Tell Congress: *END* the Patriot Act

Indiana, let's shut it down.

As salaamu alaykum, Indiana—

It's been twenty years and we're still living with the disastrous costs of the Patriot Act.

Passed by Congress in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, fueled by a racist rush to war, and signed into law so quickly that only a few elected officials even read the bill,¹ it's well past time to reverse the Patriot Act's historic mistake.²

Before another year passes, join our call to end the Patriot Act's warrantless surveillance on Muslims, immigrants, and racial justice activists.³

Let your elected officials in Congress know: you expect to see them make concrete moves to vote to repeal the Patriot Act in its entirety — before it turns 21.

Remember when Trump called Black Lives Matters protesters "extremists"?

He wasn't just speaking to the most racist parts of his base.

He was signaling to U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, the FBI, the NSA, and a whole slew of intelligence agencies that they can spy on people's phone and internet records without a warrant, thanks to the Patriot Act.⁴

Send your message to your Representative and Senators now.

The Patriot Act has been used for targeting and repression for twenty years now, under multiple Presidents. Spying on people's phone records, text messages and internet history without a warrant or justification was always part of the design of the Patriot Act.

What that means is this:

The Patriot Act is a weapon that stands waiting for any future President or would-be Trump who wants to use it to oppress U.S. Muslims and other marginalized communities, and target activists within the United States.

If we don't take every opportunity available to end it now, we're going to look back at this moment and ask why we didn't act — especially when we know the Patriot Act is politically vulnerable.

We know that our movements can win victories around the Patriot Act — just last year, Congress was forced to let a key provision of the Patriot Act, Section 215, expire.⁵

We can affect change here, but we also know that this fight won't be over until the entirety of the Patriot Act is repealed.

Tell Congress: Stop the Patriot Act. End it now. 

Take part in this effort with many of the same organizations that successfully pressured Congress last year to let provisions of the Patriot Act expire for good.

Thanks for all you do.

In solidarity,

Sijal, Lau, Sadaf, Ishraq and the MPower team.

Sources:

1. "After 20 years, it's time to repeal the Patriot Act and begin to dismantle the surveillance state," Salon, October 16th, 2021

2. "Watch The One Senator Who Voted Against The Patriot Act Warn What Would Happen," The Huffington Post, June 7th, 2013

3. "Section 215 Expired: Year in Review 2020," Electronic Frontier Foundation, December 29th, 2020

4. "The War on Terror Is Only Evolving," The Nation, August 24th, 2021

5. "As Black activists protested police killings, Homeland Security worried they might join ISIS," The Intercept, April 8th, 2019