaching job.
We should be perfectly clear about it: there is nothing wrong with supporting any student action, including building occupations, that is taken to make demands of a university. Our rights to free speech and freedom of assembly are protected by the First Amendment, enshrined in the constitution. College protest is a long-time tradition, and it continues on today. Toledo committed no crime in supporting the student protest, and the university is determined to create lie after lie in order to demonize him.
In our view, what they really want to do is punish Toledo not for the one-day building occupation last month, but for the 9-day building occupation during the encampment movement in spring of 2024. That display of courage by the students in the name of ending university support for a genocide made it to millions of TV screens, and the state of California and university want someone to pay. Toledo is their target of choice, years later.
We demand that he not be charged of any crime, because he didn't do anything wrong. We demand that his devices be returned ASAP. Activists should learn from his example of not telling the police a single thing, including a passcode. The university and police are the criminals here for trying to scare activists out of speaking out against the university's continued financial support to Israeli apartheid. Now is not the time to suffer in silence; it’s the time to speak out. We need to condemn political repression, stand with Rick Toledo, and defend our rights to speak out for Palestine.
Don’t Charge Rick Toledo!
Give Him His Property Back!
Protesting for Palestine Is Not a Crime!
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
The Trump administration is escalating its attack on Cuba, cutting off the island’s access to oil in a deliberate attempt to induce famine and mass suffering. This is collective punishment, plain and simple.
In response, we’re releasing a public Call to Conscience, already signed by influential public figures, elected officials, artists, and organizations—including 22 members of the New York City Council, Kal Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Alice Walker, 50501, Movement for Black Lives, The People’s Forum, IFCO Pastors for Peace, ANSWER Coalition, and many others—demanding an end to this brutal policy.
The letter is open for everyone to sign. Add your name today. Cutting off energy to an island nation is not policy—it is a tactic of starvation.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Petition to Force Amazon to Cut ICE Contracts!
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
Amazon Labor Union
Over 600,000 messages have already been sent directly to Amazon board members demanding one thing: Amazon must stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE and DHS rely on the data infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services. Their campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon.
But workers and communities have real power when we act collectively. That’s why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine. Help us reach 1 million messages and force Amazon to act by signing our petition with The Labor Force today:
Tell Amazon: End contracts with ICE!
On Cyber Monday 2025, Amazon workers rallied outside of Amazon’s NYC headquarters to demand that Amazon stop fueling mass deportations through Amazon Web Services’ contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE cannot operate without corporate backing; its campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon. Mega-corporations may appear untouchable, but they are not. Anti-authoritarian movements have long understood that repression is sustained by a network of institutional enablers and when those enablers are disrupted, state violence weakens. Workers and communities have real power when they act collectively. That is why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its most commonly used cloud platform. DHS and ICE cannot wage their attack on immigrants without the critical data infrastructure that Amazon Web Services provide, allowing the agencies to collect, analyze, and store the massive amounts of data they need to do their dirty work. Without the power of AWS, ICE would not be able to track and target people at its current scale.
ICE and DHS use Amazon Web Services to collect and store massive amounts of purchased data on immigrants and their friends and family–everything from biometric data, DMV data, cellphone records, and more. And through its contracts with Palantir, DHS is able to scour regional, local, state, and federal databases and analyze and store this data on AWS. All of this information is ultimately used to target immigrants and other members of our communities.
No corporation should profit from oppression and abuse. Yet Amazon is raking in tens of millions of dollars to fuel DHS and ICE, while grossly exploiting its own workers. Can you sign our petition today, demanding that Amazon stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with DHS and ICE, now?
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Self-portrait by Kevin Cooper
Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
 Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the auth *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Articles
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
1) ICE agents will help T.S.A. at airports amid the partial government shutdown, Homan says.
Erica L. Green, Hamed Aleaziz and Gabe Castro-Root, March 22, 2026
Erica L. Green is a White House reporter. Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy. Gabe Castro-Root covers travel.
Tom Homan, the White House border czar, confirmed on Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be deployed to U.S. airports on Monday, casting the operation largely as an effort to ease long lines that have caused frustration among travelers during one of the busiest travel seasons.
ICE personnel, including agents from Homeland Security Investigations, are planning to be at 14 airports, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The airports span the country, including Kennedy and LaGuardia in New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston and Phoenix.
The agents are expected to conduct tasks to free up Transportation Security Administration agents to handle processing travelers, according to an official from the Homeland Security Department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the location of ICE agents.
President Trump announced the measure on Saturday, first as a threat aimed at pressuring congressional Democrats to agree to a deal to fund the Homeland Security Department, which includes the T.S.A., and then as an aggressive operation. He said on social media that agents would “do security like no one has ever seen before,” which would include “the immediate arrest of all illegal immigrants who have come into our Country.”
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Mr. Homan said that his agency was drawing up plans for deployment and stressed that ICE agents would help support security officials whose ranks have thinned as thousands have gone without pay amid a partial government shutdown.
“It’s a work in progress, but we will be at airports tomorrow, helping T.S.A. move those lines along,” Mr. Homan said.
The Homeland Security Department said in a statement on Sunday night that the deployment was necessary because of long lines for screening passengers, and it placed the blame on Democrats. But it did not give details about what agents would do at the airports.
“Because of the Democrat shutdown, President Trump is using every tool available to help American travelers who are facing hours long lines at airports across the country — especially during this spring break and holiday season that is very important for many American families,” the statement said, adding: “This will help bolster T.S.A. efforts to keep our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.”
