The approximately 15 million residents of the Southwest border region live under a massive  federal police presence and extensive surveillance: the ever-present hum of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) helicopters overhead; residents’ information collected by CBP surveillance cameras, drones, license plate readers, and blimps; and Border Patrol vehicles roaming their neighborhoods and questioning them at interior checkpoints. It’s all at enormous U.S. taxpayer expense, and it does not make us safer. 

A meaningful shift in border policy to restore the civil rights and liberties of border communities means an end to walls, wasteful militarization, intrusive surveillance technology, and the removal of Border Patrol, CBP’s law enforcement arm, from policing U.S. communities.  

Border Patrol not only executed the Trump administration’s cruelest border policies, from family separation to the inhumane and dangerous detention system, the agency also further expanded its over-policing and militarization of U.S. communities. Reversing Trump’s abuses is not enough. The next administration must reign in this rogue agency. 
 
CBP’s violent tactics cause pervasive racial profiling, injuries, and deaths. Border Patrol vehicle chases increased under the Trump administration, injuring at least 250 people, a 42 percent increase, and killing 22 people. Despite clear legal boundaries, Border Patrol commonly flouts constitutional protections against racial profiling, often providing flimsy, pretextual reasons to stop or search Black and Brown community members. Border Patrol’s training materials even claim that a car riding too low or too high, or when someone makes too much or not enough eye contact, can justify a stop. CBP operates over 40 permanent interior checkpoints, which block border communities from essential services — including medical care during a pandemic — and limit free movement. 
 
Consequently, U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, tourists, and others are frequently pulled over or questioned by Border Patrol for no reason, near and far from the border — such as when a Border Patrol agent interrogated two U.S. citizens for speaking Spanish at a Montana convenience store. We sued and, in the course of litigation, CBP agents admitted to profiling “Mexicans.” 
 
The Trump administration also flooded the border region with Border Patrol agents and, in unprecedented fashion, deployed CBP personnel and surveillance assets to monitor Black Lives Matter protests in cities nationwide. Immigration personnel’s over-policing and militarization of border and interior communities is rooted in our nation’s history of over-policing Black people and must end.
 
President-elect Biden stated that, “the border between Mexico and the U.S. shouldn’t be treated like a war zone.” To solidify that pledge, the Biden administration should issue an executive order directing CBP to comply with Fourth Amendment standards against unreasonable search and seizure throughout the U.S., including in any border zone, and direct the Attorney General to conduct all necessary investigations to assess steps to bring CBP policy and practice into compliance with those standards. Permanent interior checkpoints should be eliminated, and the number of Border Patrol agents should immediately be reduced by 50 percent. 
 
Biden must also tackle the destructive border infrastructure that has further militarized the region, wasted tax dollars, and violated the law. Through unlawful money grabs, the Trump administration funded construction of over 300 miles of unauthorized border wall, devastating sensitive ecosystems, damaging communities, and funneling migrants into more deadly regions. Not only should all wall construction immediately cease, the Biden administration should assess how to dismantle existing walls and barriers through consultation with environmental experts and border and tribal communities, and rapidly remove unlawfully constructed border wall. 
 
The Trump administration also deployed, through multiple operations, over 16,000 Defense Department personnel to the border. His administration issued various memos and directives expanding permissible use of force guidelines for military personnel at the border, including permitting the use of deadly force in certain circumstances. Retired military generals called these deployments “dangerous” and “wasteful,” and Border Patrol’s own union called them a “colossal waste of time.” Troops should be withdrawn from the border and not deployed again, and this region must not be subject to forever expanding surveillance.
 
Surveillance technology, justified as a means of border security, frequently spreads across border communities, degrading privacy rights of all residents. A recent study found 230 instances of local law enforcement using advanced technologies in border communities. CBP also operates an air force of drones, planes, and helicopters equivalent to Brazil’s entire combat air force, yet drones are responsible for only 0.5 percent of border apprehensions. The drones are more often loaned to other law enforcement agencies, including during recent protests over the killing of George Floyd. CBP must abandon its use of drones.
 
The Trump administration has begun to deploy hundreds of mobile surveillance towers, to be installed across the border over the next five years, adding to the dragnet of existing cameras across the region. This is despite CBP spending $1 billion on its last failed attempt to create a “virtual border fence.” These efforts don’t come with any of the necessary privacy protections, nor does peppering sensitive lands with mobile surveillance towers respect the environment or border communities.

Invasive surveillance technologies are not a viable alternative to physical border barriers absent strict privacy protections. Other mass surveillance devices — like tethered blimps and surveillance towers — must never be used to surveil border communities or other interior areas of the U.S.

President-elect Biden pledged to “ensure our values are squarely at the center of our immigration and enforcement policies.” A smart border policy that both restores the civil rights and liberties of border communities and upholds our values requires an end to walls, wasteful militarization, intrusive surveillance technology, and the removal of Border Patrol from policing U.S. communities. 

