Senator Slotkin and Rep. Scholten continue to get behind legislation that are clearly designed to further criminalize foreign nationals and political dissidents

On March 27th, the House of Representatives passed H.R.1048, known as the Deterrent Act. The Deterrent Act is a Republican initiated piece of legislation that will amend the Higher Education Act of 1965, in order to to strengthen disclosure requirements relating to foreign gifts and contracts.

In reality, The Deterrent Act is part of a larger effort by the GOP and the Trump Administration to allow them to attack college and universities that are engaged in practices that the far right doesn’t support. Indeed, The Deterrent Act is part of the larger war against higher education and should be viewed as an effort to attack what can and can’t be taught at the university level.

The House passed this bill, with 210 Republicans voting for it and 31 Democrats, including Rep. Hillary Scholten. Rep. Scholten once again demonstrated that she is willing to vote with Republicans, especially on legislation that will appease conservative West Michigan. In fact, Scholten was the only Democrat in Michigan to vote for  H.R.1048, as you can see at this link.

However, it gets worse.

Last week, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin announced that she was getting behind a bipartisan Senate bill called The Deterrence Act.

On April 15, Sen. Slotkin posted on her website: 

Under the DETERRENCE Act, which unanimously passed the U.S. Senate last year, criminals working for foreign adversaries can be sentenced to longer prison sentences. The bill specifically increases criminal penalties for the following federal crimes when the crimes are committed under U.S. jurisdiction on behalf of foreign governments:

• Engaging in a murder-for-hire scheme 
• Murdering or attempting to murder certain federal officials, including the President 
• Murdering or attempting to murder certain former federal officials, or their families, because of their official actions 
• Assaulting certain former federal officials, or their families, because of their official actions 
• Kidnapping or attempted kidnapping 
• Threats of violence using a dangerous weapon against certain current and former federal officials, as well as their families, because of their official actions 
• Stalking   

This legislation follows reports that foreign adversaries are increasingly turning to criminals in America to commit violent crimes against their critics, including those who reside in the United States.

Now, many people might read this as a good thing. I mean, “why shouldn’t we protect our elected officials who might be threatened by foreign adversaries?” In this political moment, we have to critically examine legislation like this and not be so easily swayed by their claims, for two reasons. First, there are already significant consequences for anyone, foreign and American, who would attempt to assault, kidnap or murder federal officials. Secondly, this kind of legislation is not so much designed to protect elected officials as it is designed to further criminalize foreign nationals who are critical of US policy. 

Can you not see that this kind of legislation will be used to further punish people like Mahmoud Khalil and the Tufts student and Turkish national Rümeysa Öztürk, both of which were arrested by ICE. In fact, Drop Site news recently posted a story entitled, By Weaponizing Arrest Records and Suspending Due Process, the Trump Administration Has Targeted Over 1,000 Foreign Students.

Ultimately, legislation like the one that Senator Slotkin is endorsing, legislation that was crafted by Republicans, will be used to criminalize people who question and confront federal officials through public statements, during town hall meetings and other public appearances. If this kind of legislation were to pass, imagine what the federal government would have done to a student activist who pied Senator Carl Levin back in 2010?