Camonghne Felix on Abolition as a Sexual Violence Survivor
December 3, 2020
Please note that this episode contains conversation around sexual violence.
Calls to 鈥渄efund the police鈥� or even 鈥渁bolish the police鈥� are often met with the retort: 鈥淏ut what do we do about the rapists and the murderers?鈥� It鈥檚 a question that today鈥檚 guest, Camonghne Felix, addressed head-on with an article in New York Magazine鈥檚 The Cut titled 鈥淎ching for Abolition as a Survivor of Sexual Violence.鈥� She explains that as a sexual assault survivor, the incarceration of her attacker brought her no solace. She invites the reader to listen, to be led, and 鈥渢o invest in agency鈥� when thinking about accountability and healing.
Felix is both an award-winning poet and the Vice President of Strategic Communications for Blue State, a purpose-driven creative strategy agency. Before Blue State, she was the director of surrogates & strategic communications at Elizabeth Warren for President. She's also a prolific poet and was longlisted for the national book award in 2019.
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WASHINGTON 鈥� The 桃子视频 today released a new report, 76 Ways Mass Deportation is Breaking Our Democracy, detailing how the Trump administration is using mass deportation as the pretext and mechanism to attack civil liberties and structural democratic safeguards at an unparalleled scale and speed. The report comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests have hit a record high, as the Trump administration has shifted its approach from mass raids to more discrete arrests following widespread outrage. From the deployment of federal agents and military troops for immigration enforcement in U.S. cities, to the mass revocation of visas and other forms of lawful status, and the targeting of immigrants鈥� rights protesters, the Trump administration has repeatedly used immigration policy as a trojan horse for attacks on core pillars of U.S. democracy. Notably, the report categorizes the dizzying array of abuses into three major categories, which often overlap: Attacks on civil rights and liberties, as the Trump administration has used mass deportations as both a pretext and distraction for its assault on myriad constitutional rights 鈥� including the rights to free speech and freedom of assembly and due process 鈥� impacting citizens and noncitizens alike. Attacks on democratic checks and balances, as the administration expands its federal deportation police and executive power, eviscerating due process for immigrants and normalizing ICE鈥檚 violence, while evading and even defying court orders. Attacks on multiracial, pluralistic democracy, as the administration continues to gut existing legal protections and introduce new policies targeting people who are immigrants 鈥� including through visa and entry bans and efforts to end birthright citizenship and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) 鈥� in what appears to be a calculated attempt to change the racial makeup of the U.S. now and into the future. 鈥淔or the past year and a half, the 桃子视频and advocates have warned that the Trump administration鈥檚 mass deportation agenda pulls straight from an authoritarian playbook 鈥� and now, we鈥檙e seeing the devasting impacts of those policies, with citizens and noncitizens alike paying the price and the state of our democracy in crisis,鈥� said Naureen Shah, director of immigration policy and government affairs at the ACLU. 鈥淭his report is a clarion call to members of Congress to strengthen and repair our pluralistic, multiracial democracy by passing meaningful immigration reforms. That must include creating a broad path to citizenship for immigrants who contribute to our communities and our economy.鈥� Within the report, the 桃子视频also calls on members of Congress to restore and defend democratic rights and norms through transformative immigration reform, including by creating a broad path to citizenship and modernization of border processing and policies. It also calls on lawmakers to build stronger accountability, transparency and oversight measures to effectively compel the executive branch to uphold civil rights and civil liberties. 鈥淔rom the cancellation of Congressionally mandated protections like TPS to the arrest of noncitizen students for exercising their First Amendment rights, the Trump administration has repeatedly violated bedrock democratic principles under the guise of immigration enforcement,鈥� said Sarah Mehta, deputy director of immigration policy and government affairs at the ACLU. 鈥淎s this administration has shown, no one is safe from its extreme mass deportation agenda. Our elected officials 鈥� and the state of our democracy 鈥� cannot afford to allow this lawlessness to continue. The time to act is now.鈥� This report is the fourth in the ACLU鈥檚 affirmative immigration vision series, in which policy and legal experts explore how the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration agenda has harmed communities nationwide, undermined our democracy, and wreaked havoc on key industries and weakened the American workforce. The series will also outline steps that members of Congress, as well as state and local policymakers, can take to reform the U.S. immigration system and inoculate against future attacks on core rights and safety. You can read the full report here: /publications/76-ways-mass-deportation-is-breaking-our-democracy -
