The right to assemble, an integral part of the United States Bill of Rights and a crucial pillar of democracy, is under attack across the country as 103 bills criminalizing protest have been passed or introduced since January 2024. To raise awareness of the deviation from democracy and advocate for freedom of speech, civil rights organization the Advancement Project published the report “Our Silence Will Not Protect Us: Tracking Recent Trends in Anti-Protest Laws” on July 10.
“These laws turn constitutionally protected activity into criminal conduct and chill dissent before it even begins,” said Carmen Daugherty, the Advancement Project’s deputy executive director, during a media briefing. “And we know the goal is not safety. It’s to suppress social movements, especially those led by people of color and other marginalized communities.”
Situations like the conflict in Gaza, the planning and opening of Atlanta’s Cop City, federal budget cuts amid President Donald Trump’s return to office, and increased raids and arrests by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) among other incidents have been catalysts for various protests in the last two years.
Advancement Project’s report analyzes critical legal strategies used by lawmakers to discourage communities from utilizing their First Amendment right, including: updated definitions and penalties that increase the risk of arrest, new regulations penalizing common protest behaviors like masking or blocking traffic, restrictions on visas and financial aid packages targeting immigrant and student protestors and restrictions on where demonstrations can occur.
“We released this brief to help the public, policymakers, advocates and those in media to see the bigger picture– the laws are part of a coordinated backlash, and we need a coordinated response,” Daugherty said. “Protests have always been essential to change in this country and in the world. Silencing dissent is not just a legal issue. It is a democracy issue.”
Authoritarian Tactics, Racial Profiling Undermine the Right to Dissent
On June 6, multiple immigration sweeps were carried out by ICE in downtown Los Angeles and surrounding areas, sparking days of demonstrations from people expressing their grievances with the federal agents’ actions. The protests led to clashes with participants against deportation officers in riot gear and the L.A. Police Department (LAPD).
Demonstrators were met with force in standoffs with the LAPD that included the utilization of tear gas, pepper spray and flash-bang grenades to disperse the crowds. The following day, clashes between protestors and law enforcement in Compton and Paramount inclined Trump to federalize the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers to L.A.
Marakay Alemseged, an L.A. organizer at Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), believes this reaction from the U.S. government is a demonstration of authoritarianism and control.
“In Los Angeles, ICE raids and the militarized response against our collective outrage are a coordinated campaign of terror,” Alemseged said when the Advancement Project brief launched. “Black and brown communities are being disappeared, kidnapped, punished and surveilled by federal and local law and immigration enforcement, all while being blamed for the very violence used against them.”
Aside from already targeting movements led by marginalized communities, the anti-protest laws are often enforced in areas with large populations of people of color. For example, Louisiana House Bill (HB) 383 grants civil immunity to anyone who drives a vehicle into a protest, with limited immunity offered if they cause a fatality. Illinois HB 2357 also refers to protesting and traffic, stating that any demonstration that blocks traffic for more than five minutes is considered a felony offense.
Louisiana also enacted HB 205/Senate Bill 52, which broadens the list of offenses that guarantee a racketeering charge, and also redefines a riot as a “public disturbance” with three or more participants that could potentially lead to injury or damage. Under this definition, even a nonviolent demonstration could warrant a racketeering accusation. In Illinois, a nonviolent protest could be considered a felony if any public infrastructure is damaged or defaced.
“In many cases, such laws are selectively applied, with law enforcement targeting individuals and groups based on their race or membership within a movement,” the Advancement Project wrote. “This reinforces a pattern of racial profiling that criminalizes Black and brown people simply for engaging in their constitutionally protected right.”
‘We Will Fight For Our People And Win’: The Right To Resist As A Global Fight For Freedom
The laws also threaten international communities, first by targeting immigrant protestors’ visa statuses and threatening students with deportation under Executive Order 14188, which has caused almost 2,000 cases of visa revocation due to their participation in protest efforts on college campuses.
Due to the U.S.’s influence in the global stage, anti-protest laws, which exist in every U.S. state except for Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming, also have the potential to encourage rights violations across the globe, normalizing the silencing of citizens’ needs and critiques of government operations. This is one of the many reasons why the Advancement Project’s report is crucial during such trying times.
