The community of Bay View, Michigan, sits along the shores of Lake Michigan, a picturesque summer resort destination for families across the country. Full of historic buildings and Victorian cottages, Bay View boasts that it is one of the “prettiest painted places” in the United States.

Yet behind its pristine facade, Bay View hides a shameful past of discrimination that continues today. Around 1942, Bay View started to limit renters and owners to those “of the white race” and Christian faith, later restricting Roman Catholic membership to 10 percent or less. The race restriction faded out by 1959, but the religious one persists. Today, Bay View homebuyers must not only be Christian, they must have a minister’s letter to prove it.

In other words: Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, atheists, and many others — including Christians who don’t attend or belong to a church — need not apply.

Fifty years after the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act, Bay View’s policies seem stuck in the past, harkening back to an era where blatant and discriminatory restrictions on homeownership were commonplace. Luckily, some in Bay View object to this practice — and sued to stop it.

This week, we filed a brief supporting them, arguing that Bay View’s policy cannot stand under fair housing principles enshrined in federal and state law. Moreover, under state law, Bay View has significant authority akin to a governmental body — like appointing a marshal to arrest and imprison those who violate its bylaws — and so must honor the Constitution as cities and towns do. It cannot put the government stamp of approval on practicing Christians over all others.

Bay View’s policy does not exist in a void. Rather it operates alongside decades of religious and racial discrimination in housing, both in Michigan and across the nation, where Catholics, Jews, and other minorities were kept out to maintain a neighborhood’s image. In Grosse Pointe, Michigan, for instance, realtors in the late 1940s and ’50s used a rigged points system to exclude those who were not considered “American” enough because of their country of origin, occupation, friends, appearance, accent, education, religion, or a number of other factors. While most buyers needed only 50 points to make the cut, those of Polish descent needed 55, southern Europeans needed 75, and Jews needed 85 (later raised to 90). Blacks, Asians, and Mexicans were flat-out denied.

When Congress passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968, followed promptly by the Michigan Legislature’s fair housing law, lawmakers formally recognized what was already common sense — that these discriminatory practices should have no place in our society.

Fifty years later, the United States is more religiously diverse than ever before. According to the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study, a growing portion of the population (22.8 percent) identifies as unaffiliated or as a member of a non-Christian faith (5.9 percent). Michigan’s population, in particular, has set milestones in religious diversity. Congressman Sander Levin, who represents suburban Detroit, is the longest-serving Jewish member of Congress, and Hamtramck, Michigan, became the first known city in the United States to have a majority-Muslim city council.

But with this diversity has come increased targeting of people based on their religion, national origin, or other protected characteristics. Hate crimes against Muslims and Jews increased in 2016, according to FBI data, as did hate crimes overall. There is evidence suggesting that such bias has spilled over into the housing realm, with Muslims significantly more likely to experience housing discrimination than their non-Muslim counterparts.

In light of this data, it is ever more important to eradicate discriminatory practices like Bay View’s and ensure that the Fair Housing Act and the Constitution remain bulwarks against them. As the Michigan Legislature said upon celebrating the Fair Housing Act anniversary, “[d]iversity creates stronger communities and provides Michigan[ders] the best opportunity to achieve the American dream[.]”

We hope Bay View will soon live up to these ideals and realize that religious diversity will strengthen, not harm, the beauty of their community.

I should really be studying for my upcoming final exams right now. Instead, I’m a bit distracted spending the final months of my junior year fighting the School District of Manatee County’s sexist attack on my body.

My life was completely different just a month ago. Over spring break, I was a normal teenager having a blast at the lazy river in Orlando. It was so much fun, and so hot, that I got sunburnt pretty badly, which made the car ride home uncomfortable.

Keeping in mind that I could barely handle a seatbelt against my skin, I picked out my outfit for the following school day: my most comfortable long-sleeve t-shirt, which I would wear without a bra. I figured this choice of attire would cause the least irritation to my skin. Little did I know of the firestorm that was on its way.

That morning at school went along as any other — until I got pulled out of class to go to student services. Apparently, the dean at my school wanted to speak to me. I sat in the office, nervously biting my nails, for what seemed to be forever. “Why does the dean want to see me?” I wondered. “What could I have done wrong?”

Roughly 15 minutes went by before the dean called me into her office. She was accompanied by the principal. She was shutting the door, she told me, because there were boys in the office, and she didn’t want me to get “embarrassed.” That’s when I knew what this whole ordeal was about. My cheeks began to flush.

A teacher had called the office because she had “concerns that I wasn’t wearing a bra,” and it was distracting boys in the classroom, the dean said. I looked her dead in the face and asked her if she was joking. “Unfortunately not, sweetie,” she replied. The principal intervened and backed her up. I sat there in shock that the principal and dean of my school were having a conversation about my nipples.

I felt completely humiliated.

The dean eventually asked me to wear a shirt underneath the one I was wearing to constrict the movement of my breasts and conceal my nipples. But after I doubled up on t-shirts, she still seemed dissatisfied.

That’s when she asked me to “move around.” Weirded out, I asked her what she meant.

“You know,” she said, shaking her body. “Move around.”

After I begrudgingly paraded my body in front of her, the dean resumed brainstorming ways to “fix” my nipple situation. And then, eureka:  “Band-aids!” she said. I was disgusted.

The dean sent me to the clinic, where I was told to use band-aids to ‘X’ out my nipples in the restroom. I stared in the restroom mirror with hot tears running down my face, unable to pull myself together. I bemoaned that if I were a smaller girl, this wouldn’t have happened to me. And it definitely wouldn’t have happened if I were a boy. I typically don’t struggle with body image issues, but that day I surely did.