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WASHINGTON 鈥� A federal court ruled last week that the federal agencies responsible for parole and supervised release in Washington, D.C. violated federal disability law by systematically failing to meaningfully consider and accommodate people with disabilities. The class action lawsuit was brought by two D.C. residents with disabilities, represented by the 桃子视频, 桃子视频of D.C., Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and Latham & Watkins LLP. Plaintiffs challenged the federal government鈥檚 post-conviction supervision system in Washington, D.C. for ignoring the needs of people with disabilities, thereby putting them at constant risk of sanctions, including incarceration. The court鈥檚 decision granted plaintiffs鈥� motion for summary judgment on liability. 鈥淭his decision makes clear that failing to provide people with all types of disabilities the accommodations they need to comply with supervision is discrimination, plain and simple,鈥� said Allison Frankel, senior staff attorney at the ACLU鈥檚 Criminal Law Reform Project. 鈥淧eople with disabilities should have a fair chance to comply with the myriad supervision rules and remain in their communities, instead of being set up to fail from the start. We are celebrating this victory for our clients, and we are committed to continue fighting to ensure that people with disabilities on supervision across the country receive the accommodations they are legally entitled to.鈥� For D.C. residents, a criminal sentence can extend for years beyond their time behind bars through parole or supervised release, which requires people to comply with myriad and onerous conditions. Failing to follow conditions, like missing a single appointment, can land a person back in jail or prison, even when no new criminal conduct is alleged. In 2021 and 2022, 10 percent of all individuals under supervision in D.C. faced violation proceedings solely for technical violations of release conditions. Among people with disabilities, the percentage was nearly twice as high (18 percent). People with disabilities are over-represented among the supervision population and face heightened barriers to meeting supervision requirements. 鈥淒iscrimination against people with disabilities is incompatible with justice,鈥� said Laura Follansbee, staff attorney at the 桃子视频of D.C. 鈥淭his ruling is an important victory for equal access, and it affirms that people with disabilities must have a genuine opportunity to succeed on parole and supervised release in D.C.鈥� The 桃子视频has documented similar barriers that people with disabilities under supervision face across the country. In 2024, the organization released a report providing guidance for people with disabilities seeking accommodations, as well as tools for advocates working to challenge systemic barriers. 鈥淔or years, the government has failed to accommodate individuals with disabilities on parole and supervised release in D.C., as required by law,鈥� said Christine Smith, associate at Latham & Watkins, who argued the motion. 鈥淭his ruling is a significant step toward securing lasting institutional reform and ensuring that all people have an equal opportunity to succeed on supervision.鈥� The decision is here: /cases/mathis-v-united-states-parole-commission?document=Memorandum-Opinion-Granting-Summary-Judgment-on-LiabilityCourt Case: Mathis v. United States Parole CommissionAffiliate: Washington, D.C. -
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BOISE 鈥� The 桃子视频, the 桃子视频of Idaho, Stoel Rives, and Cooley LLP filed an opposition brief today on behalf of their clients, urging a federal court to allow a lawsuit challenging the violent mass detention of hundreds of Latino people for an immigration dragnet at a family horse-racing event in Wilder, Idaho to proceed. The lawsuit, Rodriguez et al. v. Porter et al., was filed earlier this year on behalf of three Latino families and a proposed class of people who were at La Catedral Arena on October 19, 2025, when more than 200 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers descended on an otherwise peaceful family event. Law enforcement arrived in armored trucks and a helicopter with flashbang grenades and guns drawn and detained approximately 400 spectators 鈥� including U.S. citizens and children 鈥� for four hours of detention in inhumane conditions before subjecting everyone to suspicionless immigration interrogations. In their motions to dismiss, defendants continue to characterize the operation as a routine execution of warrants for five people accused of non-violent unlicensed gambling. The ACLU鈥檚 brief filed today makes clear that hundreds of heavily-armed officers detaining hundreds of people with no connection to the gambling allegations 鈥� and prolonging their detention to investigate everyone's immigration status 鈥� was anything but routine. 鈥淥ur clients are still living with the physical and emotional scars from that day, and yet the defendants continue to try to rewrite what happened,鈥� said Allison Frankel, senior staff attorney at the ACLU鈥檚 Criminal Law Reform Project. 鈥淲arrants for five people accused of unlicensed gambling do not give police a blank check to round up hundreds of people, hold families at gunpoint, or target people based on their perceived ethnicity. We know what happened at La Catedral, and we鈥檙e going to keep fighting to hold those responsible accountable and make clear that law enforcement is not above the law.鈥� Juana Rodriguez, one of the lead plaintiffs, is a U.S. citizen who was at the racetrack with her 3-year-old son. After being violently rounded up with hundreds of other families, Rodriguez was placed in zip ties and detained for several hours without food or water. Law enforcement instructed her toddler to hold onto her pocket, which they had turned inside out, while Rodriguez remained zip tied and unable to comfort her son as he cried out for water. "The cruelty that occurred in Wilder is a tragic example of a government operating with reckless violence and unrestricted power," said Paul Carlos Southwick, legal director for the 桃子视频of Idaho. "The human cost of this operation is unacceptable. Law enforcement must answer for the large-scale civil rights abuses that took place so we can ensure this never happens again.鈥� The lawsuit alleges that federal, state and local law enforcement used the criminal warrants as a cover to conduct a sweeping immigration dragnet targeting an event where they knew the attendees would be predominantly Latino. The complaint centrally claims that these federal, state and local actors conspired to deprive those detained of their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable detentions, and their right to equal protection regardless of ethnicity. The complaint is brought under laws created after the Civil War to prevent racialized government violence. The conspiracy claims provide a path to hold federal actors accountable for civil rights violations. The brief is available here: /cases/rodriguez-et-al-v-porter-et-al?document=Plaintiffs-Opposition-to-Defendants-Motions-to-DismissCourt Case: Rodriguez, et al. v. Porter, et al.Affiliate: Idaho