CNN: Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush Responds to Trump's Religious Liberty Commission
Watch HereAnalysis
Tracking Trump's executive orders: Barriers to casting a ballot
Executive Order 14248: Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections
Date Signed: March 25, 2025
Status: implemented
Key Provisions:
- This Executive Order requires all voters to provide a government issued ID that indicates citizenship status, such as a passport, in order to cast their ballot. Drivers’ licenses and military IDs, alone, do not qualify.
- The Order would also affect mail-in voting by declaring that any mail-in ballot or vote counted after election day will be void, falsely alleging that “this is like allowing persons who arrive 3 days after Election Day, perhaps after a winner has been declared, to vote in person at a former voting precinct.”
- This Order requires that states share sensitive voter data with the Attorney General and the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE).
- States that refuse to comply with the order face the loss of critical election funding, including Help America Vote Act (HAVA) election security grants.
Interfaith Alliance Counterpoints:
- As a leading voice in the pro-democracy faith movement, Interfaith Alliance is deeply concerned about the implications this order will have on our constitutional right to vote and participate in elections.
- This order is an unconstitutional overreach by the President, as only Congress and the states are afforded the power to legislate election administration by the Constitution.
- Instead of protecting our electoral system, this Executive Order would brazenly undermine people’s right to the ballot box, especially historically marginalized communities who have been targeted by anti-democratic measures in the past.
- This voter ID requirement is more stringent than any voter ID law currently in effect. It would prevent Americans from most states from using drivers’ licenses or military IDs as sole forms of identification.
- Interfaith Alliance is concerned with how this will impact naturalized citizens and the millions of Americans who do not have such documents and face barriers to access them.
Transcript
The Trump Administration’s Latest Attacks on Muslim Community Leaders
After months in detention, we finally received the good news that Ohio chaplain Ayman Soliman was released from jail as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dropped his deportation case. Soliman was an interfaith chaplain at a children’s hospital and a longtime leader of the Ohio Muslim community with deep ties to interfaith work across the state. As ProPublica reported, Soliman’s asylum status was restored and his application for a green card was revived. This news came through the dedicated hard work and advocacy of many organizations, particularly CAIR-Ohio and his colleagues at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, who were fired for speaking out on his behalf.
Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation case has alarming implications
Earlier this year, during the holy month of Ramadan, ICE agents followed Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil home after he broke his fast and forcibly detained him without a warrant. Khalil, a Palestinian activist, was then disappeared into an unmarked vehicle and taken to an unknown location as his pregnant wife watched and pleaded for information. It was later revealed that Khalil had been moved to a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, where he faced deportation. He was held for over three months in poor conditions, missing his graduation and the birth of his first child.
True Religious Freedom Means Protecting Our Faith Leaders, Not Detaining Them
In early July, Ayman Soliman, a former Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplain, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after his asylum status was terminated in June. In response, local faith leaders organized a prayer vigil, rally, and peaceful march; during the march at least 15 protesters were detained by local police and charged with felony rioting.