Floods
Week of July 4-10, 2025
Welcome to TRACKING THE CRISIS, a weekly round-up from The Democracy Collaborative tracking the administrative, legislative, and other actions of the Trump Administration as well as the many forms of legal and movement response from across a broad range of social, political, and economic actors. TDC is providing this service for collective informational purposes, as a tool for understanding the times during a period of disorientingly rapid flux and change in the U.S. political economy. TDC should not be understood as endorsing or otherwise any of the specific content of the information round-up.
TRUMP TRACKER: Administration actions
Response to deadly flash floods in Texas under scrutiny in first major stress test of federal disaster management after DOGE’s mass layoffs and cuts. Beginning in the early hours of Friday, July 4, flash floods on the Guadalupe River inundated areas of Kerr County, Texas, resulting in over 100 dead and 173 missing, including at least 27 girls from Camp Mystic, a well-loved summer camp that had operated for decades along the river. Flood warnings did not appear to reach people in the area on time, resulting in the heightened loss of life. Texas officials blamed the National Weather Service for failing to forecast the amount of rain that fell overnight on the 4th, which has caused speculation around the role of DOGE’s layoffs and cuts from federal agencies in critical response gaps during the early hours of the disaster. While DOGE has cut at least 600 positions at the National Weather Service, officials who spoke to Wired magazine revealed that NWS did in fact issue timely flash flood warnings at around 1:00 AM and a more urgent warning at 4:30 AM, but local warning systems did not inform residents until hours later, when notices went out on Facebook at around 5:00 AM. Nonetheless, sources shared with the New York Times that NWS staffing shortages in other areas, including fine-tuning of forecasts and coordination with local officials, may have contributed to delays in early response. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro both called for a probe into the role of staffing shortages in what could have been a preventable loss of life. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has come under fire for critical delays in FEMA response, as a new DHS policy enacted last month required all contracts over $100,000 to be personally approved by Noem. CNN reported that Noem did not sign authorizations for key FEMA resources for Texas, such as search and rescue teams and emergency relief centers, until four days after the disaster; and later used FEMA’s ‘slow response’ as a justification for gutting the agency. Critics also point out that David Richardson, acting FEMA commissioner, has been ‘MIA’ and has not given any public or internal communications since the disaster. Trump announced he would tour the disaster area on Friday, July 11.
While not the first natural disaster to have occurred under the second Trump administration, this week’s Texas disaster is the first major stress test of the Trump Administration’s hands-off approach to disaster management, and is being considered a harbinger of things to come as climate change compounds the frequency and severity of natural disasters. On June 24, the Defense Department announced that it will stop sharing its weather satellite data with scientists and local meteorological agencies; Trump has announced plans to phase out FEMA after this year’s hurricane season and leave disaster management to the states, and in April shuttered FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities grant program for local-level disaster preparedness. A FEMA internal memo in May outlined the high risk of cuts to ‘disrupting life-saving’ disaster relief; and just one day before the disaster, the Texas Observer published an extensive article outlining the potential impact of a FEMA phaseout to Texas’ disaster-prone areas, which have experienced 68 billion-dollar natural disasters since 2020. Kerr County, situated in one of the most flash flood-prone areas in the country, had apparently discussed building early-warning systems such as sirens for years, but had not been successful in receiving adequate funding from FEMA or state sources. Mother Jones points out that Sen. Ted Cruz, who was yet again on vacation when the disaster struck his state, approved deep cuts to NOAA weather forecasting systems as well as FEMA in the recently passed budget bill. Several states and cities that have already experienced disasters, such as California and St. Louis, are still waiting for FEMA recovery funding; Trump has threatened to withhold California wildfire funding due to his feud with Governor Gavin Newsom over ICE raids. The Revolving Door Project has published an interactive map of where Trump has denied or delayed FEMA resources, as well as an extensive timeline of the Trump Administration’s attacks on federal disaster preparedness and response systems.