With the deployment less than 24 hours away, administration officials apparently have not nailed down many details. Mr. Homan said that “his opinion” was that agents would concentrate on airports with long wait times at security, prioritizing ones with lines of about three hours. He said that agency heads were still discussing how many agents to deploy, how quickly to deploy them and to where.
He said more concrete plans would be made on Sunday afternoon.
“When we deploy them more, we’ll have a well-thought-out plan to execute,” Mr. Homan said.
Airports around the country have been smothered with passengers over the past weeks, hit with the combination of the shutdown and heavy spring break travel. At LaGuardia Airport in New York on Sunday, the wait in the line at T.S.A. checkpoints was as long as three hours.
Sarah Estes, 41, a nurse from Dallas visiting for what she called a “girls’ trip,” said the airport website had estimated a 20-minute wait for T.S.A. PreCheck. But after they arrived, she said, they were told it would take at least two and a half hours.
Ms. Estes said she had conflicting thoughts about using ICE at the airports.
“I don’t trust those people,” she said. “So how can I trust them to help out at the airport? But the airports do need help.”
Mr. Homan noted that ICE agents were already working in airports, doing immigration enforcement and conducting investigations into reports of criminal activity like smuggling. He also said that the ICE agents — who are still being paid while T.S.A. agents are not — were “well trained” in security and identification.
But he indicated that the bulk of their work would be to cover exits and other areas that T.S.A. workers are now staffing in order to free up agents to do screenings and other functions to help reduce lines.
“This is about helping T.S.A. do their mission, and get the American public through that airport as quick as they can, while adhering to all the security guidelines and the protocols,” he said. “We’re simply there to help T.S.A. do their job in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise.”
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, blasted Mr. Trump’s idea on Sunday.
“The last thing the American people need is for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports across the country, potentially to brutalize or to kill them,” he said during an interview on “State of the Union,” referring to the killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January.
Mike Gayzagian, a T.S.A. officer at Boston Logan International Airport and the president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2617, which represents T.S.A. employees across New England, said he was unsure whether ICE agents would show up to airports in his region on Monday. If they did, he said, they were not likely to be of much help, especially if they were stationed at exits as Mr. Homan suggested.
Mr. Gayzagian said the administration’s move shifted attention from the larger issue at hand. “None of this would be happening if Congress had just simply decided to pay us,” he said.
Johnny Jones, a T.S.A. officer at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and a secretary-treasurer with the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing nearly 50,000 T.S.A. officers, said that stationing ICE agents at airports would “be a distracting scenario, to say the least.”
He said ICE agents’ presence could make airports less safe because of the widespread public anger at immigration officers’ recent conduct. He added that placing paid immigration agents next to unpaid T.S.A. agents would inflame frustrations.
“All we want is a paycheck,” Mr. Jones said. “We don’t need all these optics.”
Tara Terranova contributed reporting from New York, and Michael Gold from Washington.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
2) Sidelined by War With Iran, Gaza Residents Remain in Limbo
The new war has led to panic buying and a surge in food prices for Gazans as they try to recover from Israel’s two-year offensive against Hamas.
By Bilal Shbair, Isabel Kershner and Abu Bakr Bashir, March 23, 2026
Bilal Shbair reported from Deir al Balah, Gaza; Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem; and Abu Bakr Bashir from Sheffield, England.
Palestinians celebrating Eid al-Fitr on Friday amid the ruins of Gaza City. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times
As the effects of the American and Israeli war with Iran rippled across the Middle East, people in one corner of the region, Gaza, were feeling sidelined, stuck in a kind of limbo.
The fighting has set back the already slow progress toward a more peaceful reality in postwar Gaza. Israel briefly closed all the crossings into Gaza. Now only one cargo crossing is operating. The sole crossing for people entering or leaving the territory — including patients seeking medical treatment abroad — was closed for nearly three weeks after the war with Iran broke out on Feb. 28. It reopened last week for limited numbers of passengers.
The Palestinian enclave was only just emerging from a devastating Israeli campaign that killed tens of thousands of people, according to Gaza health officials, and reduced much of the coastal territory to rubble.
Now, the new strife has left residents of Gaza feeling ever more abandoned.
“The bitter truth is that Gaza has been forgotten,” said Fuad Shahin, 40, who runs a small cafe in Deir al Balah, in the southern half of the territory.
Adham al-Mabhouh, 46, a soccer coach who trains amputees injured and displaced by the Gaza war and during previous fighting, echoed the sentiment. “The eyes of the world are on Iran and the Gulf,” he said.
“Whatever happens, Gaza seems to lose,” he added.
The price of food and other basic goods has surged as people have returned to panic buying, afraid that crossings into Gaza would not reopen, or would close again. Unscrupulous merchants have hoarded stock, apparently hoping to profit from high demand should there be shortages.
“People rushed to the markets and bought everything they could with all the money they had — people with money of course,” said Hussain Ghaben, 37, a father of three from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.
Mahmoud Bolbol, 43, a father of six from Gaza City, has no work and relies on charity to feed his family. “I worry more about getting some cooking gas than what happens to Iran,” he said.
Gaza has been slowly trying to recover from the two-year Israeli offensive prompted by the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
A fragile cease-fire went into effect five months ago, though the Israeli military carries out near-daily strikes, saying it is responding to violations by militant groups.
