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For Immediate Release
July, 22 2019, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper,Phone: 202-744-7726,E-Mail:,ihooper@cair.com
Tell Congress to Support Free Speech, Oppose Anti-BDS Resolution Denouncing Right to Boycott
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today urged all Americans who support the First Amendment to contact their members of Congress and ask them to oppose an anti-BDS resolution, co-introduced by Rep. John Lewis, coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives this week, and instead support a resolution reaffirming the right to boycott.
WASHINGTON
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today urged all Americans who support the First Amendment to contact their members of Congress and ask them to oppose an anti-BDS resolution, co-introduced by Rep. John Lewis, coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives this week, and instead support a resolution reaffirming the right to boycott.
On Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution condemning the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which advocates using peaceful economic boycotts of Israeli goods to promote Palestinian human rights and oppose Israel's government policies and illegal settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
SEE: Despite objections from progressives, US House to vote on anti-BDS measure
https://www.jns.org/despite-objections-from-progressives-us-house-to-vote-on-anti-bds-measure/
SEE: Text of House Resolution 246
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/246/text
In response to the anti-BDS legislation, Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN), John Lewis (D-GA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) introduced a resolution affirming the First Amendment rights of all Americans to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad.
SEE: Omar introduces resolution affirming 'right to participate in boycotts' ahead of possible vote on anti-BDS bill
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/453542-omar-tlaib-lewis-introduce-resolution-affirming-right-to-participate-in
SEE: Text of House Resolution 496
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/496/text
"The United States Congress should not be in the business of condemning American citizens' First Amendment right to participate in peaceful boycotts aimed at promoting human rights for all. This resolution goes against the principles and values upon which this nation was founded," said CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw. "Courts across the country have struck down anti-BDS laws, proving that they are in contradiction to the Constitution."
McCaw also urged Representatives to cosponsor H.Res. 496 and affirm their commitment to the First Amendment.
In April, CAIR won a landmark victory against an anti-BDS law in Texas on behalf of a speech pathologist who was fired for refusing to sign a statement certifying that she does not, and will not, boycott Israel or Israeli settlements. The Court held that the Texas Anti-BDS Act "threatens to suppress unpopular ideas" and "manipulate the public debate" on Israel and Palestine "through coercion rather than persuasion." The Court concluded: "This the First Amendment does not allow."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
(202) 488-8787LATEST NEWS
'This Is Your Money': Trump Assault on CFPB Has Cost Consumers $19 Billion
"When you're counting the way that costs have gone up for American families over the last year, be sure to include the cost of getting cheated," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Feb 10, 2026
The Trump administration's ongoing effort to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cost Americans nearly $20 billion in just a year, according to a report released Monday as Democratic lawmakers and campaigners marked the anniversary of the White House's hostile takeover and gutting of the CFPB.
The new report was assembled by Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an architect and champion of the CFPB. Citing bureau documents, publicly available data, and federal analyses, the report estimates that the Trump administration's mass dismissal of enforcement actions against abusive corporations, failure to distribute settlement payments, rescission of CFPB rules and guidance, and attack on the bureau's Consumer Complaint Program have collectively cost US consumers $19 billion over the past year.
That figure, the report emphasizes, "does not even begin to cover costs Americans could have been scammed out of due to a sidelined CFPB."
“Donald Trump promised to lower costs for Americans ‘On Day One.’ Instead, he is trying to shut down an agency that protects Americans from getting scammed out of their money by big banks and giant corporations,” Warren said in a statement. “As a result, Trump’s attempt to sideline the CFPB has cost families billions of dollars over the last year alone. We're going to keep fighting for the CFPB and against the billionaires who want to get rid of it.”
The report was released to mark one year since Russell Vought, the White House budget chief and acting CFPB director, ordered the bureau to effectively shut down its operations, including rulemaking and investigations into corporate wrongdoing.
Lawmakers have not confirmed Vought—a Project 2025 architect who has been explicit about his desire to kill the CFPB—as bureau chief, but he has remained in the acting director role thanks to White House legal maneuvers. In recent months, Vought has tried to starve the CFPB of funding—an effort that, for now, has been stymied in court.
