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50+ national progressive organizations and leaders released the following statement regarding bad faith attacks against Rep. Ilhan Omar for comments earlier this week:
"Representative Ilhan Omar is facing a smear campaign for daring to name what few will: that all victims of war crimes deserve justice, regardless of who commits the crimes. As national progressive organizations and leaders devoted to upholding human rights everywhere and ensuring our democracy can flourish through freedom of speech, we support Rep. Omar and condemn these bad faith attacks.
50+ national progressive organizations and leaders released the following statement regarding bad faith attacks against Rep. Ilhan Omar for comments earlier this week:
"Representative Ilhan Omar is facing a smear campaign for daring to name what few will: that all victims of war crimes deserve justice, regardless of who commits the crimes. As national progressive organizations and leaders devoted to upholding human rights everywhere and ensuring our democracy can flourish through freedom of speech, we support Rep. Omar and condemn these bad faith attacks.
"For too long, the United States and its allies have acted with impunity for the atrocities that they commit across the globe. Those who dare to violate Washington taboos and name this simple fact should be commended for their bravery. Instead, they are censored.
"Make no mistake: these attacks and intentional twisting of her words are designed not only to silence criticism of U.S. foreign policy, but to silence an outspoken woman of color. That this latest round of vilification is once again about Rep. Omar in particular is not a coincidence: the repeated targeting of Rep. Omar is rooted in sexism, racism, and anti-Muslim bigotry.
"It is no surprise that Rep. Omar's opponents would seize on any opportunity to once again attack one of Congress's leading progressive voices. The true shame is that many in her own party would buy in to such bad faith attacks.
"We join in solidarity with Rep. Omar and all who are willing to name the simple truth that the United States and its allies should be held accountable for their human rights violations. We urge all members of Congress, and Democratic leadership in particular, to stop falling for manufactured controversy. Fearless leadership for human rights everywhere should be commended, not condemned."
Organizations
Action Center on Race and the Economy
Adalah Justice Project
American Muslim Empowerment Network (AMEN)
Arab American Civic Council
Armenian-American Action Network
Ayada Leads
Center for International Policy
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
Fellow Travelers
Freedom Forward
Friends of Human Rights
IfNotNow
Indivisible
Institute for Policy Studies - New Internationalism Project
Jetpac Resource Center
Jewish Voice for Peace Action
Jews for Racial & Economic Justice
Justice Democrats
MADRE
Masa Fund
MoveOn
MPower Change
National Iranian American Council
Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment
Revolving Door Project
Social Security Works
South Asian Americans Leading Together
The Feminist Front
UltraViolet
Win Without War
Working Families Party Individuals (Affiliations listed for identification purposes only)
Aneelah Afzali - Executive Director, American Muslim Empowerment Network (AMEN)
Iram Ali - Campaign Strategist
Sophia Armen - Co-Chair, The Feminist Front
Zahra Billoo - CAIR San Francisco Bay Area
Pam Campos-Palma - Director of Peace & Security, Working Families Party
John Cavanagh - Senior Advisor, Institute for Policy Studies
Joseph Cirincione - Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Hassan El-Tayyab - Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
Richard (RJ) Eskow - The Zero Hour With RJ Eskow
Colin Hicks - Center for Popular Democracy / CPD Action
Marwa Janini - Arab American Association of New York
Wardah Khalid
Sana Qutubuddin - Indian American Muslim Council
Linda Sarsour - Co-founder, MPower Change, Until Freedom, Women's March
Azadeh Shahshahani - Legal & Advocacy Director, Project South. Past president, National Lawyers Guild.
Ilya Sheyman - Former Executive Director, MoveOn Political Action
Yasmine Taeb - Human rights lawyer and progressive strategist
Murshed Zaheed - Progressive Leader, Changemaker
Simone Zimmerman
Win Without War is a diverse network of activists and organizations working for a more peaceful, progressive U.S. foreign policy. We believe that by democratizing U.S. foreign policy and providing progressive alternatives, we can achieve more peaceful, just, and common sense policies that ensure that all people--regardless of race, nationality, gender, religion, or economic status--can find and take advantage of opportunity equally and feel secure.
