Heath Haussamen
State Sen. Harold Pope Jr. gave voice Monday to what many of us are feeling as our federal government embraces authoritarianism and recklessly downsizes.
The Trump Administration is causing “pain, fear and uncertainty” for so many people, the Albuquerque Democrat said during a sobering speech on the Senate floor.
One of the latest hits came Tuesday when the U.S. Department of Education announced it was firing more than 1,300 employees, which effectively guts the agency. President Donald Trump has expressed a desire to dismantle the Education Department. He appears to be on track to do it.
And over the weekend the Trump Administration detained a legal resident, Mahmoud Khalil. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement intends to deport him — apparently for expressing his right to free speech.
Pope spoke before his colleagues about a long list of people who’ve been targeted since Trump took office in January.
“We hear the cries of our undocumented brothers and sisters, terrified their families will be torn apart, that their homes will no longer be safe, and that they may be treated as criminals,” Pope said.
He spoke of LGBTQIA folks, saying the Trump Administration “seeks to strip them of their dignity, erase their identity and push them back in the shadows.” He mentioned people of color “who continue to bear the weight of systemic oppression and violence, who fear that the progress we’ve made is being undone.”
Pope, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, mentioned veterans who fear their benefits will be cut and federal workers who wonder if they’ll have a job tomorrow. He spoke about people who rely on Medicaid, education funding and other government assistance “who feel the ground shifting beneath their feet.”
“We see you, we hear you, and we have your back,” said Pope, who asserted that he was speaking for the majority of his colleagues in the Senate.
‘Now is the time to organize’
Pope, the first African-American elected to the N.M. Senate, talked about past abuses by the federal government, saying this is not the first time these people have come under attack. He sought to share wisdom and encouragement, saying such folks have always built back stronger by relying on community.
“If history has taught us anything, it is that real change, real protection does not come from top down,” Pope said. “It comes from you. It comes from us. It comes from the people.”
Such community is expressed, the senator said, when a mother shields a child from danger, when an activist puts their body on the line, and through folks like teachers, organizers, healers and artists — “the everyday people who refuse to back down, who refuse to stay silent, who refuse to stop loving and fighting for one another.”
We’re starting to see this. I’ve written about dozens of people in Las Cruces protesting the way Elon Musk is indiscriminately slashing the federal government without accountability, and about hundreds more protesting the actions of the Trump Administration in Santa Fe.
Hundreds protested Khalil’s detention in Manhattan on Tuesday. Hundreds of scientists and student researchers showed up in Los Angeles last week to push back against Trump’s attack on science. And people have gathered in national parks across the nation in opposition to Trump’s cuts to the U.S. Forest Service and national parks.
“Don’t let fear paralyze you,” Pope said. “Let it mobilize you. Now is the time to organize. Now is the time to show up for one another like never before. Now is the time to build networks of safety, of resistance, of hope.”
He called on communities and the N.M. Legislature to stand together “against the harm coming from the Trump Administration.”
“My fellow New Mexicans, take your fear, take your anger, take your pain, and turn it into action,” Pope said.
Thank you, senator
The Senate can heed Pope’s words by, for example, passing a House bill that would stop counties from running immigrant detention centers for the federal government. The rest of us can contribute by calling our lawmakers and urging actions like approval of this legislation. We can also keep protesting, keep speaking out, keep exercising our First Amendment rights.
It isn’t easy. Authoritarians test their ability to act without public backlash by attacking the least politically popular, someone they can make an example of — in this case Khalil — to see if they get away with it. Then they expand from there.
And so, as The New York Times reported, some Trump critics are muzzling themselves out of fear. Even the U.S. Senate and House minority leaders had a difficult time clearly condemning Khalil’s detention this week. I question why they’re in leadership if they can’t or won’t lead in this moment.
But their lack of leadership makes Pope’s point. This must be a ground-up resistance. Encouragement like the words Pope offered this week is critical. Thank you, senator.