"We want to put it out," Vought said in an interview late last year, boasting about mass firings that have left the consumer agency skeletal. "We will be successful probably within the next two or three months."
Another ridiculous price tag that Trump is forcing you to pay.
This is YOUR money.
You deserve a government that works for you, not against you and your financial interests. https://t.co/yd6hpYriXw
— Senator Andy Kim (@SenatorAndyKim) February 9, 2026
Prior to the start of President Donald Trump's second White House term, the CFPB had returned around $21 billion to US consumers scammed by banks and other corporations since the bureau's creation in the wake of the Great Recession.
"When you're counting the way that costs have gone up for American families over the last year, be sure to include the cost of getting cheated, because Donald Trump has driven that cost through the roof," Warren said during a rally with fellow Democratic lawmakers and advocates in Washington, DC on Monday.
"We are here today to remind Donald Trump and to remind all those Republicans who support him and enable him, to remind every one of them that they can kick this agency, they can try to hold this agency down, they can try to starve this agency, they can try to tie up the people who work at this agency, but at the end of the day, they will not kill this agency," said Warren. "We will stay in this fight, and we will win."
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US Forces Board Tanker in Indian Ocean as Trump Targets Venezuelan Oil
"The Donroe Doctrine is not simply a vision for the hemisphere. It is a doctrine of global domination," said one critic.
Feb 09, 2026
President Donald Trump's blockade of Venezuelan oil—condemned as "piracy" by critics around the world—continued on Monday, with the US Department of Defense announcing that overnight, "military forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding on the Aquila II without incident" in the Indian Ocean.
"When the Department of War says quarantine, we mean it. Nothing will stop DOW from defending our homeland—even in oceans halfway around the world," the Pentagon declared on social media, using Trump's preferred department name. "The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump's established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. It ran, and we followed."
"The Department of War tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean," the department continued. "No other nation on planet Earth has the capability to enforce its will through any domain. By land, air, or sea, our armed forces will find you and deliver justice."
"You will run out of fuel long before you will outrun us," the Pentagon added. "The Department of War will deny illicit actors and their proxies the ability to defy American power in the global maritime domain."
The department also shared a video and photos from the operation, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged during a visit to the Bath Iron Works shipyard in Bath, Maine, a stop on his national Arsenal of Freedom tour.
According to the Associated Press:
Following the US raid to apprehend then-President Nicolás Maduro in early January, several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast, including the ship that was boarded in the Indian Ocean overnight.
Hegseth vowed to eventually capture all those ships, telling a group of shipyard workers in Maine on Monday that "the only guidance I gave to my military commanders is none of those are getting away."
"I don't care if we got to go around the globe to get them; we’re going to get them," he added.
Citing an unnamed dense official, the AP also reported that "the Aquila II has not been formally seized and placed under US control," unlike seven other Venezuela-linked tankers previously taken by the Trump administration. Instead, the news agency explained, the Panamanian-flagged ship "is being held while its ultimate fate is decided by the US."
Reuters noted that Aquila II "was carrying about 700,000 barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude bound for China," based on schedules from the Venezuelan state oil and gas company, PDVSA.
In addition to Trump's efforts to hand Venezuela's nationalized oil industry over to fossil fuel companies that helped him secure another term, the president is ramping up US pressure on the Cuban economy by depriving the island nation of Venezuelan oil.
As Common Dreams reported earlier Monday, David Adler, co-general coordinator of Progressive International, accused Trump of "laying siege to the island of Cuba: asphyxiating its people, shuttering its hospitals, starving them of food."
After news of US forces boarding the Aquila II broke, Adler added: "Jesus christ. The United States is now intercepting oil tankers in the INDIAN OCEAN that dare to carry oil to starving Cuba. The Donroe Doctrine is not simply a vision for the hemisphere. It is a doctrine of global domination."
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Use of Ireland Airport for Trump Deportation Flights Denounced as 'Absolutely Reprehensible'
"The US Trump administration's cruel and inhumane mass deportation campaign must be denied any form of facilitation... to the degree that is legally possible," said the head of Amnesty International Ireland.