Trump pushes back tariff deadline to August 1st, reinforcing his ‘TACO’ reputation. As the July 9th deadline for Trump’s reciprocal tariffs loomed, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced on Monday, July 7 that the tariff deadline would be pushed back to August 1st, after key officials such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent convinced Trump to allow more time for trade deals to be reached. Bessent said to CNN that the Trump Administration plans to send letters to 100 countries warning them that the high ‘reciprocal’ tariffs announced in April will commence on August 1st if they have not yet made a deal with the United States. On Truth Social, Trump posted letters to 14 countries including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Bangladesh threatening tariffs between 25 and 40 percent if they do not reach a deal by August 1st. In the time since Trump touted his ambitious ‘90 deals in 90 days’ promise in April, so far only two ‘framework’ agreements have been signed, with the UK and Vietnam, as well as a limited deal with China after a round of tariff brinksmanship last month; the EU and Japan are also actively negotiating deals with Bessent. Vietnam, to its surprise, was hit with a 20 percent tariff in Trump’s announcement, which is not what they had negotiated in their preliminary agreement. On Tuesday, July 8, Trump announced a 50% tariff on copper, and floated the threat of a 200% tariff on imported pharmaceuticals, sending pharma stocks tumbling. Wall Street held steady on the tariff news as investors hedged on Trump’s ‘TACO’ (Trump Always Chickens Out) reputation, igniting pushback from Trump as he insisted that the deadline ‘had always been’ August 1st.
Trump threatens new round of tariffs against BRICS and rival nations, including 50% tariffs against Brazil in retaliation for prosecution of Bolsonaro. The geopolitical dimensions of Trump’s trade war also became evident as his new tariff announcements put Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Asian diplomatic tour in a bind. Trump also threatened an additional 10% tariff on the BRICS group of nations this week, whom he called ‘anti-American’ after the group criticized Trump’s ‘unilateral’ trade policies as well as Israel’s wars on Iran and Gaza at this week’s BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro. On Wednesday, July 9, Trump targeted Brazil with a 50% tariff threat over its prosecution of former president and Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro, which Trump called a ‘witch hunt.’ Brazilian president Lula da Silva responded defiantly to the trade threat, vowing to reciprocate the tariffs and saying Brazil ‘will not accept any form of tutelage’ from the United States. Many experts noted that the United States runs a trade surplus with Brazil, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary; analyst George Peakes intimated that the tariff threat was thus an attempt to ‘overthrow Brazil’s domestic political institutions’. Late Thursday, July 10, Trump also threatened a 35% tariff on Canada, escalating his trade dispute with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who noted that the Canadian government “has steadfastly defended our workers and businesses” in trade negotiations and “will continue to do so.” As Trump’s tariffs and tax bill begin to reshape the U.S. economy, consumers are already feeling the impacts as retailers raise prices in preparation for higher import costs; the Tax Policy Center released a report this week warning that the ‘historically high’ tariffs will damage the economy.
Military vehicles, troops sweep Los Angeles’ Macarthur Park in show of force for ICE, as local economies suffer from climate of fear. On Monday, July 7, dozens of National Guard troops and ICE agents in tactical gear with horses, armored vehicles and assault rifles descended on Macarthur Park, a historic open space in a densely populated immigrant neighborhood in the heart of Los Angeles known as the ‘Ellis Island of the West Coast’. The park was nearly empty at the time, as the community had been tipped off about a potential raid the day before; and it is unknown if any arrests were made. Children attending a summer camp in the park were rushed indoors so as not to be traumatized, as protestors showed up to decry and document the heavily militarized operation. Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass reportedly pulled over in her car on the way to City Hall and rushed to the scene, demanding to speak with officials in charge; she later said in an impromptu press conference that the park “looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation… the way a city looks before a coup.” As local media pressed DHS for answers as to the nature of the operation, journalist Ken Klippenstein obtained and published leaked Army documents from what the military dubbed ‘Operation Excalibur,’ a military ‘show of presence’ ostensibly intended to intimidate immigrant residents as well as city officials. After speaking with Bass at the scene, Border Patrol officer Gregory Bovino reportedly told Fox News: “Better get used to us now, 'cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles." The incident sparked outrage from local and state officials, who decried the operation as a ‘reality TV spectacle’; California governor Gavin Newsom denounced it as a ‘disgrace.’ Speaking to CalMatters, Mayor Bass characterized the operation as “an experiment in the seizure of power” as border czar Tom Homan vowed to crack down on ‘sanctuary’ cities such as Los Angeles and New York. Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville called on DHS to arrest Mayor Bass and Trump threatened progressive NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani with denaturalization and deportation, as the Justice Department announced plans to aggressively pursue denaturalization for citizens who allegedly “pose a danger to national security.” Axios reports on the mounting accusations of racial profiling in Los Angeles, where an ACLU lawsuit described ICE agents as approaching ‘individuals with brown skin’ with ‘no warrants of any kind.’ Many U.S. citizens have already been detained by ICE, including Andrea Velez, a citizen who was reportedly ‘snatched off her feet’ by ICE on the way to work; a 71-year-old grandmother who showed up to document arrests at a San Diego courthouse; and two day labor advocates staffing a labor center at a Home Depot in Van Nuys; as well as Atlanta journalist Mario Guevara, who remains in custody after his family posted bond but was refused by ICE. CNN reports on how parts of Los Angeles now look like ‘ghost towns’ as immigrant workers and families hide in their homes for fear of being abducted; and the Guardian reports on crops unharvested and left to rot in the fields as frightened farmworkers stay home. Politico reports on how economic sectors heavily reliant on immigrant labor have begun to falter, sending ripple effects throughout the larger economy. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute describes how over 5 million jobs held by both immigrants and U.S.-born citizens may be lost as a result of the collapse of heavily immigrant-reliant sectors; and the Federal Reserve of Dallas estimates that U.S. GDP may fall by a full percentage point in 2025 due to the crackdown on immigrant workers. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested at an event on Tuesday that farm jobs lost through mass deportations could be taken by the 34 million ‘able-bodied’ Medicaid recipients now facing new work requirements through the Trump budget bill.
$178 billion allocation to immigration enforcement in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful’ budget bill raises concerns over the creation of a national police state. The budget mega-bill signed into law last week includes nearly $178 billion to the Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda – a budget larger than every other law enforcement agency in the U.S. combined, and larger than every military budget in the world except for the U.S. and China. JD Vance stated on X that “Everything else – the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy – is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions.” Approximately $30 billion is set to go directly to ICE operations, where DHS aims to hire another 10,000 agents with generous signup bonuses (though, as NBC News reports, ICE has been struggling to fill its 1,000 existing open positions). Another $45 billion will go towards no-bid contracts for private prison companies like CoreCivic and GeoGroup to build and run new detention facilities, doubling ICE’s detention capacity to hold over 100,000 people. Mother Jones reports that while touring ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ last week, Trump signaled his approval of Governor DeSantis’ plan to use National Guard officers as immigration judges in the state of Florida. Leaked documents show that the operating budget for the newly opened detention facility in the Everglades has already ballooned to over $600 million, despite detainees reporting ‘sickening’ conditions such as lack of access to hygiene resources and ‘food with worms in it’. Another $6 billion in the bill will go towards border security and surveillance, also provided by private contractors; the bill stipulates guidelines for ‘fully autonomous’ border surveillance towers that appear crafted specifically towards military contractor Anduril, the only company that manufactures equipment with that capability. 404 Media outlines how ICE is purchasing data from a medical insurance and billing company to search for deportation targets. Truthout reports on how U.S. universities have become laboratories for testing and deploying surveillance technology, particularly on student protestors. Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps published an opinion piece on MSNBC this week urging media and the public to use the term ‘concentration camp’ to describe facilities like Alligator Alcatraz, highlighting the gravity of the situation. The New Republic’s Greg Sargent interviewed Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg to discuss the implications of ICE’s supercharged military arrest operations for democracy and daily life in the United States going forward.
Supreme Court allows Trump Administration to resume mass firings, layoffs at federal agencies. On Tuesday, July 8, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump Administration to resume mass layoffs and firings at federal agencies, lifting a lower court order issued in May that paused the sweeping federal layoffs enacted by DOGE. Reductions in force can now resume at nineteen federal agencies, including the State Department and Social Security Administration, as well as the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs, while litigation against the cuts filed by labor unions proceeds. While votes on earlier Supreme Court rulings fell along party lines, liberal justices Sotomayor and Kagan sided with the Trump Administration on this ruling, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson casting the lone dissenting vote. In her 15-page dissenting opinion, Jackson slammed her fellow colleagues on the Court for their ‘hubristic’ and ‘senseless’ decision, calling it “puzzling, and ultimately disheartening, given the extraordinary risk of harm that today’s ruling immediately unleashes… mass employee terminations, widespread cancellation of federal programs and services, and the dismantling of much of the Federal Government as Congress has created it.” Former conservative federal judge J. Michael Luttig similarly criticized his former colleague John Roberts for his ‘unforgivable reticence’ vis-a-vis the Trump Administration. Many federal workers were left fearful and despondent after the decision, bracing themselves for imminent layoffs, while others, ‘anxious and exhausted,’ still held out hope that legal challenges would prevail. The Hill outlines the details and implications of the ruling for planned reductions in force (RIFs) at federal agencies. Less than 24 hours after the ruling, NASA announced layoffs of 2,145 employees, many of whom comprise the managerial and scientific backbone of the agency’s core mission areas. NASA scientists spoke to the Planetary Society outlining the stakes of the nearly 45% cut at the agency, while former NASA administrators told the Washington Post that the cuts all but guarantee a U.S. ‘brain drain’ and China’s dominance in the space race. Late Thursday, July 10, the State Department began layoffs of over 1,300 employees, part of its push to cut the workforce by 15% and reorganize the agency in accordance with the new priorities of Marco Rubio and the Trump Administration. Slate reviews DOGE layoffs and cuts across federal agencies, illustrating how the cuts will affect the everyday experience of federal services in the United States.
