Opinion: As Trump’s second term approaches, Pennsylvania must choose community over chaos

Donald Trump told us exactly what kind of president he plans to be. We believe him; we’ve seen him in this position before. A second Trump administration is a clear and present danger to civil liberties, the communities we serve, and democracy itself. 

Throughout the campaign, Trump and other extreme Republicans clearly made immigrants, transgender people and people of color a target of their dehumanizing rhetoric. Meanwhile, many Democrats pivoted harder to the criminalization of immigration and were almost (with a few notable exceptions) totally silent on the rights, dignity and freedom of trans folks.

We won’t be able to stop every terrible thing that Trump and adherents to Trumpism will do. But we are ready and prepared to defend our civil liberties in Pennsylvania and across the country. It will take all of us working together to slow down the worst impulses of the MAGA movement.

State and local officials also have the power to push back when the Trump administration tries to steal our rights. The ACLU has prepared a playbook, “Firewall For Freedom” and a series of memos outlining the threats from Trump. Both the playbook and the compilation of memos include dozens of policy ideas for state and municipal officials to safeguard our freedoms. 

For example, Trump cannot carry out his promise of “mass deportation” of millions of our neighbors without cooperation from state and local law enforcement agencies. And yet there is nothing in law that requires state and local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with Immigration & Customs Enforcement. In fact, it’s just the opposite: Immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government alone. The Firewall For Freedom contains policy recommendations for how our state and local law enforcement agencies can push back against the Trump administration’s deportation machine.

State and local laws can also protect people from discrimination in the workplace, housing, at businesses open to the public, and in education, even if the Trump administration abandons enforcement of federal civil rights laws. Pennsylvania has strong nondiscrimination laws, and many municipalities go even further in protecting their residents from unfair treatment based on their identity. The ACLU’s Trump Memos have recommendations to uphold these critical laws to protect people on the basis of their race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity and continue the work toward racial and gender equity.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania is ready to take whatever action is necessary to grind the gears of Trump’s anti-civil liberties regime at the state, county and municipal levels. We did it during the first Trump administration. A week after his inauguration in 2017, ACLU-PA was at Philadelphia International Airport, greeting people entering the country from Muslim-majority countries that Trump had banned from entry and going to court on their behalf. We challenged abusive ICE practices, and when state and local police unlawfully detained people to check their immigration status, we took them to court and won. And in 2020, we challenged Trump’s attempts to disenfranchise voters and overturn the will of Pennsylvania’s voters.

In 1967, while dealing with his disillusionment with the legal and political landscape, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., penned the book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Community or Chaos?” In it, he wrote, “Thus, America, with segregationist obstruction and majority indifference, silently nibbled away at a promise of true equality that had come before its time.” 

In recent years, that silent nibble has felt more like a jackhammer breaking our nation’s promise. Dr. King framed this dilemma of shaken trust in institutions and the necessity of faith in democracy as choosing community or chaos. 

I choose community.

I believe that love, fairness and justice will conquer hateful rhetoric and policies that have prevented far too many people from experiencing life as free and equal members of our society. 

Working together, we will confront the challenges of today while preserving the future of our community over chaos.