The Trump administration "has once again gone out of its way to inflict further harm on low-income families," said the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The average recipient of federal food aid will see a massive 61% benefit cut this month—and millions will lose November benefits entirely—under the Trump administration's plan to only partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as the government remains shut down.
That's according to an analysis published Wednesday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), which found that the expected 61% benefit cut exceeds what's necessary to keep November SNAP spending within the limits of the program's contingency fund.
The think tank said that roughly 1.2 million low-income US households with around 5 million people will receive no benefits at all this month because the across-the-board benefit cut is larger than their typical monthly benefit. The average SNAP recipient receives around $180 per month, or approximately $6 daily.
"Nearly 5.4 million households with one or two members will receive a minimum benefit of $12 for November," CBPP added. "This appears to violate SNAP's regulations, which require these households to receive the typical minimum benefit of $24 unless benefits are cancelled, suspended entirely, or reduced by more than 90%."
"By cutting benefits even more deeply than necessary, the administration—which previously argued (contrary to federal law and the administration's own prior practice) that SNAP's contingency funds aren't legally available to cover regular benefits—has once again gone out of its way to inflict further harm on low-income families," the think tank added.
"There is no excuse that justifies the administration delaying the release of benefits and then choosing not to utilize every resource available to provide full benefits."
The new analysis was released after President Donald Trump sparked confusion and outrage with a Truth Social post earlier this week threatening to defy court orders and withhold SNAP funding entirely until the end of the government shutdown, which is now the longest in US history.
The White House later insisted that the administration is complying with court directives, but advocates and Democratic lawmakers have denounced the partial SNAP funding plan outlined by the US Department of Agriculture as badly inadequate—particularly as families are also facing unprecedented cuts to Medicaid benefits and Affordable Care Act premium hikes stemming from congressional Republicans' refusal to extend subsidies.
"There is no excuse that justifies the administration delaying the release of benefits and then choosing not to utilize every resource available to provide full benefits to the 42 million people who rely on SNAP to put food on the table," said Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research & Action Center. "The decision to provide only partial benefits forces state agencies to scramble under unclear guidance, which will further delay benefits."
"It also means that families are missing out on much needed nutrition support," FitzSimons said. "Enough time has already been lost—the funds must be released immediately to avert further harm, chaos, and confusion."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote Thursday that "families can't pay half of the bill at the grocery store or make half of a meal to feed their kids."
"Americans deserve their full SNAP benefits," Jayapal added.
ICE, said one organizer, "should rightly be called child abusers."
A parent at Rayito de Sol, a Spanish immersion daycare center in North Center, Chicago, summarized what took place there Wednesday when armed immigration agents entered the facility and arrested one of the childcare providers.
"What has happened today is domestic terrorism," said Maria Guzman said at a press conference held by federal and local lawmakers and "traumatized" members of the community. "It is a violation of our rights, it is a violation of these children's rights, it is a violation of these teachers' rights, who have a right to work in this country and care for our most vulnerable kids."
Guzman spoke alongside Democratic US Reps. Mike Quigley and Delia Ramirez, who represent communities in the Rayito de Sol vicinity, after at least three armed federal agents arrived at the center at about 7:00 am Wednesday when the worker, Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano, was arriving at work along with parents and children.
Alderman Matt Martin told Block Club Chicago that the agents had followed Galeano to her job and chased her into the building, where they "tore her away" from the children and pushed her coworkers as they tried to intervene. They then dragged her outside with her hands pulled behind her back, before at least one agent reentered the building and, according to Ramirez, went from room to room and demanded to see evidence that other teachers were legal residents.
It appears ICE agents are targeting preschools in Chicago today.
One woman was dragged out of Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Preschool on West Addison, while a father was reportedly taken from the Rayito de Sol Immersion Preschool on West Montrose, as he was dropping off his… pic.twitter.com/IwTjwSuWVa
— Jesus Freakin Congress (@TheJFreakinC) November 5, 2025
Galeano's arrest and the raid took place in front of children and parents. The center closed for the day as other teachers expressed fears about coming to work.