The next stages of President Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, appear to have stalled. A committee of Palestinian technocrats meant to replace the Hamas administration has still not entered Gaza, and an international stabilization force intended to bring security has yet to materialize.
Any progress hinges on the thorniest issues, including disarming Hamas and ensuring a withdrawal of the Israeli military, which controls about half of Gaza.
Israel has conditioned the start of any meaningful reconstruction on disarmament. Hamas is reluctant to part with its weapons, which are core to its identity as a fighting force against Israel. The militant group also relies on its guns to maintain its hold over Gaza’s roughly two million people. Mr. Trump’s Board of Peace is waiting for Hamas to respond to a proposal for relinquishing its weapons.
Gaza’s residents feel stuck between the competing demands of Hamas and Israel. “We are living inside a vicious circle, caught in a whirlpool,” said Rami Abu Reida, 46, a nut seller from the southern Gaza town of Khuzaa.
Mr. Ghaben, the father of three in Gaza City, said that his house was completely destroyed during the Gaza war. He and his family are sheltering in a tent near the rubble of their home.
“I could not buy anything, as I had no cash at all. I totally depend on charity,” he said. Before the war he was selling clothes in a stall on the street, but now he is jobless.
Like others in Gaza, Mr. Ghaben remembers the months of severe hunger that gripped Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas. He recalled not eating for four days and being shot in the leg while waiting for an aid convoy near a crossing. Others around him were killed, he said.
He said he had five bags of flour and enough beans stored in his tent to last about three months. Prices for staples have skyrocketed, he said.
The United Nations says more crossings into Gaza must be opened to aid the humanitarian response.
While the intensity of fighting has decreased considerably, Israeli strikes still pose a danger. More than 670 people have been killed in Gaza since the cease-fire in October, according to local health officials, whose data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Some residents worry that after the focus shifts from Iran, Israel could resume the Gaza war to try to defeat Hamas completely.
“We still haven’t escaped either our past or our present crisis,” said Hanin al-Qishawi, 29, an unemployed university graduate who returned from southern Gaza to her damaged home in Gaza City.
“Gaza is always affected by whatever happens in the region,” she said. “It moves with the wind.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
3) Born Abroad and Fearful of ICE, Adoptees Try to Prove They Belong
Up to 200,000 people adopted as children from abroad are vulnerable to deportation by an administration searching for problems with their citizenship.
By Elizabeth Williamson, March 23, 2026
Reporting from Washington and Minneapolis-St. Paul
Tiko’ Rujux-Xicay worries about increased immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minnesota as residents report people being questioned and detained regardless of their citizenship status. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
Born in Guatemala and adopted as an infant by a Minnesota couple, Tiko’ Rujux-Xicay scarcely considers himself an immigrant, much less a vulnerable one. But after federal immigration agents arrested some of his neighbors in January, he began carrying his American passport and encouraging other adoptees to do the same.
That is how Mr. Rujux-Xicay, 27, (pronounced ruh-OOSH she-KYE) learned that faulty laws and practices surrounding international adoption had left many adoptees trying to prove they have a legal right to live in the only nation most of them have ever known. As many as 200,000 adoptees are vulnerable to deportation because they lack U.S. citizenship or important proof of it, immigration lawyers say.
The problem is decades old, but has taken on new urgency during the Trump administration’s determination to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Immigration lawyers say they know of no accurate count of how many international adoptees have been deported, but say they are increasingly being detained.
“Most immigrants know from the very beginning what they have to do to gain legal status, but many adoptees have never questioned whether or not they have it, until now,” said Mónica Dooner Lindgren, a family law attorney at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services in St. Paul. Many international adoptees first learn they are not citizens when they apply for a drivers license, join the military or, these days, when federal agents stop them on the street.
Beginning with war orphans and refugees in the 1940s, Americans have adopted more than 500,000 children from abroad, more than any other nation. The practice peaked in 2004, and has since slowed dramatically as Russia, China, Guatemala and other countries have halted foreign adoptions because of evidence of corruption and other irregularities.
At the height of the international adoption boom, shifting requirements and corruption often made the process chaotic. Children who were adopted legally obtained new birth certificates with their adoptive parents’ names, but federal law also required that the children become naturalized citizens. Thousands of parents were either unaware of or did not take this step, which made their adopted children potentially subject to removal.
In 2000, Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act, which granted automatic citizenship to adoptees who were younger than 18 on Feb. 27, 2001, the day the law took effect. But up to 75,000 adoptees did not qualify because they were older than 18 on that date.
Tens of thousands of others faced different obstacles.
Some entered the country on tourist or medical visas that have long since expired. Others came in on so-called orphan visas, but their American parents did not complete the process for them to become citizens. Still others were sheltered by Americans posted abroad, often military members, who did not pursue legal adoption upon returning with them to the United States.
The State Department does not track how many international adoptees become naturalized citizens. But Gregory Luce, an immigration lawyer and executive director of Adoptees United in Minneapolis, scoured records back to 1968 and found that a total of about 200,000 children brought to the United States from abroad since that year had grown up without U.S. citizenship.
Mr. Luce said international adoptees who are not U.S. citizens often discover they are not naturalized when they apply for a U.S. passport, Social Security benefits or a Real ID.
Under federal law, people who make a false claim of citizenship are barred from ever acquiring it, but international adoptees who did so in error are exempted. Even so, Mr. Luce said that many adoptees who find themselves in these circumstances do not seek citizenship through the exemption, fearful of an administration that is using every legal avenue to meet deportation quotas.
