The Trump Effect: State, national ACLU membership soars
Feb 3, 2017, 6:41 AM | Updated: 11:03 am
Membership has soared for the Washington chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, up 177 percent since the November election of President Donald Trump.
Prior to the November 2016 election, ACLU membership was sitting at 15,000 people in Washington, spokesman Doug Honig said. The numbers have surged to 50,000 in the three full months since the election – the fastest growth the civil liberties nonprofit has ever seen in the state.
Nationally, membership doubled to 1 million from 500,000 over the same period.
Honig said the Trump administration has been an effective ACLU recruiter.
“There’s been a tremendous upsurge of support for the ACLU around the country and here in Washington,” he said. “I think what’s going on is that many people in Washington are very concerned about things that were said during the campaign and now that the Trump Administration is in office, is starting to do.”
The Washington ALCU put itself squarely in opposition to much of what the new administration is trying to change, from the immigration restrictions that prompted protests at airports across the country to bringing back torture as an interrogation option for the CIA.
Following a Jan. 27, presidential executive order which sharply restricted travel from seven countries, the ACLU joined Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and other attorneys at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport over the weekend to first obtain federal court order to ground a jet with deportees and then to get two men held in custody released .
“(The Trump Administration) violates fundamental American value and fundamental American rights,” he said. “(State residents) want to support and participate in organizations that are opposing this.”
The airport protests in January sparked a wave of donations for the national ACLU. The group reported $24 million in donations on the weekend following the executive order alone, six times its annual average.
Honig said ACLU membership grew in the months following 9/11 – but not quite at this scale.
“After 9/11 there was a tremendous upsurge in support for the ACLU then because of policies adopted by the Bush administration,” he said. “And our membership basically doubled.
“But this is an even bigger increase and in a shorter period of time.”
