Tuesday’s reactionary ruling by the Supreme Court, allowing law enforcement to arrest and indefinitely detain immigrants without a right to bond hearings, is an international disgrace.

But what might be just as disgraceful is the deafening silence we’ve heard from the Democratic Party leadership in response. Nada. Zero.

The 5-3 decision in Jennings v. Rodriguez doesn’t just apply to undocumented immigrants, but to asylum seekers and people with permanent legal status as well. Yet the Democratic Party leaders are so worried about alienating their centrist voters in November that they can’t find the stomach to defend the basic democratic rights of people fleeing wars, extreme poverty, or making the final steps toward full U.S. citizenship. It’s even more disgraceful knowing that our country’s military and economic policies bear some heavy responsibility for the forced migration we have seen over the course of decades.

This ruling puts millions of immigrants at risk of imminent arrest and detention – something we as Californians cannot tolerate. Stand with me in clearly, and unequivocally, denouncing the Supreme Court’s decision to strip immigrants of their legal right to bail.  

The timing of the SCOTUS decision couldn’t be more ominous. This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested more than 150 undocumented immigrants in Northern California. The number might have been higher had the Oakland mayor and immigrant advocacy groups not alerted the community about the impending raids on Saturday night.

As your Lieutenant Governor, I will demand that all California police departments and sheriff’s offices, and all their law enforcement personnel, obey California state law prohibiting cooperation with ICE agents and continue to oppose ICE’s persecution, capture and indefinite detaining of our residents without warrants – and without the right to bail.

Now more than ever it is time to protect our neighbors! I call on all Californians to mobilize in each community, city and county to defend all working families regardless of their immigration status. We must use the most creative and determined means at our disposal to respond to the illegal ICE raids happening across our state.

Stand with me by pledging peacefully to protect our neighbors. We can only rely on ourselves, our communities, and our sense of doing what is right. This is no moment to be on the sidelines: Human lives, and the American promise itself, are literally at stake. Together we can stand up to Trump’s tyranny and reinstate our values through our actions.

Let’s not be silent like the leadership of the Democratic Party. Let’s be loud and in active solidarity like many local officials and grassroots citizens are doing, and make it clear that all men and women have certain unalienable rights, and that among them is the right to liberty, bail and a fair trial.

The U.S. Constitution is for all people on our soil.

Please join my campaign for California: https://gayleforcalifornia.org/donatetogayle/