Tracking the Money: insider trading, revolving doors, and disappearing evidence at the DOJ. More indications of insider trading following Trump Administration actions surfaced this week as Pennsylvania Rep. Robert Bresnahan was shamed by Congressional colleagues this week for unloading a Medicaid-related stock just before voting for the Big Beautiful Budget bill that enacted deep cuts to the program. On social media, hedge fund manager Spencer Hakimian posted data showing an unknown investor making large currency trades, shorting the Brazilian real at the same time Trump announced a 50% tariff on the country and making a 25-50% profit off the news in less than three hours. As House Republicans prepare for “Crypto Week,” teeing up votes on three industry-backed bills, the Revolving Door Project outlines how the industry has ‘bought up’ more and more legislators inside the Beltway through a number of industry-friendly appointments. Sludge reports on Kyle Kunker, a soybean industry lobbyist and pesticide advocate who was just appointed as the top EPA regulator overseeing pesticides and a core part of the Make America Healthy Again agenda. Popular Information reports on the recent FCC decision to lift a ban on prison price gouging, allowing private prison contractors like CoreCivic and the Geo Group, both top donors to the Trump campaign and inauguration funds, to charge as much as $11.90 for a 15-minute phone call. On Monday, July 7, the IRS reversed a long-standing rule against political endorsements by tax-exempt organizations for churches, saying religious organizations can now make explicit political endorsements from the pulpit in a win for the evangelical Right. Attorney General Pam Bondi was the subject of journalistic scrutiny this week for several reasons, the most notable being the announcement from the DOJ and FBI that the Jeffrey Epstein case file did not include his notorious ‘client list’ (which allegedly included Donald Trump) and stating conclusively that Epstein died by suicide. Bondi’s Epstein announcement was met with dismay from other Trump officials and many in the MAGA grassroots, for whom Epstein’s death remains the subject of a popular conspiracy theory. In addition to the disappearing Epstein evidence, several SEC investigations into Bondi’s former client Pfizer also mysteriously disappeared, according to the company’s quarterly report as examined by the Miami Herald. Legal commentator Steve Vladeck also reports on Bondi’s ‘secret letters’ to the tech industry made public via FOIA this week that outline her interpretation of Trump’s unitary executive power, asserting Trump’s right to “‘dispense’ with application of whichever laws he wanted, for whatever reasons he wanted, in whatever cases he wanted.”
MOVEMENT TRACKER
Upcoming farmworker strike #HuelgaParaLaDignidad / #StrikeForDignity announced on social media. This week, plans for a national farmworker strike were announced on social media under the hashtags #HuelgaParaLaDignidad or #StrikeForDignity. According to a press release circulated by Flor Martinez Zaragoza, a social media influencer and community organizer, the strike is “the first digital, community-led, and undocumented-led farmworker strike of its kind” and will take place sometime in July, demanding an end to ICE raids and deportations, a ‘direct and immediate’ path to citizenship for farmworkers, and permanent protection and pathways to citizenship for all undocumented people in the United States. This week’s announcements are intended to prepare the public for potential food shortages by encouraging them to purchase produce in advance of the strike, and garner public support in advance of the labor action. The starting date for the strike has been kept secret (according to the release, to ‘limit retaliation’ against strikers) and will be announced two days before the strike commences at press conferences in Bakersfield and Los Angeles. Supporters are also encouraged to sign the petition demanding protection of essential workers sponsored by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which has gained over 161,000 signatures as of this writing.
