Civics 4/29

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

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Good evening. Things might look politically bleak these days, but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders are gathering thousands at rallies pushing back and their popularity is growing.  In other news, Haitians fearing deportation from the U.S. see Canada as an alternative. Meanwhile, as the Trump administration tightens its grip, one writer sees it leading to sugarcoated authoritarianism. Finally, hundreds of Hmong veterans may get the recognition they deserve for fighting alongside Americans in Vietnam.Plus, we’re bringing you the latest updates at url-media.com as events unfold. Have a question? Write to us at [email protected].

Credit: Jim Heaphy

Is AOC on track to be the Dems’ 2028 candidate? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders have some people who are resistant to Donald Trump and MAGA’s ultra-conservative brand of politics hopeful for 2028. So much so that the New York representative and Vermont senator are emerging as the voice of that resistance.

The duo is in the midst of the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. They have made 11 stops since March 20, with no sign of slowing down. So far, they’ve hit big cities like Los Angeles, midsize cities like Tucson, Ariz., and Salt Lake City, and smaller towns like Nampa, Idaho, and Missoula, Mont.  More cities are planned in the coming months, according to Sanders’ website.

Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have made it a point to visit conservative-leaning areas and drawing not just crowds of people who never supported Trump and want him out, but also Trump voters who allegedly are experiencing “buyers’ remorse” due to policies that they feel have failed to result in any material gain.

The numbers reflect their appeal. In Salt Lake City, 20,000 people showed up; in Nampa, 12,000 turned out, and in Missoula, 9,000 people came together to rally their support. Each of these towns are in states that Trump won by 20 percentage points or more. The largest crowds, however, were in Los Angeles and Denver, where 36,000 and 34,000, respectively, came to the gatherings.

It’s all led to talk of a possible Sanders/Ocasio-Cortez ticket in 2028. But it’s not likely for Sanders. He ran in 2026 and 2020, but did not win the Democratic party nomination, and at 83 years old, he’s likely looking at the final years of his political career. For Ocasio-Cortez, the outlook may be different. She is 35 and has yet to express any interest in a presidential run. But if she did, a mock poll at Yale University shows her coming in second only to former Vice President Kamala Harris among Democratic voters. Read more at URL Media. →

Haitian refugees, fearful of deportation by the United States due to aggressive government efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants, are beginning to turn to Canada to find asylum rather than return to their home country, which is rife with gang violence, political turmoil and poverty. 

The Haitian Times reports that leaders from the community gathered for International Haitian Diaspora Days, convening in Montreal earlier in April. They discussed how to handle a potential influx of their people from Canada’s southern border as a result of Trump administration policies. 

According to recent data from the Canada Border Services Agency, asylum claims shot up 226% in the first two weeks of April at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing, a port of entry from the U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. The agency reported more than 1,400 individuals—mostly Haitians—sought asylum.

“We’re not just going to ask the Canadian or Quebec government what they can do. We also need to figure out what we can do as a community,” said Pierre-Gérald, co-founder of the event. “Haitians have contributed greatly to Quebec and Canada. Now it’s our turn to support those arriving from Haiti.”Click here for more at The Haitian Times. →

Nonprofits are drawing a line in the sand and preparing to go toe-to-toe with the Trump administration as threats mount of revoked tax-exempt statuses, investigations, or other red tape, particularly if they nonprofits do not comply with Trump’s anti-DEI narrative.EpicenterNYC said in an analysis that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the controversial agency run by billionaire Elon Musk, plans to assign a team to the nonprofit Vera Institute for Justice and alluded to doing the same with any other nonprofit that received Congressional funds.It marks what critics of the administration say is the beginning of a war on nonprofits and organizations that do not capitulate to Trump’s agenda. This has already included a number of universities, most notably Harvard, law firms, the media, and government agencies once seen as beneficial, like the National Institutes of Health. Also, international student visas were in Trump’s crosshairs, but ICE has reportedly decided to restore 1,500 student visas after multiple lawsuits were filed.

Felipe de la Hoz writes in the Epicenter piece that Trump is trying to create an authoritarian environment disguised as democracy. He uses Viktor Orban’s regime in Hungary as an example.“...If you walk today through the streets of Ankara or Budapest, things might look substantively as they do here: people will be sitting at cafés, having conversations about politics as readily as the weather…” he explains. “It’s only digging a little below the surface that it will become apparent that things don’t quite work as we’d expect in a democratic system.”Read more in EpicenterNYC. → 

Decades ago, Hmong soldiers sided with American forces in the Vietnam War, many sacrificing their lives to help U.S. troops who were =cornered in their campaigns in Southeast Asia. In exchange, America promised them safe passage. Since that time, as much as half of the Hmong population of Laos has immigrated to America as refugees, largely to the Midwest.But the contribution of Hmong veterans has largely gone unacknowledged. The Minnesota State Senate took measures to correct that last Wednesday when they passng a bill to grant benefits to some of the veterans who allied with the U.S., reports Sahan Journal.

“You cannot tell the story of Minnesota without the story of the Hmong,” said Minn. state Sen. Aric Putnam, a Democratic Farmer Labor Party member who represents St. Cloud. “This is about us. Our Hmong neighbors and friends today live the legacy of those soldiers who we can and should respect with our decision today.” More than 900 Hmong and Laotian veterans in Minnesota would receive benefits for fighting in special guerilla units in Laos. Benefits are to include special designations for drivers licenses, plus veteran burial ceremonies and gravemarkers. Healthcare benefits are not included. The Minnesota House is set to vote on the bill Apr. 29.Read more in Sahan Journal. →

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