“Naturalization in this environment is much harder and much riskier,” said Mr. Luce, whose organization sponsors a pro bono legal clinic for adult international adoptees. “Most people are super scared, and the hard question for me is always, what should they do? Naturalize, renew a green card, do nothing?”
Minnesota, with its strong public benefits system, network of support groups and one of the first adoption medicine clinics in the nation, has one of the largest concentrations of foreign-born adoptees of any state, including the highest number of Korean-born adoptees. At least 17,547 of 114,536 Korean children adopted by Americans between 1953 and 2023 lack U.S. citizenship, according to the Overseas Koreans Agency.
After Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched one of the broadest immigration enforcement actions in history in Minnesota, “we found that ICE is not discriminating,” said Ms. Dooner Lindgren, the family law attorney in St. Paul. “All people of color are being targeted.’’
Ms. Dooner Lindgren and her husband are adoptees from Colombia, as is their daughter. Ms. Dooner Lindgren was adopted as an infant, and said confusion over the law meant that it took three years for her to become a full U.S. citizen. “I was only 3 years old, but I remember the naturalization ceremony and being given a United States flag,” she said. “My parents and many others did their due diligence, but for some it wasn’t a priority or they didn’t know.”
Mr. Rujux-Xicay, who uses his Mayan name, was born in 1998 and adopted the following year by Laurie Stern and Dan Luke, Minneapolis-based filmmakers who spent nearly a year navigating Guatemala’s complicated adoption procedures.
The Child Citizenship Act cemented Mr. Rujux-Xicay’s legal status, but he did not automatically receive a certificate of citizenship. Although not required for citizens born in the United States, it is the most permanent proof of citizenship for those who are naturalized. Unlike a passport, which has to be renewed and can be revoked for certain financial crimes, not paying child support or if a person is deemed a flight risk, a certificate of citizenship is difficult to revoke.
“The Department of State website says that a U.S. valid passport is sufficient to prove citizenship, but that is not preventing agents from detaining adoptees,” Ms. Dooner Lindgren said. She said international adoptees were “scrambling” to apply for the certificate, which is available from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices after an approval process that involves submitting several supporting documents.
That agency recently waived the $1,300 filing fee for adult international adoptees, and wait times range from six months to 18 months, Mr. Luce said.
When Mr. Rujux-Xicay drives to his high school teaching job or ferries his young daughter to day care, he carries his passport, birth certificate and an enhanced driver’s license embedded with a radio frequency identification chip that allows border agents to readily access his traveler information. A kidney transplant recipient, he also carries a long list of medications and a note from his doctors saying that without them, he could die.
Despite the risks, he says he will not apply for a certificate of citizenship, calling it “bureaucratic B.S.”
“I have all this stuff that says I’ve gone through the right channels,” he said. “I’m a citizen, I have a job and family, and I’ve never committed a crime.”
“I have to believe in the system. If you don’t, then what’s the point?”
Congress has tried for a decade to plug legal gaps that endanger adoptees. The latest effort, the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act, introduced in late September, would provide automatic citizenship to international adoptees regardless of their current age, provided they still live in the United States and were adopted lawfully by parents who are American citizens.
The bipartisan legislation has support from evangelical Christians, who have long embraced adoption. But it has yet to receive a committee hearing.
Some adoptee advocates say the legislation’s chances for passage are slim, given the Trump administration’s refusal to admit or protect any but a handpicked few foreign-born people.
Mr. Luce said he was less pessimistic.
“It has bipartisan support and could be sold to everyone seeking immigration reform as some small symbolic step, because everyone recognizes the system is broken,” he said.
“If it passed, I have clients who would instantly become citizens.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
4) The Pets Left Behind When Their Owners Are Deported
As immigrant detentions and self-deportations soar, animal welfare groups in cities like New Orleans scramble to feed, foster and re-home the pets left behind.
By Miriam Jordan, Photographs by Kathleen Flynn, March 23, 2026
Miriam Jordan, who traveled to New Orleans to report this article, covers immigration and is the proud owner of an Australian Shepherd rescue.
Kathleen Flynn for The New York Times
The adoption listing described Heinz, a Shih Tzu-poodle mix, as sweet, happy and energetic.
“But he also has a sad story,” said the bio on the website of Rolling River Rescue, a nonprofit in New Orleans.
The caramel-colored pup hadn’t run away, nor had he been given up by owners who no longer wanted him. He had “lost his family,” the listing said, as a result of “recent events in New Orleans,” a reference to immigration enforcement that has swept up people under President Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Federal agents have conducted large-scale crackdowns in New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, and smaller roundups from Hawaii to Maine. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants have been arrested. Most have remained locked up and many have been deported.
Left behind have been their dogs, cats and bunnies, even chickens, according to pet rescue groups and animal control agencies.
“What many Americans don’t realize is that there are companion animals being left by families that disappeared overnight,” said Maria Thomas, president of Rolling River, which has been scrambling to find foster and adoptive families for dogs and cats in New Orleans.
“We were already working at such a deficit because there are so many pets in need all the time,” she said. “Now we have the additional challenge of animals who need re-homing when their owners are deported or they self deport.”
New Orleans is a place all too familiar with displacement. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina forced many people from their homes and, in some cases, out of the city altogether. Abandoned animals roaming the streets became part of the post-Katrina tableau. The disaster also led people to forge new ways to help each other.
