This Month in Criminalization

Written By Tiffany Wang

August 21, 2025

You can also read the original newsletter in Mailchimp here.


Welcome to the August edition of Interrupting Criminalization's "This Month in Criminalization" newsletter, in which IC co-founder Andrea J. Ritchie shares hot topics and current legislative and policy developments in criminalization, and points people to calls to action and relevant resources.

You can find the full newsletter below, with action items and resources listed in drop-down sections, indicated by a "+” sign on the left. If you prefer to go directly to checking out all of the “action items,” you can find them in this white box section:

The past month has brought a rapid acceleration of authoritarianism including: 

Yet, as repression expands, resistance is mounting:

Our goal in these monthly roundups is not to contribute to the overwhelm, but to help you sift through the firehose of information and focus in a few things we can and must do from wherever we are — as organizers, community members, health care providers, educators, legislators, and funders — to interrupt the criminalization that is the core mechanism and methodology of implementing and rationalizing Right-wing, authoritarian, and fascist agendas and regimes. Deep thanks to our partners at the Building Movement Project, Muslims for Just Futures, and FWD.us for their contributions.

Let us know if you find these roundups helpful, how you are using them, and what you’d like to see more or less of in these monthly updates by completing this very short survey.

If you are organizing to resist criminalization and could use a thought partner, connections, resources, or training:

D.C. and Los Angeles Today, Chicago, New York City, Baltimore, Oakland, and More Tomorrow

➡️  The administration has made it clear that the occupation of D.C. is a testing ground for targeting cities across the country, particularly those identified as Sanctuary Cities and those led by Black mayors who are resisting its authoritarian, anti-migrant, anti-unhoused, and ableist agenda. The President has also suggested that he will propose federal legislation allowing for similar actions across the country, and a Pentagon proposal to create a permanent “Domestic Disturbance Quick Civil Reaction Force” that can be immediately deployed to situations of “civil unrest” recently came to light.

 

Block Expansion of Abduction Force and Detention and Deportation Capacity

➡️  The administration is moving forward with its mass detention and deportation agenda, announcing that over 100,000 people have applied to become ICE agents over the past two weeks, incentivized by $50,000 signing bonuses and promises of loan forgiveness, as well as removal of age limits and other conditions of employment.

According to recent reports, it plans to build or repurpose facilities across the country to more than double immigration detention capacity, including by opening and expanding the Fort Bliss detention facility, which is slated to become the largest in the U.S. at a cost of $1.2 billion. The U.S. Attorney General is also threatening prosecution of local officials in Sanctuary Cities.

 

Federal and State Action Increasing Threats to Abortion and Gender-Affirming Care

➡️  Former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was recently appointed co-Deputy Director of the FBI. As Missouri Attorney General, Bailey:

  • cited junk science in a suit accusing Planned Parenthood of lying about the safety of medication abortion;

  • subpoenaed the records of the Missouri Abortion Fund in an effort to gain access to patient records;

  • accused abortion funds and providers of “trafficking” children out of state to obtain abortions.

Bailey also unsuccessfully tried to compel production of patient records from a hospital providing care to trans youth.

➡️  This past month the federal administration also moved to ban the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) health system from providing or funding abortion care and barred federal employee health plans from providing coverage for gender-affirming care. 

➡️  At the state level:

 

Some Good News!

➡️  The domestic terrorism charge against #StopCopCity defendant Jamie Mariscano was dismissed! Unfortunately, the charge was not dismissed with prejudice, and Jamie is still among 61 people charged under the Georgia RICO statute — but the court’s dismissal of the charge still represents an important victory in these cases. Additionally, “no contact” orders and travel restrictions were recently lifted for two defendants at a bail hearing. 

 

Free Support

  • Feeling scared? Overwhelmed? The Liberation Line is there to support you! The Liberation Line provides free mental health support calls to organizers and activists, offering support, listening, resources, processing, debriefing or strategizing. These are confidential, non-crisis, non-therapy phone calls facilitated by a trusted volunteer with experience in offering mental health support and who aligns with Palestinian and collective liberation. The Liberation Line is open to any organizer or activist involved in social or political change, who may be impacted by police or state brutality, counter-protestor violence, racism, oppression, or is experiencing conflict, stress, burnout or trauma related to their community organizing or activism. 

  • A reminder that Interrupting Criminalization also offers a number of free help desks:

    • Resisting Criminalization Help Desk — for organizers and groups looking for thought partnership and one-on-one consultation and support around organizing, advocacy, budget, policy, legislative or litigation strategies to interrupt criminalization, policing, and state violence.

    • Transformative Justice Help Desk — for groups and individuals who are working on projects and community-wide interventions to respond to, transform, and interrupt harm and violence without using the police and other carceral systems, and are looking for support or thought partnership.

    • Abolition Media Office Hours — for journalists, communicators, and media makers who want to challenge "copaganda,” shift the narrative about Palestine, crime, community safety, and other subjects, or directly support incarcerated people in telling their own stories; for organizers looking for help on how to build relationships with journalists or hone in on messaging their campaigns.

    • Beyond Do No Harm Health Care Strategy Consult — health care workers committed to preventing and resisting harm in health care, or looking for a thought partner on practical strategies for organizing to interrupt criminalization in health care environments.

 
Tiffany Wang
Next

This Month in Criminalization