Demand Progress

Tell Congress: Don’t let Trump arrest people indefinitely during the COVID-19 pandemic!

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    Tell Congress: Don’t let Trump arrest people indefinitely during the COVID-19 pandemic!

    Petition to Congress:
    Our Constitution is clear that every has the right to appear before a judge when charged with a crime. Do not, under any circumstances, allow Donald Trump and his administration to detain people indefinitely.

    Donald Trump and his top goon in the DOJ, William Barr, is requesting that Congress allow them to suspend constitutional rights during the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Specifically, they want to be able to detain people indefinitely, whether or not they’ve even been charged with a crime.

    Tell Congress: Do not allow Donald Trump and William Barr to detain people indefinitely under any circumstances!

    Trump and William Barr are specifically asking Congress to suspend habeas corpus. It’s one of our core constitutional rights and the bedrock of our legal system that gives every individual the right to appear before a judge and hear the charges against them. If there are no valid charges, then the detained person must be released.

    Habeas corpus, and other similar rights, are the foundation of free society, and Trump wants to suspend for who knows how long.

    This is unprecedented, far out-of-bounds, and will do nothing to affect the spread of COVID-19. Instead, this will allow the Trump administration full power to lock up anyone they want, for any reason they want, indefinitely.

    Essentially, Trump’s DOJ is asking Congress to turn all of the United States into Guantanamo Bay.

    Tell Congress: Do not, under any circumstances, give William Barr the power to detain people indefinitely.

     

    Sources:
    1. Rolling Stone, “DOJ Wants to Suspend Certain Constitutional Rights During Coronavirus Emergency,” March 21, 2020.