More recently, as the federal immigration crackdown upended life, that same spirit spurred mutual aid groups into overdrive. With many immigrants afraid to leave their homes, volunteers have delivered food and other provisions for families, and often for pets, including those taken in by neighbors or wandering the streets after their owners vanished.
Exactly how many displaced pets there are is impossible to quantify. The problem is not tracked by the patchwork of government agencies responsible for animals or by the local and national nonprofits that fill gaps in care.
What agencies and organizations do say is that there have been unmistakable surges in stray or abandoned pets in the aftermath of immigration crackdowns.
In Minnesota, St. Paul Animal Services, a government agency, recorded a 38 percent increase in stray, seized and relinquished cats and dogs in January 2026 compared with January 2025, coinciding with Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities region.
A rescue group in the area, The Bond Between Us, said that it received nearly twice as many surrenders early this year than it had during the same period last year.
In Los Angeles, where thousands of people were arrested in sweeps last year, the County Department of Animal Care and Control added a pet plan to its website for people “facing immigration-related challenges.”
But Marcia Mayeda, the department’s director, said that the burden nationwide has fallen mainly on rescue groups because immigrants fear interacting with animal control.
“We are the government, our officers look like law enforcement and we euthanize,” she said. “What we get is the tip of the iceberg.”
In Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has championed deportation, Mercy Full Project in Tampa is caring for three times as many pets as it was last year.
“It’s big dogs, little dogs, well-cared-for French bulldogs,” said Heydi Acuna, a co-founder of the nonprofit. “We are facing a major crisis.”
During an interview with The New York Times, she received a text from a woman who had just rescued a hound puppy named Damian, who needed a home. “Unfortunately, his owners were deported,” she wrote.
As much as Americans seem to love pets, shelters have long struggled to accommodate all the animals in need, and the immigration raids have added to the strain. With limited space, shelters routinely euthanize animals if they haven’t been adopted.
At Animal Rescue of New Orleans, calls have been pouring in.
“People reach out begging us to take animals,” said Ginnie Baumann Robilotta, the nonprofit’s vice president.
“The worst part is, we are so full — with a waiting list,” she said. “All we can do is offer free food and supplies.”
Becky Warpinski, a retired veterinary technician, said New Orleans has been tackling the issue with a zeal borne of battling big disasters. “We are approaching this crisis with the emergency protocols of a hurricane,” she said. “If we get a mass deportation, we are going in there and saving these pets.”
New Orleans East is among the neighborhoods feeling the fallout, according to animal welfare groups. Isolated and swampy, the area has long been a dumping ground for unwanted dogs. Now, it’s worse, the groups say.
In late February, Cristiane Rosales-Fajardo, who runs the mutual aid group NOLA Village, placed donated pet food outside vacant houses where dogs lingered, perhaps waiting for owners who were unlikely to return.
She also distributed it to households fostering pets that had been left behind by former neighbors. One bag went to a family that had taken in a 2-year-old Labrador and a Rottweiler puppy.
Even after leaving the United States, some families hold out hope of being reunited with their pets. It can be complicated and costly.
Ms. Rosales-Fajardo has fostered Cheddar, an athletic Bluetick Coonhound, for a couple who self-deported to Honduras and hoped that their dog would follow.
Medical exams and travel documents for Cheddar are ready, but the transport cost, $4,500, is prohibitive.
Last month, a Guatemalan man surrendered his two cats. He wept as he said goodbye, knowing he would probably be detained when he reported to court days later.
“He adored those cats, and they loved him,” said Ms. Robilotta of Animal Rescue New Orleans, who met the man.
For weeks, the cats cowered in a corner, she said. On a recent afternoon, Pantera, a velvety black cat, watched from a felt cave as other cats played. When two strangers approached, she retreated deeper into her small sanctuary.
Heinz, the caramel-colored pup with a white splotch on his tummy, was spotted near homes where immigration enforcement had occurred. After his picture went up on pet databases and no one claimed him, Roving River Rescue tapped its roster of fosters.
Shannon Dugan, a teacher, agreed to take him on Feb. 24.
That evening, he arrived house-trained and neutered, sporting a glossy coat.
“He obviously came from a family that loved him,” Ms. Dugan said.
The next day, Ms. Dugan posted a short biography of Heinz on the rescue’s website. Within a week, he had a new home.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
5) A Murder Charge in Georgia Exposes Complexities of the Abortion Debate
A woman who took medication to induce an abortion, and then delivered the baby, was arrested on a murder charge. But on Monday, a state judge expressed deep skepticism about the case.
By Rick Rojas, Pam Belluck and Susan Cooper Eastman, March 23, 2026
Rick Rojas reported from Atlanta, Pam Belluck from New York and Susan Cooper Eastman from Woodbine, Ga.
A 31-year-old pregnant woman was rushed to a Georgia hospital on Dec. 30, complaining of severe abdominal pain, law enforcement officials said. She told doctors and nurses she had taken medication she bought online to induce an abortion. She then went into labor, delivering a girl apparently in the second trimester of development. The newborn was declared dead within about an hour.
Two months later, the police arrested the woman, Alexia Moore, on a murder charge. In the warrant, investigators said she had “unlawfully and with malice aforethought caused the death of Baby Girl Moore.”
But in court on Monday, a state judge expressed deep skepticism about the charge and set Ms. Moore’s bail at just $1, clearing the way for her release after being jailed for roughly two weeks.
