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.”
