Austin, TX – Around 100 people gathered Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Texas Capitol to protest the ICE murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, and Trump’s ongoing campaign of deportations, raids and ICE terror against immigrants across the country.

Jesse Valdelamar, of the Austin Immigrant Rights Action Committee, led the rally. He kicked things off with a round of energetic chants such as, “When ICE attacks, we fight back,” and “No more ICE, no more walls, free our families, free them all!”

Sofia Gomez of Austin Students for a Democratic Society told the crowd, “They call other human beings aliens, ICE using children as bait. Shame! Uncle Sam has no conscience. These systems function like they were meant to.”

Gomez continued, “But don’t be discouraged. We have the power to change this. We are the majority. We have air in our lungs, and we have the power to fight!”

Sameeha Risvi, civic engagement coordinator from CAIR Texas, said, “The people showing their faces, chanting in the streets, and demanding justice are not the danger. If we want to talk about rogue, masked agents, let’s talk about ICE. ICE operates in masks. ICE refuses accountability. ICE tears families apart in the shadows, and then calls it law enforcement.”

Risvi told multiple stories of immigrants who have been separated from their families, brutalized, detained, or killed at the hands of ICE agents.

Reflecting back on the George Floyd uprising in 2020, Jesse Valdelamar said, “We cannot let Alex Pretti and Renee Good die in vain. Remember that just six years ago, the people were able to send Trump and his lackeys on the run. We can and will do it again!”

Valdelamar ended off his speech with a call to action, “If you want to make a real impact and change the terrible direction this country is going, then join an organization and build the real movement on the streets!” The crowd responded with a resounding, “¡Sí, se puede!”

#AustinTX #TX #ImmigrantRights #AIRAC #SDS #CAIR #AlexPretti

The Governor’s argument for persecuting CAIR builds on the legacy of the sham prosecution of the Holy Land 5, which was based in the North Texas city of Richardson, and conflates support for Palestinians with “terrorist activity.”

Groups in Dallas-Fort Worth showed their firm solidarity with CAIR, the co-coordinator of DFW Anti-War Committee (DAWC), Josh Rudd had this to say, “We as DAWC firmly oppose these racist attacks on CAIR by the Abbott regime. We will always stand in solidarity with our Muslim siblings against Islamophobia. We recognize the way the U.S. weaponizes Islamophobia and other forms of racism to continue ‘forever wars’ against Asian and African communities. We are working to shut down the bomb factory, Repkon, in Garland, Texas, that builds the genocidal weapons of U.S. imperialism.”

Greg Abbot and the Texas GOP have repeatedly tried to use Islamophobic sentiment to rally their base, but they have been repeatedly defeated in their attempts. In Republican controlled Tarrant County, the district attorney sought to send Raunaq Alam and Afsheen Khan to prison for decades for pro-Palestine graffiti. They failed in part due to organizations like the National Lawyers Guild, CAIR and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), which organized support committees for the targeted individuals.

Other tactics by the state against Muslims include the targeting of the East Plano Islamic Center, which announced plans in March 2024 to build a residential community and mosque in rural Collin County. In that case, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed multiple frivolous lawsuits against the developers and directed state agencies to launch fraudulent investigations into all aspects of the mosque, including directing the Texas Funeral Services Commission to revoke EPIC’s permission to perform burial services.

Texts unearthed in the lawsuit revealed that Kristin Tips, the director of the Texas Funeral Services Commission and an Abbot appointee, was sending anti-Islam media from a pro-Israel media network to her executive director. Notably, these tactics of administrative investigation presaged a similar wave of tactics used by the national Republican party to investigate critics and whistleblowers in the federal workforce, such as the cooperation by the Federal Finance Housing Agency in prosecution of New York Attorney General Letita James.

To date, all of these unjust prosecutions and administrative actions have been defeated in courts. But instead of accepting his losses, Greg Abbot continues with the unjust and likely illegal attacks. In their response to the publicity stunt by the right-wing governor, CAIR touts their record, having defeated Abbot numerous times, including thwarting a 2019 anti-BDS law that led to the firing of a Muslim teacher, his 2024 efforts to ban Palestinian solidarity organizations from campuses, and protecting the rights of individuals with pro-Palestine views to qualify for public employment and contracts.

But the fight is not over. Local organizations, including PYM and the Muslim American Society, have joined the chorus of opposition to Abbot’s anti-Muslim agenda. As Texas continues to serve as a right-wing laboratory for state persecution, all eyes should turn to the organizing that has successfully pushed back this Islamophobic agenda.

#DallasTX #TX #OppressedNationalities #AntiWarMovement #CAIR #ArabAmericans #Palestine #InJusticeSystem #DAWC #PoliticalRepression

San Jose, CA – On Thursday, November 6, dozens of people attended the Santa Clara County Finance and Government Operations Committee (FGOC) meeting in support of an ethical investment policy that would bar the county from investing further into fossil fuel companies.