“I think it sends a clear message to international communities that the crackdown on protest rights in the U.S. is not just our issues, but it’s part of a broader trend of authoritarianism that reverberates globally,” Daugherty told The Informer. “But I think it’s important that by documenting these threats, we aim to build solidarity with human rights defenders worldwide and connect our struggles with global movements for freedom and accountability.”
Even though government officials’ efforts to stifle communities’ voices may be discouraging to many who wish to practice their constitutionally protected rights, the Advancement Project encourages people to reject control tactics and do what they can to continue organizing and engaging in grassroots mobilization. Advocacy experts note that as long as demonstrators have built solid, supportive networks, know their rights and push for protective laws, a more liberated future is possible.
“The U.S. government hopes to violate us into silence and complicity, but instead, we’re being loud and we’re fighting for our families, for our friends, for our neighbors and our futures,” Alemseged said. “We will not comply and we will not be divided. We will fight for our people and win.”
What a complete pile of leftist propaganda BS. Nobody is violating people’s right to lawfully assemble and peacefully protest their government. You and everyone else on the left knows damn well that none of these protests are that. They’re not even organic. All these radical, far-left, protesters are well paid agitators that are assaulting state and local LE, and federal agents who are enforcing US laws passed by Congress. Throwing bricks, bottles, fireworks, etc., interferring with them carrying out their lawful duties of detaining and arresting criminals and illegals, physically assaulting them, jumping in front of, and on their vehicles, busting out vehicle windows, setting vehicles and property on fire, stalking them, shooting at them, threatening to kill not only them but their families, putting bounties out for the kidnapping and murder of ICE agents, openly calling for their assassination, following them home, ramming their vehicles, doxing them… are absolutely NOT protected under 1A. They’re not exercising their protected 1A rights, they’re committing crimes. So, for you, other liberal journalists, and democrat politicians to paint them as innocent people peacefully protesting, isn’t just intellectually dishonest, it’s an out right lie! It’s a pathetic attempt to gaslight the population – telling them not to believe their lying eyes. But the majority aren’t stupid. They know exactly what’s going on, and what the left is trying to do. This article is a disgusting display of propaganda and outright lies. For example…
authoritarianism and control.
“In Los Angeles, ICE raids and the militarized response against our collective outrage are a coordinated campaign of terror.” The National Guard was necessary to restore order, and to protect the public. Setting cars and property on fire, disrupting entire communities, shutting down streets, recklessly doing donuts on motorcycles in the middle of the street while carrying a foreign flag, interferring with federal agents carrying out their lawful duties, etc., is CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR!! Dressing it up with socialist activist catch phrases like “collective outrage” doesn’t make these behaviors legal. Disagreeing with policy doesn’t give you license to commit crimes.
“Black and brown communities are being disappeared, kidnapped, punished and surveilled by federal and local law and immigration enforcement, all while being blamed for the very violence used against them.” Being arrested or detained doesn’t equal “being disappeared or kidnapped.” Again, typical far-left activists and NGOs using language to to create faux outrage. The activists are the ones using violence. If you behave in a violent, criminal way, and resist, you’re going to be met with violence to detain you. Period. Act like uncivilized animals, you get treated like one. You can’t demand respect from others when you show them zero respect.
“In many cases, such laws are selectively applied, with law enforcement targeting individuals and groups based on their race or membership within a movement.” Another perfect example of far-left activists and NGOs using language to manufacture outrage, and to rile up the public – cry racism and create victims. LE are “targeting individuals and groups based on their race or membership within a movement.” I mean, come on, just more of the typical radical playbook. They’re not targeting any one race or group. They’re arresting more Hispanics bc they make up the vast majority of the illegal alien population, and also commit the majority of crimes by illegals due to their sheer numbers. It’s not racism, it’s numbers. Anyone with 2 working brain cells knows that. Hispanics make up the largest share of the illegal immigrant population in the US at about 75%. Mexicans alone make up the largest share at nearly 65%. So, logically more will be deported. Again, NOT racism. It’s a numbers thing. The left is beyond intellectually dishonest, and they weaponize language to fit their narrative in order to manipulate the population, and to create manufactured outrage and fear.