It’s no secret that democracy is in decline in the United States.
The last few decades have seen an onslaught of 21st-century voter disenfranchisement campaigns, as politicians in states across the country pass restrictive voter ID laws, close polling places en masse, and draw hyper-partisan legislative districts designed to dilute the power of our votes and make it harder to cast a ballot – especially for Black, Brown and other marginalized communities.
But more recently, these anti-democratic forces have grown even more extreme, with the spread of conspiracies, election subversion, and a relentless deluge of disinformation sowing mass doubt in the integrity of our electoral process. And now, since the Trump administration has taken power, these machinations have crossed new thresholds, and nowhere has that been more evident of late than in Wisconsin.
In recent weeks, Wisconsin has faced some of the gravest government abuses of power of our time. On Friday, April 25, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was handcuffed, shackled and arrested on federal charges for allegedly obstructing justice by refusing to allow her normal courtroom processes to be commandeered by ICE agents who did not have a judicial warrant.
Judges are not required to carry out federal immigration enforcement, and the administrative warrant ICE presented did not authorize them to disrupt regular courtroom business, to enter any private places in the courthouse, or to direct the judge’s actions – the FBI placed her under arrest to try to scare our public officials into becoming ICE assistants, which the law does not require of them.
Just seven days later, in another exercise of gross federal overreach, White House Border Czar Tom Homan vaguely threatened to arrest Governor Tony Evers for issuing a memo directing state employees to consult with government legal counsel before speaking with ICE agents who appear at state-owned buildings, legal guidance in line with several other states.
These egregious actions have shaken Wisconsin's democracy to its core. Instead of upholding his sworn oath to protect and defend the Constitution, President Trump and his administration are actively defying and dismantling it right before our eyes. Flouting court orders, arresting sitting judges and targeting public officials for objecting to policy objectives is authoritarian and anathema to our system of checks and balances. All people must have their rights to due process, and they must have the ability to express their beliefs, attend school, do their jobs, and go about their lives without fear of arbitrary detention, deportation, arrest or retaliation by the state.
In a democracy, we settle policy differences through robust debate, votes and elections. We make change by speaking our minds, protesting, organizing, and building together towards a better future. If we don’t reject these actions now and instead allow the government to jail people they disagree with and disappear others they don’t like, democracy won’t survive.
Luckily, the people of Wisconsin recognize what’s happening and are taking action. In the wake of Judge Dugan's arrest, protesters gathered outside the courthouse and the FBI building, and a coalition of advocates swiftly spoke out against calls to arrest Gov. Evers.
At the beginning of April, Wisconsin voters rejected the world’s richest man's attempt to buy our votes. We’ve also shown up at town halls to defend our neighbors most in need against attempts to gut Medicaid and Social Security, and we’ve marched in the streets in solidarity and gratitude with immigrant communities across the state.
Wisconsinites know what’s at stake in this moment. We have been fighting hard – for those we care about and those we’ll never meet. We need to keep fighting, to keep caring, to keep showing up for ourselves and our communities. If we want democracy to last, we have no other choice.
