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JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Paul, I wanted to ask you about other things you mentioned in your letter, the issue of those folks on death row for federal crimes. Under President Trump’s first term, he oversaw the execution of 13 death row inmates, executing the most federal death row inmates of any president in more than a century. Talk about who is awaiting a death sentence now.
PAUL O’BRIEN: Thanks, yes, and those 13 executions happened in President Trump’s last six months. That’s what may be coming if we don’t see President Biden taking action now.
So, right now there are 44 men still on federal and military death row. One of those cases, Billie Allen, he was 19 when he committed a crime in 1998. There were deep flaws in his case, no DNA evidence, clear racism in his case. And yet, at the age of 47, more than half his life, he’s still there.
So, what we are asking President Biden to do is something he said he was going to work on in 2020. He said he was going to abolish the death penalty. All he’s done is put a moratorium during his administration. But that won’t mean anything once his administration ends. President Trump can simply end that moratorium and return to what he was doing at the end of his administration. So we need President Biden to commute those 44 sentences now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Also, President-elect Trump has vowed to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy. In what ways could President Biden help restore asylum at the border before his term ends?
PAUL O’BRIEN: Well, this is probably the greatest human rights crisis that is coming at us now, because President Trump has made clear he is going to immediately start engaging in mass deportations. President Biden, again, promised a human rights approach to immigration, and he has singularly failed to do so. In June, he passed an executive order which effectively shut down the U.S.-Mexico border and created this numerical cap on the number of people who can seek asylum.
There are many very specific things that he can do. During his administration, he set up the CBP One app. This is an app that people on the border can use to apply. I went down there and met with women, often mothers of young children, living in tents, waiting for this app to tell them when they could legally apply to enter the United States. And they were waiting month after month with no news. What he could do immediately is speed up the CBP One app process to get more people to legally apply for asylum, particularly for vulnerable populations.
But he could do so much more, as well, in these last couple of months. He could immediately stop expanding detention centers. He could shut down problematic detention centers and end the contracts of the companies that are running them. He could order the release of vulnerable populations who are in detention. He still has time to surge resources to address some of the backlogs that are now being experienced. And everything that he doesn’t do is going to make it easier for President Trump to fulfill his promises to initiate the biggest deportation in history.
AMY GOODMAN: Paul O’Brien, you’ve also called for the closing of Guantánamo. Explain.
PAUL O’BRIEN: It’s time, Amy. There are still 30 men there. President Biden has a window of opportunity right now. He can transfer all the detainees that are still there, already cleared for release, not charged with crimes, to countries where their human rights will be respected. He can halt unfair military commissions and help to resolve the pending cases that are there. All this can be done if he commits to closing Guantánamo once and for all during his last days in office. It can be done.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Gaza. Paul O’Brien, you’re executive director of Amnesty International USA. You’ve said, “Change course on Gaza: Stop arms transfers to the government of Israel in order to protect civilians and ensure U.S. weapons are not being used in violation of international law.” Senator Bernie Sanders, in the largest collection of U.S. senators, several dozen U.S. senators, they voted to stop arming Israel, but that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t the majority of the Senate, Paul.
PAUL O’BRIEN: That’s right. And this is what the United States must do now, and President Biden must show more leadership on this. It’s been weak rhetoric and weaker action since October 7 of 2023. He needs to send a clear message that the United States is no longer going to arm the killing of civilians in indiscriminate attacks, that we have documented time and again over the last more than a year now. He needs to use his remaining leverage to get a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. He needs to open up humanitarian access. And these will be the basis, we believe, and he needs to call for, the safe return of those remaining hostages. What is happening now to the Palestinian people has happened on President Biden’s watch, and he needs to take action to protect innocent lives in Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA. We’ll link to your letter urging President Biden to “change course on critical human rights before end of term.” We’ll link to it at democracynow.org.
When we come back, we look at a new short documentary about the execution of a Texas death row prisoner. It’s called I Am Ready, Warden. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: “Willing to Wait” by Evan Greer, musician and director of Fight for the Future. Greer confronted Republican Congressmember Nancy Mace last week at an internet conference over Mace’s anti-trans bigotry. Tune in tomorrow on Democracy Now! when we speak with Chase Strangio of the ACLU. He’s set to make history next week, the first trans attorney to argue a case before the Supreme Court.
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