Signs held by attendees read, “Divest from genocide” and “Divest from fossil fuels.”

At the meeting people spoke to the County Supervisors Susan Ellenberg and Betty Duong, calling on them to forward the Sustainability Commission’s guidance to divest from fossil fuels with a positive recommendation.

Organizations such as Council on American-Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR-SFBA), San Jose Against War, Democratic Socialists of America Silicon Valley, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, Sierra Club, Climate Reality and more were represented in the public comment section.

Drusie Kasanova of San Jose Against War spoke to the committee saying, “This recommendation is sorely needed because in the past, the county has chosen to invest in Chevron and Exxon, both of which accelerated the climate crisis and profited from the genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Wendy Greenfield, a Jewish social activist, advocated for divesting from Chevron saying, “Adopt a policy not to invest in fossil fuels and companies complicit in genocide.”

Greenfield continued saying, “The values of justice and the sanctity of life must be the way of life for citizens and officials that represent us.”

Philip Nguyen, an SEIU 521 steward, spoke to the committee saying, “Please advocate for working families worldwide and not invest in companies that are actively burning away a future that families want to raise their families in.”

After the in-person and online comments were made, the subcommittee unanimously passed the consent calendar item containing the positive recommendation for sustainable investments which would bar the county from investing in fossil fuel companies.

#SanJoseCA #CA #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #CAIR #SJAW

Tampa, FL — On July 14, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) held a press conference in their Tampa office for Sayfollah “Saif” Musallet, a Florida-born Palestinian man that was killed by Israeli settlers on July 11 while on a trip to visit family in the West Bank.

Musallet was only 20 years old when he was beaten by settlers looking to steal his family’s land in the town of Sinjil, while the Israeli occupation forces stopped ambulances and help from coming through.

During the press conference, led by CAIR spokesman Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, the speakers addressed the history of Israel as a history of violations of international law, highlighted by the ongoing genocide in Gaza. A year back, the Department of State had been asked to investigate reports of Palestinian American citizens having their houses burned down by settlers but did not reach any conclusions and allowed Israel to investigate itself.

The family of Musallet along with CAIR is demanding that the Department of State do a full investigation into the situation and properly punish Israel and its settlers for murdering an American citizen.

Present in the press conference was Hesam Musallet, Saif’s uncle, who remembered his nephew, “He was very loving, caring, and – I mean just like any other 20 year old.” He continued, “And then to be taken away the way he was murdered, by illegal Israeli settlers, and then the IDF just stands there and watches, giving them the way to go in there and do what they want.”

Hiba Rahim, CAIR Florida Deputy Executive Director, “This is not an isolated tragedy. There is a devastating pattern of Americans being killed in Israel, brutalized and murdered with impunity by Israeli forces and settlers. Omar Rabea, Shireen Abu Akleh, Omar Assad, Rachel Corrie and now Sayfollah Musallet. None of their killers were held accountable.”

The press conference was followed by a formal letter delivered by CAIR to Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Tampa native herself, and Florida-born Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In it, they demanded that the U.S. government lead its own independent investigation and to hold accountable the Israeli settlers who murdered Sayfollah. They rejected the idea of Israel leading the investigation, as they have a history of protecting settlers and obscuring evidence.

Musallet was a local business owner, running an ice cream shop in Tampa called Ice SSSScreamin, with plans for the future to expand it. He also had plans to form a family and hoped to find a significant other while visiting Palestine. On July 13, his funeral gathered thousands of mourners in the Palestinian town of Al-Mazra'a Ash-Sharqiya.

In Tampa, a rally and march to honor Saif and Muhammad Shalabi, another Palestinian murdered by Israeli forces that day, was held on July 18 by the Dream Defenders and American Muslims for Palestine Florida chapter. The day after, CAIR Florida held a vigil for Sayfollah at the Islamic Community of Tampa, with attendants of multiple faiths coming together along with Saif’s own family to remember him.

#TampaFL #FL #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #CAIR #SayfollahMusallet

Tampa, Fl – Around 100 people gathered at the Islamic Community of Tampa on Saturday, July 19, to have a vigil for Palestinian martyr Sayfollah Musallet.

Musallet was a 20-year-old Tampa resident and U.S. citizen. He was a well-known community member and owned a local ice cream shop named Ice Sssscreamin. He was visiting family in the occupied West Bank when he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers on his family’s land on July 11.

The vigil was organized by the Center for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Florida. They held prayer and invited elected officials, community members, as well as family and friends of Musallet to speak in remembrance of him. Musallet’s eight-year-old cousin spoke of Sayf being one of many martyrs murdered in Palestine by Israeli settlers, and of their family deserving justice from those responsible.

Tampa City Councilmember Lynn