Hours before President Donald Trump’s administration was set to send out its “deportation forces,” thousands of Bernie Sanders supporters in and around 10 major American cities received a campaign email — but it wasn’t asking for money.
“ICE raids targeting 10 cities start Sunday. Know your rights,” the subject line of a Saturday morning email read. The Sanders campaign used its campaign voter data to send out the same distress signals grassroots immigration advocacy groups typically organize around. Attached to the Sanders campaign email were two graphics, one in English and one in Spanish, with a list of immigrant rights, based on guidance from the American Civil Liberties Union.
It’s an unusual move for a presidential campaign to use its platform to do this kind of organizing, said Ruthie Epstein, ACLU’s deputy director of immigration policy. The ACLU played no role in the Sanders campaign email — nor did Epstein know it existed. (Sanders’s campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, formerly worked for the ACLU, however.)
“It’s not strictly on point when it comes to building out a presidential campaign [to use campaign data] for the purpose other than running for president,” Epstein said.