Coalition of LA community groups call for boycott of Home Depot to demand an end to ICE raids at store locations. Los Angeles-based organization Unión del Barrio, in coalition with General Strike Los Angeles, Community Self Defense Coalition LA and 40 other community groups, have called for a boycott of Home Depot this week over the company’s lack of response after its stores have been targeted for numerous ICE raids throughout Southern California. In a press conference announcing the boycott on July 3rd, organizers demanded that Home Depot – in whose parking lots day laborers in Los Angeles have traditionally found work – denounce the ICE raids on its property and provide safe spaces for day laborers. Longtime LA organizer John Parker, in his role as coordinator for the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, connected undocumented workers’ current struggles with those in Gaza as well as the multiple issues faced by communities under the Trump Administration, urging solidarity against “the same enemy” and to organize toward a general strike. Supporters are urged to sign the petition endorsing the boycott as well. It must be noted that a separate boycott of Home Depot announced by the online account People’s Union USA in protest of its DEI rollbacks, which has garnered more mainstream media attention and a response from the company, is not affiliated with the Los Angeles-based action.
Filling the gaps in the absence of FEMA, mutual aid groups and #RebelFEMA employees mobilize for Texas flood relief and disaster preparedness efforts. In the wake of FEMA’s delayed response to the deadly Texas floods this week, community-based mutual aid groups are stepping into the breach with flood relief efforts. Austin Mutual Aid, an affiliate of Mutual Aid Disaster Relief which has been on the ground since day one, is posting daily updates on Instagram with community needs and how to help. The protest group Hands Off Central TX has pivoted to coordinating resources for mutual aid in the flood zone and raising funds to support flood survivors. World Central Kitchen is also on the ground providing meals for survivors and first responders. The Community Foundation for Texas Hill Country is also raising funds and providing links to other community-based efforts. Federal workers on the #RebelFEMA account frustrated by Noem’s control of FEMA response have also spoken out to share their thoughts on disaster management as well as their fears that the DHS will be ‘weaponizing’ disaster aid for political purposes. Disaster management professional Carrie Speranza shares some tips for community preparedness; and Grist Magazine has published a comprehensive ‘Disaster 101’ primer to educate communities not only on how to prepare for disasters, but to know their rights in the event of a federal disaster declaration.
Federal workers at science agencies step up resistance to Trump Administration cuts through public declarations of dissent. On the heels of the Bethesda Declaration, a statement signed by nearly 500 NIH staffers decrying the cuts and changes to the organization enacted by DOGE and the Trump Administration, workers at other federal science agencies have followed suit with statements of resistance. At the EPA, 140 staffers were suspended following their release of an open ‘Declaration of Dissent’ denouncing what they view as Lee Zeldin’s politicized directives as well as appointments of industry insiders. The declaration has now been signed by over 600 staffers, and Stand Up for Science has released a public petition demanding the reinstatement of the suspended workers that has garnered over 9,000 signatures as of this writing. Workers at the National Science Foundation have released their own ‘Alexandria Declaration’ outlining eight ‘charges of dissent’ including staff cuts, the decimation of NSF funding in the Trump budget bill, as well as taking aim at OMB head Russell Vought, co-author of Project 2025, for withholding $2.2 billion in appropriated grant funds without Congressional approval. Federal scientists staged a ‘Science Fair of Canceled Grants’ in the foyer of the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill this week to call attention to some of the important scientific and medical research that has been halted due to Trump Administration cuts. As the Trump Administration continues its purge of climate-related research and information from government websites, a group of scientists are fighting to save the National Climate Assessment project by archiving past reports and organizing to continue research and publication of the NCA independently.
