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At Liberty

Deployments At Our Doorstep

At Liberty

At Liberty

News

4.8585 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Frog costumes. The Star Wars theme. Whistlemania. These could be the sights and sounds of Halloween—but this year, they've taken on new meaning. As federal agents and military troops arrive in their cities across the country, communities have used pop culture references, humor, and irreverence as an act of resilience. They’ve also banded together to form school escorts and other protective measures for their neighbors. This week, we’re exploring how residents of three cities have met this moment. We have three ACLU experts joining us. First up, we have Chandra S. Bhatnagar and Ed Yohnka of the ACLU of Southern California and Illinois. And around the 46-minute mark, Monica Hopkins of the ACLU of DC joins Kamau to discuss deployments in the nation’s capital. Want to get involved? Here are two actions you can take right now: action.aclu.org/send-message/tell-congress-no-troops-our-streets action.aclu.org/send-message/tell-congress-stop-masked-agents And if you’re still curious about the deployments, there’s a great explainer on YouTube: “Ask an ACLU Expert: President Trump’s Deployment of Federal Forces to Our Communities” with Hina Shamsi. https://youtu.be/1wQLAqD-KFM?si=LGsW6vlAM_A-1WKo At Liberty is a production of the ACLU. For the ACLU, our senior executive producer is Sam Riddell, our executive producer is Jessica Herman Weitz, and our intern is Madhvi Khianra. W. Kamau Bell and Melissa Hudson Bell, PhD are executive producers for Who Knows Best Productions. At Liberty is produced and edited by Erica Getto and Myrriah Gossett for Good Get. This episode was recorded at Skyline Studios in Oakland, CA.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey everyone, it's me, W. Kamau Bell. Welcome back to the ACLU's podcast at Liberty.

0:08.0

Frog costumes, the Star Wars theme, whistle mania. Nope, we're not talking about a Halloween party, we're talking about a protest.

0:17.0

Since June, people nationwide have come together as communities in response to the

0:22.3

Trump administration sending federal agents and military troops to their cities. Now, we don't

0:27.9

just mean the military deployments you've seen in the news. We mean an alphabet soup of agencies

0:32.8

including the FBI, DHS, and ICE. The administration wants you to think that these cities are war zones,

0:40.4

but it's the arrival of federal agents and military troops that actually pose a threat.

0:44.7

Now, we're recording this on Monday, October 27th. Today we're going to zero in on three cities

0:49.5

with three ACLU experts, Chicago, Los Angeles,

0:54.2

and Washington, D.C.

0:56.1

And by the end of our time together,

0:57.6

our hope is that you'll feel more informed,

1:00.0

more connected to your ACLU community across the country,

1:03.4

and better equipped to face a potential deployment

1:05.9

to your neighborhood.

1:07.6

And because joy and irreverence are a part of our resistance toolkit, don't forget to bring your unicorn costume.

1:13.6

Mine's a double extra large.

1:15.6

With that, let's get to work.

1:17.6

First up, we're turning our attention to Los Angeles and Chicago.

1:21.6

Chandra S. Batnagar is executive director of the ACLU of Southern California.

1:26.6

Ed Yanka is Director of Communications and Public Policy at the ACLU of Southern California. Ed Yonka is director of communications and public policy at the ACLU of Illinois.

1:34.0

So, Chandra, let's start with you.

...

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