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U.S. Citizen Children Are the Latest Casualty in Trump’s Immigration War

On Friday, a 2-year-old U.S. citizen was deported with “no meaningful process,” according to a federal judge. She’s one of several U.S. citizen children being torn from their home, sent to foreign countries without due process, and stripped of their rights and protection.

This little girl—and all U.S. citizen children of immigrant parents—deserves to be safe from deportation. She needs to know that the people around her love her and want to do what’s best for her. She needs to grow up in a country that wants her to thrive and succeed. She needs to believe that her family and everyone else will be able to count on the government to protect them from harm, and when necessary, to protect her from the government itself. In this moment, that may seem like a tall order, but only if we stand by while abuses like this happen. 

The government has the power to find and return these families. As a former DHS official, I know that deportation planes can be held, individuals can be taken off the manifest, and that officials can find and return people who have been wrongfully deported. It is not a question of resources, or logistics, or diplomatic niceties, or court orders. It’s a question of returning to the idea that immigration law is not a vehicle for expelling one’s enemies, but a set of laws that replicate the fundamental principles of dignity, justice and a fair day in court.

This Week in Women’s Representation: Earth Day 2025; Barbara Lee Wins Oakland Mayor Race with Ranked-Choice Voting; Group of All Men Negotiate Ukraine War

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: The official theme of Earth Day 2025 is “Our Power, Our Planet,” calling for individuals to advocate for climate solutions and renewable energy at every level of government; former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee won a convincing win in a ranked-choice voting election to become the fourth consecutive woman elected as mayor and the first-ever Black woman mayor; zero women were included in the Ukraine-Russia peace talks; a woman Democrat could replace Sen. Dick Durbin’s seat in Illinois; and more.

‘Now Reza Is the One in Prison’: Nasrin Sotoudeh on the Pain of Watching Her Husband Suffer on Behalf of Women’s Rights in Iran

Since Dec. 13, 2024, Nasrin Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan—a fellow activist—was arrested for his efforts on behalf of women’s rights in Iran. Now, Khandan sits in the notorious Evin Prison, where his visits are limited and conditions deplorable. Sotoudeh wrote the letter below to him on April 22, 2025, from Tehran:

“I spent over seven years in prison. Not as a criminal, but as an attorney who loves the law and believes in human rights. During that time, my husband Reza took care of our children, who were still very young. He brought them to school and to play dates and to doctors’ appointments, he cooked and he worked hard to pay our bills. Now, the children are grown up, I am free on medical leave and Reza is the one in prison. It is a strange and painful situation.

“Reza has always been a firm believer in full rights for women, and for people of all faiths and backgrounds. When he proposed to me, I told him that I refuse to wear the hijab. He said that’s a personal matter. It’s my business. His answer meant so much to me. Throughout our life together, he has always been faithful to those words.”

Take action: Sign this petition calling for the immediate release from prison of Reza Khandan, organized by Reza’s wife and fellow activist Sotoudeh, among others.

‘The Strong Do What They Please’: Dr. Judith Herman on Trump, Trauma and Tyranny

Feminist writers have long argued that there is an intrinsic relationship between patriarchy, rape and colonialism. The seizure of land by force is comparable to the seizure of a woman’s body—and historically rape and war have often gone hand-in-hand. 

In order to get a better understanding of how Donald Trump’s attitudes towards women might be related to his foreign policy, I reached out to Dr. Judith Herman, a world-renowned expert in trauma studies.

“The rules are pretty straightforward: The strong do what they please because they can. The weak submit because they have no other choice. And the bystanders are either complicit or too terrified to intervene, or just don’t care. These are the same rules whether we are talking about international relations or whether we’re talking about intimate personal relations.”

Fractured Families: A Second Trump Term Threatens Migrant Children

During President Donald Trump’s first term in office, a particular hell befell nearly 4,000 children who were separated from their families while trying to enter the U.S. at the southern border. At least 1,360 of these children still had not been reunited with their parents as of March 2024.

Now Trump is back in office, ordering increased deportations, and experts expect Trump to throw out any protective measures created by former President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have introduced legislation aimed at expanding criminal penalties for undocumented immigrants that may make it easier for Trump to separate families.

(This article originally appears in the Spring 2025 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox.)

‘Feminism, Fascism and the Future’: Sociologist Laurie Essig on Dissolving Democracies in Russia and the U.S.

Sociologist and author Laurie Essig has decades of experience studying and visiting Russia (and before that, the Soviet Union). Her first book, Queer in Russia, chronicles and analyzes the time between the dissolution of the USSR and the solidification of Putin’s non- (or anti-)democratic rule in Russia.

As Trump’s second term intensifies anti-gender rhetoric, sociologist Laurie Essig draws chilling parallels between rising U.S. authoritarianism and decades of state-sponsored repression in Putin’s Russia.

“One of the things we can learn from Russia is just how important resistance is. There were moments when things could have gone differently. They didn’t, but I don’t think that was pre-ordained. …

“Every strongman, every dictator we look at, had anxiety about masculinity.”

This Week in Women’s Representation: Women Outperformed Expectations in Battleground Congressional Races in 2024; Gen Z Women Shake Up Congress

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: The 2024 election is not yet over for North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs; Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois and Deja Foxx in Arizona are redefining what it means to run for office; debunking any suggestion that women and racial minorities are not electable; and more.

‘I Don’t Want Thick Skin. I Want to Feel People’s Pain’: Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Truth, Power and Breaking the Rules

Rep. Pramila Jayapal doesn’t believe in growing a thick skin. “I want to feel people’s pain,” she tells me. As chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and founder of the Resistance Lab, she’s building a politics rooted in empathy, resistance, and readiness: “We have to get strike ready.”

From walking out of the State of the Union to confronting power with “moral clarity,” Jayapal is done playing by the old rules: “When you don’t give respect, you don’t get respect.”

Thousands of U.S. Women Are Killed Each Year. Where’s the Outrage?

A spate of 11 femicides in Italy so far this year is making global headlines and prompting calls for “cultural rebellion.”  Yet femicide is far worse in the U.S., claiming thousands of lives a year, and comparatively normalized. It’s where the cultural pushback is needed most.

Last month, the U.N.’s annual two-week Conference on the Status of Women wrapped up in New York, having barely addressed growing threats of gender-based violence and without acknowledging the elephant in the room: how Trump administration policy swerves threaten to undo decades of progress for women, including women in the U.S.