"This is what's happening right now via that force of terror called Homeland Security under [Secretary] Kristi Noem," said Ramirez. "I went into the daycare this morning as part of rapid response and I see teachers, I see parents crying. They're wondering, how could it be that the place where I send my children for eight hours when I go to work has been broken into by these masked agents with guns, running through the daycare?"
It was a hard day here in Chicago with ICE targeting a day care center. I wanted to take a moment to talk about it. pic.twitter.com/RCTKyYwJYY
— Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez (@repdeliaramirez) November 6, 2025
Parents and officials said Galeano, who has children of her own, has permits to work in the US.
At the press conference, Quigley demanded Galeano's release and condemned President Donald Trump for ending protections that had been in place under the Biden administration which kept US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from conducting enforcement operations at schools, daycares, churches, hospitals, and shelters. He rejected claims by Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin that the agency "did not target a daycare."
"They can say they aren’t targeting a daycare, but that’s where they were this morning,” Quigley said. “They’re supposed to be going after the 'worst of the worst,' if they’re now trying to tell us that what’s left of the worst of the worst is someone with papers who’s educating kids at a daycare, then I think everything they say comes into question.”
"We need ICE out of our schools and out of Chicago!" added Quigley.
Jonathan Cohn, political director of Progressive Mass, said ICE "should be rightly called child abusers" for conducting a raid while children were present.
"It's bad on its own for its brutality toward adults, but they are traumatizing kids," he said.
Rayito de Sol parents organized a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with Galeano's legal fees; as of Thursday morning it had raised more than $64,000.
Alderperson Andre Vasquez called on all community leaders to join in local grassroots efforts to fight against ICE's raids across the Chicago area, in which the Department of Homeland Security has said more than 1,500 people have been detained since the Trump administration began its mass deportation campaign in the city, "Operation Midway Blitz."
After ICE agents raided a Chicago day care Wednesday morning and arrested a teacher that has citizenship documents, Alderperson Andre Vasquez says the city doesn't have time to wait for elections to fix the Trump administration's chaos and calls for Chicagoans to act now.
"We're… pic.twitter.com/gboYLpoSWu
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) November 5, 2025
"We're all crossing our fingers and hoping for elections to change things, but we don't have that time right now," said Vasquez. "If you're anybody here in the city of Chicago and you don't have a whistle around your neck and you're not out here doing school patrol, please find time to do so. We need everyone here."
Alphabet, Google's parent company, is contributing $22 million to the president's ballroom project.
The US Justice Department has reportedly given the tech behemoth Alphabet a green light to acquire the cybersecurity firm Wiz after it was revealed that the Google parent company donated to President Donald Trump's $300 million ballroom project.
The merger deal is valued at over $30 billion and would mark Alphabet's largest acquisition to date, even as the company faces antitrust cases at the state and federal level. Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport announced the Justice Department's decision on Wednesday at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal.
The DOJ approval came after Bloomberg reported in June that the Justice Department's antitrust arm was reviewing whether Alphabet's acquisition of Wiz would illegally undermine competition. The following month, the Justice Department ousted two of its top antitrust officials amid internal conflict over shady corporate settlement deals.
Lee Hepner, an antitrust attorney and senior legal counsel for the American Economic Liberties Project, called the DOJ's clearing of Alphabet's Wiz acquisition "the kind of blunt corruption that most won't notice."
Hepner observed that news of the approval came shortly after the White House released a list of individuals and corporations that have pumped money into Trump's gaudy ballroom project. Google—which also donated to Trump's inauguration—was one of the prominent names on the list, alongside Amazon, Apple, and other major corporations.
Google is reportedly funneling $22 million to the ballroom project.
"These giant corporations aren't funding the Trump ballroom debacle out of a sense of civic pride," Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said earlier this week. "They have massive interests before the federal government and they undoubtedly hope to curry favor with, and receive favorable treatment from, the Trump administration."
"Millions to fund Trump's architectural whims are nothing compared to the billions at stake in procurement, regulatory, and enforcement decisions," he added.
According to a Public Citizen report published Monday, two-thirds of the 24 known corporate donors to Trump's ballroom project—including Google—are beneficiaries of recent government contracts.