Feb 09, 2026
Amnesty International Ireland on Monday joined Irish politicians and other critics in condemning the use of Shannon Airport as a refueling stopover for some of US President Donald Trump's deportation flights.
Outrage over the use of the Irish airport has mounted since an investigation published Thursday by the Guardian and +972 Magazine detailed how a private jet owned by Trump donor and business partner Gil Dezer was recently chartered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through the company Journey Aviation to deport Palestinians to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
"It is absolutely reprehensible that any ICE deportation flights would be allowed stop and refuel in Shannon," said Duncan Smith, a Labour Party foreign affairs spokesperson.
Smith called on the prime minister, or taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien, both members of the party Fianna Fáil, to "intervene and ensure this ends."
"Ireland cannot in any way be complicit in these ICE flights," he added, according to the Irish Times.
The newspaper published a collection of other reactions from representatives for the country's political parties:
Green Party leader Roderic O'Gorman said, "It is deeply disturbing to learn that Shannon is being used to facilitate the cruel actions of Donald Trump's ICE." He called for the government to clarify the matter.
Social Democrats foreign affairs spokeswoman Senator Patricia Stephenson also said it was deeply disturbing: "The coalition must make a statement on whether it knowingly facilitated these flights," which she claimed were a violation of the human rights of the deportees.
Sinn Féin foreign affairs spokesman Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said the matter "requires immediate clarification" as he questioned if the flights were compliant with international law.
People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy said, "The fact that these were flights deporting Palestinians just adds insult to injury."
Weighing in with a Monday statement, Stephen Bowen, executive director, Amnesty International Ireland, similarly said that "we are deeply troubled at these reports of ICE deportation flights refueling at Shannon, including to states of which deportees are not even citizens."
"The US Trump administration’s cruel and inhumane mass deportation campaign must be denied any form of facilitation by Ireland to the degree that is legally possible," he argued. "Our government must do everything it can to refuse to allow such stopovers without first assessing if any individuals on board face a real risk of serious harm if transferred."
Ireland's Department of Transport has noted that "stops at Irish airports by private aircraft and commercial charters which are technical stops for non-traffic purposes (ie, not picking up or setting down passengers), do not require prior authorization from the Department of Transport."
Bowen said that "whilst we understand the intricacies of aviation law, it is wholly unbecoming for states to hide behind these when such cruelty and rage is being deployed to weaponize immigration control. Ireland still has legal obligations under the international human rights treaties it has ratified. There can be no doubt that serious human rights violations are taking place during ICE deportations, with many detainees denied legal due process before being deported."
"We are currently looking into this very worrying matter and will be writing to government soon," he added. "However, the government should already be looking at all possible ways to stop Ireland being a link in a chain of suffering, fear, and systemic abuse."
Separately on Monday, Seamus Culleton, an Irishman who is married to a US citizen and has been in an ICE detention facility in Texas since September despite having no criminal record, called on the taoiseach to raise his case with Trump during a White House visit planned for St. Patrick's Day.
Culleton told the Irish Times that his message to politicians in his homeland is: "Just try to get me out of here and do all you can please. It's an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture. I just want to get back to my wife. We're so desperate to start a family."
"I'd be so grateful if we could just end this," he added. I've been detained now for five months. It's just a torture, I don't know how much more I can take."
A spokesperson for Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs—led by Minister Helen McEntee of the Fine Gael party—confirmed that it was providing "consular assistance" through the consulate in Austin and "our embassy in Washington, DC is also engaging directly with the Department of Homeland Security at a senior level in relation to this case."
Responding to Culleton's description of his experience Smith of the Labour Party noted that "just last week I raised the concerning fact that data showed an increase in Irish citizens interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and deportation procedures."
MMr. Culleton's testimony is absolutely harrowing, and marries with what immigration lawyers on the ground tell us about the very real and disturbing conditions that Irish citizens are facing inside ICE detention facilities," Smith said, urging McEntee to "seek any and all information" about everyone from Ireland now in US custody.
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