National Education Association votes to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, as labor unions mobilize to resist the Trump agenda. In a ‘momentous vote’ at the National Education Association’s annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, the 7,000-member Representative Assembly, the official policymaking body of the NEA, voted to cut all ties with the pro-Zionist Anti-Defamation League, resolving that union teachers “will not use, endorse, or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or statistics.” Union delegates rejected the ADL’s ‘abuse’ of the term ‘antisemitism’ to retaliate against criticisms of Israel, and cited its history of suppressing anti-racist movements such as the anti-apartheid and Black Lives Matter movements. The NEA also passed multiple resolutions opposing the Trump Administration on education policies and the politicized withholding of funds, as well as a resolution supporting students’ right to dissent against fascist content in educational materials. The New Republic reports on the ‘exodus’ of teachers that have their jobs in red states in the wake of MAGA-inspired state and federal policies; and the Illinois teachers’ union staged a protest this week against the Trump Administration’s withholding of $200 million in educational funds from the state. The AFL-CIO issued a full-page ad in the New York Times this week, endorsed by over 140+ labor organizations, denouncing the Trump budget bill’s gutting of social services from Medicaid to SNAP as well as education; and announced a nationwide bus tour scheduled for Labor Day weekend to ‘rev up’ labor mobilizations against the bill. The International Longshoremen’s Association and International Dockworkers Council announced a global meeting of longshore unions to “collectively strategize, share experiences, and strengthen our united front against the rise of job replacing automation.” The meeting is set to take place in Lisbon from November 5-6 of this year.
Military servicemembers are taking a stand against the Trump Administration’s deployment of troops on U.S. soil, as State Department workers organize to protest renewed layoffs. Truthout reports that calls to the National GI Rights Hotline and conscientious objector claims have surged following Trump’s deployment of National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles. On Independence Day, military servicemembers and veterans with the group About Face launched the ‘Right to Refuse’ campaign asserting the right to refuse unlawful or immoral orders, urging Congress to pass legislation enacting stronger protections for soldiers who dissent. Immediately following the State Department’s announcement of 1,300 layoffs, workers at the State Department have mobilized a #StateRIFWatch protest for the afternoon of Friday, July 11. The American Federation of Government Employees has vowed to continue to fight federal layoffs as well as Trump Administration reorganizations at the agency level.
Upcoming protests, actions, and events.
July 16, July 30, August 13: The No Kings coalition is holding three successive online trainings for organizers as part of its “One Million Rising: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism” campaign. More information and a signup form can be found at this link.
Tuesday, July 15: The Electronic Frontier Foundation and local partners in Colorado are hosting an online teach-in on ICE’s use of the Flock surveillance network. More information can be found on the event flyer, and the event will be streamed live at bit.ly/FLOCKteachin.
Thursday, July 17: The No Kings coalition has called for a ‘Good Trouble Lives On’ Day of Action on the anniversary of John Lewis’ passing. More information and a map of local actions can be found at https://goodtroubleliveson.org/.
July 17 - July 20: The American Association of University Professors is hosting their Summer Institute for higher education activists in Atlanta, GA. More information and registration can be found on the AAUP website.
Summer 2025: Stand Up for Science has called for organizing a variety of local actions as part of its Summer Fight for Science in America. More information, an organizer toolkit and a map of local actions can be found at https://act.standupforscience.net/event_campaigns/summer-fight.
Lawsuit Updates.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante placed a new nationwide block on Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship by certifying a class-action lawsuit against the administration by civil rights groups on behalf of U.S.-born children or future children whose automatic citizenship could be jeopardized by the president’s executive order, fulfilling the requirements for a nationwide injunction as set by last week’s Supreme Court decision.
Columbia pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil filed a $20 million lawsuit seeking damages against the Trump Administration, alleging that he was “falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite” as the government sought to deport him over his prominent role in campus protests. Khalil was held for over three months in ICE detention as a result of his campus activism in support of Palestine, touching off a nationwide struggle over the Trump Administration’s targeting of colleges and campus protests.
The American Association of University Professors’ lawsuit against Marco Rubio and the Trump Administration challenging the deportations of international students and faculty went to trial this week. The AAUP will post updates on the case via social media.
The City of Los Angeles and several other local governments filed a motion this week to join a lawsuit attempting to stop the Trump Administration’s militarized ICE raids in Southern California. The original lawsuit, filed last week by the ACLU of Southern California, Public Counsel and several immigrant rights groups, claims that “the region is ‘under siege’ by federal agents and aims to stop federal agencies from an ‘ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law’ during immigration raids.”
The Supreme Court ruled against an extreme Florida law that criminalizes entry of undocumented migrants into the state. Out of seven states that have passed similar laws, four have been blocked by lower courts and the SCOTUS ruling reinforces those decisions.
Bloomberg reports on the lower-court judges who have continued to find ways to block Trump Administration orders despite the Supreme Court’s recent decision against nationwide injunctions. Judges are “relying on alternative options offered by the justices to stop government conduct,” including class-action certification and use of the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
