Hey so this is correct in that there's not really due process for institutionalization, the executive order is a eugenics policy, and there's time limits BUT it is (currently) incorrect about there not being phone calls or lawyers. That is thanks to something called the Protection and Advocacy Systems, or the P&As, which are independent, federally funded entities designated for/by each state and territory. The P&As were created by the DD Act of 1973. The DD Act gives the P&As special "federal access authority" to go anywhere people with disabilities live, work, exist, etc. to monitor for abuse and neglect. This is particularly true of institutions. (It's unclear if access authority extends to federal things like immigrant detention centers, but my understanding is some P&As have gotten in.)
P&As play a special role in ensuring people with disabilities in institutions, nursing homes, and group homes have access to legal representation and access to means of communication (even if restricted, which it often is).
You can find your protection and advocacy system at ndrn.org .
The proposed federal budget working its way through Congress would almost completely defund these P&A systems through ending or severely cutting from the Protection and Advocacy for people with Development Disabilities (PADD) grant and the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) grant, amongst others.
This is part of a broad assault on DD Act programs and nonprofits holding the government accountable in general. See also the attacks on the Tides, Open Society, and Ford Foundations. Other DD Act programs include state Developmental Disabilities Councils (DDC) and University Centers for Excellence Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD)?
All of this is incredibly dangerous. Not only are we seeing increasing assaults on disabled people—especially homeless disabled people, which is the majority of homeless people due to the disabling nature of homelessness plus the impoverishment of disabled people—but we are about to get massive cuts to programs which fight back against these assaults. All of this is intimately connected with the far-right's embrace of eugenics, something which their movement had mixed feelings on up until around 2022.
This is a moment where I'm going to say, yes, call your representative and senators, but also, for fucks sake, link up with your friends, community organizations, etc. and try to do something on your neighborhood or city level to defend homeless people from attacks by fascists, in government and not in government.
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