‘Homegrowns Are Next’: Trump’s Mass Abduction Machine Won’t Spare US Citizens

On The Freedom Side LIVE, Thursday, 4/17 at 3pm ET/12pm PT, hosts Rania Khalek and Eugene Puryear are joined by special guests:

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, joins the show to break down the Trump administration’s unlawful deportation of hundreds of immigrants,including Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, mistakenly sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. A month later, no one held at CECOT has been allowed to contact their families—not even to confirm they’re alive. Reichlin-Melnick unpacks the human cost, Trump’s refusal to bring Garcia home, and the chilling possibility that U.S. citizens could be next.

Ruweida Amer, a journalist and teacher from Gaza, joins the show to report on Israel's US-backed genocide of Palestinians amid relentless bombardment and the total blockade of the besieged strip. Having worked on BreakThrough's film “The Encampments”, she will discuss Israel's systematic destruction of Gaza's education system, where over 70% of schools have been directly hit and all universities destroyed since October 2023.

Alec Karakatsanis, a civil rights lawyer and founder of Civil Rights Corps, joins the show to discuss his groundbreaking new book Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News. Karakatsanis will explain how the police and the corporate-owned media team up to distort public perception of crime —spreading fear, fueling mass incarceration, and propping up a system that criminalizes poverty, ignores white-collar crime, and prioritizes punishment over real public safety.

Zoe Alexandra, Editor of Peoples Dispatch, joins the show to discuss Ecuador’s controversial April 13 election, where right-wing incumbent Daniel Noboa was declared the winner despite polls favoring progressive presidential candidate Luisa González, who calls it "the most grotesque election fraud in Ecuador’s history" and demands a recount. Alexandra will provide updates on the unfolding situation in Ecuador, which remains entrenched in a deep social, economic, and political crisis.

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