Over the last four years, the Trump administration has embraced a distorted view of religious freedom that is rooted in bigotry against minority faiths and atheists and promotes an official preference for Christianity. They’ve targeted Muslims for no reason other than rank prejudice and favored certain types of Christians in law and policy, with no regard for the harms those actions have inflicted on everyone else. President-elect Biden and his administration must make restoring religious liberty for all and protecting the separation of church and state among their top priorities.
 
Here are just a few of the many actions that should be at the top of the Biden administration’s religious-freedom to-do list:

Rescind the Muslim ban and affirm that Muslims are a valued part of America’s pluralistic religious tapestry

Within days of taking office, President Trump signed an executive order banning foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from visiting the United States and prohibiting refugees from entering the country. The order followed through on Trump’s bigoted promise as a candidate to enact “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Although the ban’s terms and criteria shifted slightly over time as the administration tried to defend it in court, the Supreme Court upheld the ban and that shameful policy remains in place today.

President-elect Biden must fulfill his campaign promise to rescind the Muslim ban. He must also rescind all related policies that resulted from these orders and abused the same legal authority. That won’t be enough, however, to redress the deep pain and exclusion that President Trump and his administration have inflicted on Muslim communities. The administration’s discriminatory policies and hateful rhetoric ushered in a renewed era of open hostility and violence toward Muslims (and many other marginalized communities). From day one of his presidency, President Biden must denounce all efforts to target or discriminate against Muslims and those of other minority faiths, and he must ensure that Muslims receive the same treatment and access to our immigration system as everyone else.

Stop allowing religious exemptions that harm others

The Trump administration has proposed or adopted numerous policies that treat religious freedom as a license to discriminate, no matter the harm to others. In October 2017, the Department of Justice issued religious-liberty guidance for all executive agencies, declaring that federal law “might require an exemption or accommodation for religious organizations from antidiscrimination law … even where Congress has not expressly exempted religious organizations.” In fact, the ultimate federal law — the U.S. Constitution — has long been understood and interpreted to prohibit religious exemptions that impose harm on others, in part because these exemptions violate the separation of church and state by elevating some faith beliefs over the rights of others.

But that hasn’t derailed the Trump administration’s effort to gut health care protections by enacting rules that allow any health care worker to
refuse care to patients based on the worker’s personal religious or moral objections, or permit any employers to deny their employees contraception coverage. Nor has it stopped the administration from giving special privileges to certain religious groups by, for example, proposing or implementing rules that allow federal contractors with the Department of Labor to discriminate against LGBTQ employees and others, or that make it easier for federally funded social services providers to turn away religious minorities and LGBTQ people, all based on the contractors’ and providers’ religious beliefs.

The Trump administration has even gone so far as to argue in the Supreme Court that religious groups contracting with the government to provide foster care services for children should be able to discriminate against prospective LGBTQ foster parents—potentially opening the door to all manner of discrimination by those performing core government services with taxpayer dollars. And it has argued that the First Amendment protects the ability of businesses to turn away same-sex couples based on the business owners’ religious beliefs. In other words, the Trump administration has advocated for a far-reaching constitutional right to discriminate.

The Biden administration must take every action necessary to reverse these positions, which misinterpret religious liberty to enable discrimination and undermine our basic rights to be treated equally. It must immediately rescind the DOJ’s 2017 religious freedom guidance and withdraw all proposed and non-final regulations permitting discrimination based on religious beliefs against LGBTQ people and people seeking reproductive care.

Recommit to the separation of religion and government

President Trump and his administration have demonstrated a sweeping, dangerous contempt for the separation of church and state. The right to believe what we want and to exercise our faith, so long as we’re not harming others, is unquestionably a fundamental component of religious freedom. But the First Amendment also guarantees, through the Establishment Clause, an equally vital aspect of religious liberty: the right to be free from governmental imposition and promotion of religion.

Our government represents us all and should remain neutral on matters of faith. Instead, President Trump continually singled out and discriminated against Muslims and privileged Christian beliefs over the rights of others. He encouraged public schools to teach biblical doctrine. His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, used government resources to deliver a sermon, called “How to be a Christian Leader,” to a religious organization. And Attorney General William Barr has repeatedly railed against atheists and others who do not share his Christian beliefs, accusing them of being immoral and plotting the “organized destruction” of religion. Under Barr’s leadership, and his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department also has repeatedly taken positions in court cases that undermine the separation of church and state. This includes arguing, for example, that a state should be required to fund religious education at private schools and that the government should be allowed to display a 40-foot Latin cross on public property.