“I think that charge is extremely problematic,” Judge Steven G. Blackerby of State Superior Court said during the hearing. “That is going to be a hard charge to convict upon.”
The case has highlighted the complications of the fractured reproductive health landscape that has emerged in the nearly four years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
In Georgia, as in other states with some of the most severe restrictions on abortions, lawmakers have long avoided criminally punishing women who seek to terminate pregnancies, instead focusing on prosecuting providers and others who help facilitate access to the medication or procedures.
Still, Ms. Moore’s case reflects one of the rare circumstances in recent years in which those seeking abortions have ended up exposed to prosecution.
In the hospital, according to court documents, Ms. Moore expressed her frustration with how difficult it was to obtain an abortion in Georgia. The state bans abortions after cardiac activity is detected, which is typically about six weeks into a pregnancy, often before women are aware they are pregnant.
So instead, she bought medication online. She told investigators, according to the documents, that she did not know long she had been pregnant but believed it had been less than 14 weeks. After she gave birth, doctors determined that she had been about 22 to 24 weeks into her pregnancy.
In states where abortion is legal, abortion pills can typically be taken through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. For pregnancies that are further along, terminations are done with a surgical procedure. The vast majority of abortions occur within the first 13 weeks, or first trimester, of pregnancy.
How prosecutors will proceed remains unclear. Ms. Moore has not yet been indicted on the murder charge. In the hearing on Monday, Keith Higgins, the district attorney overseeing the case, said that his office “didn’t advise” the police on arresting Ms. Moore on the murder charge and that he was not steeped enough in the full details of the case to discuss it more extensively.
Mr. Higgins did not oppose the low bail amount, telling the judge, “Whatever bond the defendant can make that will allow her to get out of jail is appropriate.”
In brief interviews on Monday, Ms. Moore’s relatives acknowledged the uncertainty that has gripped her family since the arrest. “I’m just praying,” Teresa Soh, her grandmother, said. Still, they said they were relieved that she would be able to leave jail. Ms. Moore’s total bond was $2,001, including for two other lesser charges that she faces related to drug possession.
In a statement after the hearing, the Georgia Public Defender Council, whose lawyers represent Ms. Moore, said the outcome was a success.
“Today’s decision is a reminder that justice is not served by accusation alone,” the statement said. “Our system works best when courts carefully weigh the facts, uphold constitutional protections, and safeguard the rights of every person who comes before them.”
Ms. Moore was arrested in early March in Kingsland, Ga., a small city on the southern Georgia coast. According to court records, she told doctors and nurses that she had taken about eight pills of misoprostol, a typical dose of a drug that induces contractions. She also took oxycodone for the pain, the records said.
The charges against Ms. Moore did not specifically cite Georgia’s abortion ban, although the affidavit supporting the warrant did include language that echoed aspects of the ban, including saying that “the baby was well beyond six weeks of conception.” But the affidavit said that she was charged with murder because “the victim became a person at the moment of live birth.”
In most states, murder charges can be filed for the intentional killing of a newborn baby. But legal experts said the circumstances in Georgia did not appear to fit that description. Ms. Moore is accused of taking actions that were intended to terminate a pregnancy and happened before the child was born, said Mary Ziegler, a law professor and abortion expert at the University of California, Davis.
“It would be a really big deal to prosecute a woman for murder for abortion, which is what this amounts to,” Professor Ziegler said.
Misoprostol is a widely available drug that can be used for several conditions, including stomach ulcers and to help induce labor. In the typical medication abortion regimen, patients first take another drug, mifepristone, and then take misoprostol 24 to 48 hours later to induce contractions to expel the fetal tissue.
Misoprostol can be used on its own to terminate pregnancy, although that approach is considered somewhat less effective and more likely to cause side effects like nausea.
Mifepristone has been the focus of recent lawsuits filed by states with abortion bans, seeking to force the Food and Drug Administration to sharply restrict access to that pill. Misoprostol has not typically been highlighted in those lawsuits, partly because it has a range of other medical uses.
There have been cases in other states in which women who seek abortions have faced charges. Last November, a South Carolina woman was charged with attempted murder and unlawful neglect of a child. The police said she took a drug to induce contractions when she was 27 weeks pregnant. After the baby was born, the authorities said, she left it in the toilet while a family member called 911 and emergency responders took the infant, who was in critical condition, to the hospital. The case is ongoing.
In January, prosecutors in Kentucky announced that they had charged a woman with fetal homicide, saying that the she took abortion pills and buried the remains of what police described as a “developed male infant” in her backyard. Prosecutors later dropped the fetal homicide charge, saying that Kentucky’s law prohibited filing that charge against women seeking abortions. The woman continues to face charges of concealing the birth of an infant, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence.
The arrest records in the Georgia case said that the bottle of misoprostol that the police examined did not list a prescription number or a doctor’s name. That appeared to be the reason that Ms. Moore was also charged with misdemeanor drug possession. But an assistant public defender, Kelly Turner, said on Monday that the misoprostol was prescribed by a licensed physician and dispensed by an online licensed pharmacy.
Ms. Moore also faces a felony drug possession charge for also having oxycodone, which the arrest records said she also obtained without a prescription.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
6) Boston University Pulls Pride Flags, Raising Free Speech Worries
The university said the flags broke a rule against hanging signs, a policy embraced by other campuses that cracked down on protests. Professors and others say such rules chill speech.