The Biden administration must recommit the executive branch to defending the separation of religion and government. It must show robust support for fundamental Establishment Clause principles in court, in agency rules, regulations and guidance, and in rhetoric, too. What the President and top-ranking officials say about people who are non-religious or members of minority faiths matters. Promoting exclusionary and discriminatory messages and policies directly conflicts with the Constitution’s promise of religious equality and neutrality.

By prioritizing these actions, President Biden and his administration can begin to restore and advance true religious liberty for all.
 

In the last four years, the Trump administration has aggressively dismantled federal protections that ensure equal treatment against racial discrimination, amplified racist rhetoric, and explicitly targeted communities of color with harmful executive actions. The Biden-Harris administration must both reinstate federal rules that protect against racial discrimination, and take meanginful steps to further advance racial justice in the U.S.

Here are just a few of the many items that should top the Biden Administration’s to-do list: 

Support H.R. 40

The Biden-Harris administration must support H.R. 40, a bill that would set up a long overdue commission to examine the institution of slavery, its legacy, and make recommendations for reparations to Congress. 

During slavery, Black people were forced to labor for the enrichment of America. After slavery, the emancipated suffered violent repression and exploitation under Jim Crow laws and Black codes in the South and de facto segregation across the nation. Since then, the vile policies of enslavement, codified in American culture and the Constitution, shifted to take on new forms of injustice and drivers of oppression that are still woven across our institutions today — from education and healthcare to our criminal legal system. The U.S. government has continued to perpetuate and often profit from racially-exclusionary policies and practices that  disadvantage Black people in all aspects of society. This is evident in modern day voter suppression, policies that deny Black people fair housing opportunities, redlining practices that perpetuate segregation, legislation such as the Homestead Act, which actively denied economic justice opportunities to Black people, and mass incarceration. 

H.R. 40 is a critical first step toward addressing the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of the institution of slavery in the United States and its legacy. Reparations for slavery are necessary if we are to advance racial justice in this country.  The Biden administration must support H.R. 40.

End attacks on racial and gender equity trainings

The Biden-Harris administration must rescind President Trump’s executive order banning federal entities and contractors from providing employees with training on “divisive concepts” and “harmful ideologies” related to race and gender.

What Trump deems “harmful ideologies” are actually concepts diversity trainings use to educate individuals on the systemic barriers and discrimination people of color and other marginalized groups in this country still face today across our institutions — from our workplaces and schools to our criminal legal system. Our country needs to acknowledge its history of systemic racism and sexism and reckon with present day impacts of racial and gender discrimination. Halting all diversity training could set back progress in addressing these systemic issues, among others — including in the workplace. In order for us to move forward as a country to address racism and sexism, the Biden administration must do its part and rescind this executive order, “On Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.”

Address disparities in school discipline

With the rise of law enforcement in schools, the proliferation of zero-tolerance policies, and misuse of suspensions and expulsions, our nation’s school discipline policies are pushing children out of school into the school to prison pipeline. Black and Brown students, students with disabilities, and other marginalized students are disparately impacted by these punitive approaches to school discipline. 

As part of a reinstatement of civil rights guidance, the Biden administration should reinstate federal guidance on nondiscriminatory school discipline and support school districts in pursuing alternatives to exclusionary and punitive school discipline practices that disproportionately harm students of color and students with disabilities. 

Protect diversity in our schools

The Biden administration must reinstate guidance on voluntary use of race in school admissions to achieve diversity and avoid racial isolation in elementary, secondary schools, and in postsecondary education, as outlined in  Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.

The federal guidance to promote racial diversity and end the growing racial isolation in K-12 classrooms and in higher education provided a thoughtful and clear explanation of two Supreme Court cases governing the use of race in K-12 education and higher education, Parents Involved v. Seattle Schools and Grutter v. Bollinger, which recognized the importance of promoting diversity in learning environments and established parameters for doing so. The guidance documents acknowledged a problem that education experts as well as students and parents long recognized: Too many of our nation’s classrooms are racially isolated, and this isolation is only increasing among students.

The guidance also outlined the Supreme Court’s explicit recognition that promoting diversity and avoiding racial isolation in schools are not only compelling governmental interests but also among the nation’s highest priorities. The guidance demonstrated the various ways that efforts to create diverse student bodies in schools and universities can be done effectively, fairly, and in compliance with the existing law in order to improve the quality of education for all students.

The administration should also reinstate guidance on access to education for all children, regardless of immigration status. The Trump administration withdrew the federal guidance that provided school districts with important clarity on the requirement under federal law to provide equal access to education for all children, regardless of immigration status. The Supreme Court in Plyler v. Doe recognized that denying children a basic education is to “deny them the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions” and to contribute to society. The guidance provided critical recognition of the rights of children and gave educators the practical information necessary to comply with federal law and support their students. The administration must reinstate this guidance to give all children the equal opportunity to access education — regardless of their immigration status.