By Alan Blinder, March 23, 2026
Boston University removed Pride flags from view on campus. Sophie Park for The New York Times
Boston University removed Pride flags that were displayed in campus buildings this month, angering professors who believe school leaders may be suppressing expression because they fear the Trump administration.
University officials have suggested the displays could imply the school endorses them, violating its pledge to be evenhanded with its standards around speech.
The university’s decision is a new skirmish in academia about campus expression, and it comes after more schools across the country embraced so-called neutrality policies, curbing the views they express publicly. Universities have also imposed more stringent limits on protests in the years since demonstrations over the war in Gaza rocked campuses.
But the debate in Boston involves flags, not encampments. According to the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the school temporarily removed at least three Pride flags, including one belonging to the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. That one was taken down and folded neatly during spring break.
Elsewhere on campus, Nathan Phillips, a physiological ecologist, said workers had twice taken down the flag he displayed in his office overlooking Commonwealth Avenue.
“I don’t think that any passerby that would glance up and happen to see this Pride flag in this random fourth-floor window would somehow think, ‘Oh, that’s B.U.’s official position,’” he said in an interview, adding, “I think it would be reasonable to think, ‘Oh, there's a person who is up there that is expressing that viewpoint.”
The First Amendment’s speech protections on their own do not apply at the private university, giving campus leaders more authority than some of their counterparts to determine what may be displayed on school property.
The university said in a statement that it “upholds a content-neutral policy” around campus expression and that “outward-facing signage moves speech from an individual perspective to an institutional perspective.”
Some professors nevertheless contend that the university unevenly enforces its policies since it has left undisturbed, for example, a flag celebrating Seattle’s National Hockey League franchise.
Susanne Sreedhar, the director of the women’s studies program, noted that the university acted weeks after a Trump administration directive led to the removal of a Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan.
“I would have thought they did not want to take any action which would associate them with that kind of homophobic response,” said Dr. Sreedhar, who said her program had rebuffed a university request last year to remove the flag. “But they did.”
The university said in its statement that “the suggestion that the university is singling out specific communities with this policy is untrue.” It added that officials were “committed to ensuring B.U. is an inclusive, welcoming and supportive place for the LGBTQIA+ community and for all people.”
Generations of students and professors alike have argued that American universities should be hubs of open debate and expression, though some critics of academia argue that campuses had lately grown far too intolerant.
Boston University has said it has “a responsibility to allow and safeguard the airing of the full spectrum of opinions on its campuses and to create an environment where ideas can be freely expressed and challenged.”
University policy prohibits “unattended placards, banners or other signs,” unless they are displayed at “a location that has been approved for posting.”
Dr. Phillips suggested that the university may be acting beyond the scope of its rules because he said he believed the policy applied to events. And other critics warned that although the First Amendment is not directly enforceable at the university, the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act bans “threats, intimidation or coercion” to interfere with a person’s federal or state rights.
In a letter last week to the university’s president, Dr. Melissa L. Gilliam, the co-presidents of the campus’s A.A.U.P. chapter urged an end to “selectively targeting speech that the Trump administration does not like.” The co-presidents, Mary Battenfeld and Joseph Harris, said Monday that Dr. Gilliam had not responded to the letter.
But there is some skepticism that White House worries fueled the university’s decision.
“This is not going to save Boston University if Trump decides to go after us,” Dr. Sreedhar said, noting that her program was in the process of developing an undergraduate major.
The university has grappled with the question of signage for decades and lost a legal battle in the 1980s over whether students could hang banners urging divestment. Other schools have faced similar debates.
The Harvard Crimson reported this month that Harvard officials, working not far across the Charles River from Boston University, had rewritten their guidance to allow the public display of signs from private areas, such as offices. Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, whose offerings include the university’s undergraduate programs, had drawn criticism last year over the forced removal of a Black Lives Matter display that could be seen from the outside.
Dr. Phillips and Dr. Sreedhar said Monday that the Pride flags had gone on display again. So far, they said, they had gone untouched.
Dr. Sreedhar added that her program had bought other Pride flags in case university officials confiscate theirs.
“We have a nice stockpile,” she said.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
7) Young Graduates Face the Grimmest Job Market in Years
Artificial intelligence could reshape work, but for now a low-hire, low-fire labor market is the main impediment for young people seeking employment.
By Sydney Ember, March 24, 2026
In January, an administrator from the career center at the University of Delaware posed a question on a private message board for educators: “Has anyone else noticed a decrease in employer fair registration for their spring events?”
Responses came swiftly.
“We are definitely seeing similar issues!”
“It seems the current environment is not conducive to hiring.”
“The struggle is real.”
The forum, which included administrators from schools across the country, encapsulated the intense anxiety gripping college students, recent graduates and virtually everyone else who knows anyone preparing to start a career.
They have reason to worry: This is the worst spring for young degree holders since the depths of the pandemic.
The unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 soared to 5.6 percent at the end of last year, according to an analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, up sharply over the past three years and outstripping the overall rate of 4.2 percent at the time. For those who were employed, more than 40 percent held jobs that do not typically require college degrees, the highest level since 2020.
“The appetite for hiring is definitely decreasing,” said Alli Goossens, the assistant director of employer engagement at North Dakota State University. Fewer employers attended the school’s spring career fair, she said, and some told her it was because they were being more conservative in their recruiting.
“It was just reduced hiring numbers,” she said. “They just weren’t hiring quite as many.”
The diminished prospects for young graduates are colliding with questions over whether artificial intelligence is destroying the kinds of jobs they have long sought. Fueling those concerns have been dire warnings from A.I. leaders including Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, who predicted the technology could obliterate half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. A report in November from the Stanford Digital Economy Lab found “substantial declines in employment for early-career workers” in fields that were most vulnerable to A.I., such as software development.
Although A.I. may be replacing some entry-level jobs on the margins, there is little evidence it is the main culprit — at least not yet. Rather, many economists believe employment challenges for young people with college degrees stem more from the “low hire, low fire” dynamics in the labor market.
Job openings have been trending down and are below prepandemic levels even as layoffs have remained low. A result has been a broad hiring stasis among employers that has hurt all new entrants to the labor market, a group that includes young workers with college degrees — and those without them.
“There’s just a general slowdown in hiring and less churn,” said Adam Ozimek, the chief economist at the Economic Innovation Group, a nonpartisan think tank. “And so those who need their first jobs are probably disproportionately affected.”
Erin Torres, 22, graduated in December from Barnard College in New York with a degree in psychology. When she started looking for jobs, she aspired to work in product management at a technology company.
She has broadened her search to include all manner of entry-level corporate jobs and business analyst roles. In the past two months, she said, she had applied to close to 200 jobs and had gotten four interviews.
“Things don’t necessarily come to me easily, but I was hoping that at this stage, I would have something lined up,” Ms. Torres said.
She is living with her parents in Huntington, N.Y., to save money. She has been working part time as a hostess at Gastronomy, a restaurant at a Saks Fifth Avenue on Long Island, though she recently learned the department store location is closing.
Searching for a job has been so dispiriting that she has started seeing a therapist, she said. She is thinking about starting her own company because, she has taken to joking, it might be easier than joining a company that already exists. She hopes companies might hire more vigorously as the year goes on.
“If I really cannot find anything, I am just going to go haywire,” she said.
Young workers tend to suffer more during economic downturns, in part because companies become less willing to hire inexperienced, entry-level employees. During the aftermath of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for people in their early to mid-20s spiked higher than 16 percent. The pandemic brought an even bigger surge in joblessness, though young people benefited once the economy reopened and employers raced to fill open positions.
Recent graduates generally fare better than people without degrees in periods of weak hiring, and this moment is no different. While the gap has narrowed in recent years, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates remains lower than for all young workers. Young people with college degrees remain more likely to be employed and to have higher paying jobs.
“As much as people are concerned about the current state for young grads, the encouraging news is we have been here before,” said Grace Zwemmer, an economist at Oxford Economics, an advisory firm.
Still, the increase in joblessness for recent college graduates against the backdrop of the A.I. revolution has incited a unique frenzy of speculation on its root cause.
“It’s sort of like a murder mystery of what is responsible for the weakening of the labor market for college graduates,” said Luke Pardue, policy director at the Aspen Institute’s Economic Strategy Group.
A possible contributing factor is that the labor market’s cool-down in the past few years has been concentrated in industries that generally attract young graduates, including technology, media, accounting and consulting. More people are also graduating with college degrees, heightening the competition for entry-level white-collar jobs.
Some economists have hypothesized that the challenging labor market for young degree holders could be the outcrop of a longer-term demographic shift that is making it more difficult for them to procure white-collar jobs.
Since the 1970s, the share of older workers in the labor force, particularly in private-sector white-collar jobs, has grown as life expectancy has increased and Americans have worked longer, Mr. Pardue said. That has created congestion in the workplace, resulting in less progression for mid- and early-career employees who would otherwise have moved up the job ladder when more senior workers retired. Without as much movement in their ranks, many businesses found they did not need to replace as many entry-level workers.
“As the U.S. population has aged, older workers are continuing to hold on to their positions,” Mr. Pardue said. “That is now showing up in terms of diminished job prospects for younger workers.”
In limbo are soon-to-be graduates.
On campuses nationwide, counselors are advising students to apply liberally to jobs. At Temple University in Philadelphia, the career center recently hosted an ask-me-anything-style gathering where students could air their worries about the job market. Washington University in St. Louis held a session for job seekers in late February on the subject of resilience.
Taleah Reyes, 22, initially decided not to go to college after graduating from high school with an associate degree. Born and raised in central Florida, she got her own apartment and took a full-time job at a theme park in Orlando.
Two years later, enticed by the prospect that a higher degree would open doors to more opportunities, she enrolled at Rollins College, a private liberal arts school in Winter Park, Fla. She started studying art history, which felt like a natural extension of her love of art, writing and research.
She continued to work part time at the theme park, where she operates rides. But with graduation approaching in May, she has also been applying to fellowships and internships at art museums, a library and a magazine.
“It’s been a lot of rejection,” she said. “The field is so competitive.”
It seems like more people with advanced degrees are looking at lower-level positions they previously would have ignored, she said, perhaps because the job market is so tough. Positions that used to be reserved for undergraduates suddenly are requiring a master’s degree.
Ms. Reyes said she was considering other fields, including library science. A supervisor has suggested that she could go into publishing or copywriting. Someday, she said, she could get a master’s degree.
Her fallback is to return to her theme park job full time, making $20 an hour.
“I went to school to further my career and to have some sense of personal fulfillment,” she said. “And then I’m leaving again to enter a job I previously had.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