With my shirt pulled up and tears streaming down, I stared in the mirror. In that moment, I hated myself, my body, and everyone who made me feel shame about the flesh that I was born in. I wanted to speak up for myself, but I felt intimidated by their authority.

I was sent back to class, still in tears. My best friend rushed me to the bathroom. When I showed her my bandages, she shared my rage.

Unable to pull myself together, I sent my mom a text telling her I felt attacked because of my gender. She came to my rescue right away.

When I got home that day, I logged onto Twitter and vented about what I went through at school. I sent my school a tweet from the heart: “Stop sexualizing my body.” The school proceeded to block me.

When friends and I planned a “Bracott” to support the destigmatization of female bodies, our school threatened to discipline students who participated. We just wanted our school to recognize female students as equal to our male classmates, not as sexual objects that are “distractions” in the classroom.

It’s been four weeks since the incident, and it’s clear that my nipples have never been the real distraction. As a student, nothing is more distracting to my ability to learn than being pulled out of class and made to feel ashamed about my own chest. That’s why I’m demanding that my school stop enforcing a dress code in a matter that discriminates against teenagers based on their sex.

I’ve been forced to miss several days of school, but I won’t miss the chance to do what’s right. I hope that by speaking out, I’ll help ensure that more schools treat girls’ bodies with equal respect, rather than shaming them with bandages.

Read the demand letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Florida to the School District of Manatee County.

Over the last few weeks, the Trump administration has continued its relentless crusade against immigrants by moving to dismantle important protections for immigrants with little input or oversight from Congress or the public. Though the changes made in the last few weeks have largely flown under the radar, they are a threat to our constitutional rights and will devastate people’s lives. 

Just this week, the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) wrote to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen asking her to arrest, detain, and criminally prosecute all parents arriving at our border with their children — a move that will likely prosecute asylum seekers and separate thousands of families. This follows a move by Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this month calling on federal prosecutors to implement a “zero tolerance” approach to criminal prosecution of migrants the government apprehends at the border. While Secretary Nielsen and other high-ranking officials claim that cases of family separation are rare, The New York Times documented over 700 cases of children taken from their parents, including more than 100 children under the age of 4.

The White House’s cruelty doesn’t end with family separation.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it will end policies that prevent the needless detention of many immigrants, including refugees who have a right to make their case in court.  This will further expand the mass detention of immigrants and compound existing widespread legal and constitutional violations in our immigration system. We, along with our coalition partners, are already challenging Trump’s decision to indefinitely lock up asylum-seekers instead of releasing them on parole — a key part of its new approach to immigration detention.

And on the heels of an administrative complaint, we filed with partner organizations, ICE revoked guidance that had previously limited the detention of pregnant women. Making matters worse, Trump signed a proclamation that will only further militarize the southern border, sending National Guard troops to assist with immigration enforcement. Beyond the militarization of the border, this unnecessary move is fiscally irresponsible, wasting $100,000 per year for each troop, even though border apprehensions are at historically low levels.

We are also witnessing larger trend by Attorney General Sessions to eviscerate the due process rights of immigrants. Under a new quota system, immigration judges will be required to complete an average of three cases per day, prioritizing numbers over justice. And Sessions continues his illegal attempts to cut funding from and threaten so-called sanctuary cities — localities that choose to prioritize community safety by disentangling their local criminal law enforcement activities from federal immigration law enforcement.

To break down the impact of all these changes, and how they’re part of Trump’s larger agenda, I talked to Madhuri Grewal, ACLU’s federal immigration policy counsel.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

What real-life impact do these policies have on immigrants?

We hear politicians frame their policies around family values, but immigrant and mixed-status families seem to be missing. Right now, as a direct result of these policies and the incredible ramp-up in enforcement, the Trump administration is ripping apart families nationwide. And too many members of Congress are quietly allowing it to happen. The policy changes in the last few weeks are just a sliver of the cruel and arbitrary actions we’ve seen from Trump and this administration.

For example, in Tennessee — after the single largest workplace raid in a decade — over 500 kids were afraid to go to school. These families aren’t able to live their lives, and communities are shaken — including many conservative voters. Whether dropping off children at school; travelling by Greyhound bus or Amtrak train within 100 miles of any land or sea border; being a teenager days before senior prom; going to court, including as a witness or crime victim; traveling to the hospital for a surgery; or even standing on their own front lawn, immigrants are worried about being detained, deported, and separated from their families every single day.

ICE is even waiting to arrest parents leaving immigration interviews and spouses at marriage interviews—which are supposed to be first steps toward legalization, not deportation. No parent should have to teach their children what to do if ICE knocks on their door or if their parents are arrested.

It’s been attack after attack. Trump is sending a clear message that immigrants and people of color are not welcome in this country. And if they dare challenge these policies, immigrants are worried they will be retaliated against and face greater chances of deportation, just for being critical of ICE or Border Patrol.

Why is the Trump administration doing all of this?

These enforcement actions and policy changes further Trump’s ultimate goal of mass deportation. With these policy changes, it will be easier to round up immigrants, detain them, and limit their understanding of their basic rights or the process, often without time to find an attorney. Judges will be pressured to rush these cases through immigration courts. And those are for the cases that actually make it to an immigration judge because this administration is also looking for ways to make it easier to bypass the courtroom completely. And even if you are a naturalized citizen, you’re not necessarily safe.

On a big picture level, these policies attack our constitutional and moral values. We are living under an administration that does not care about fundamental constitutional principles, such as checks and balances or oversight from Congress. The Trump White House is taking the infrastructure of American communities — schools, government services, hospitals, travel — and weaponizing it against immigrants and communities of color.

It’s not just immigrants’ rights. The work is intersectional, and we are seeing so many other areas impacted. For example, border barriers — fences and walls — have devastating consequences for the environment and wildlife; the government controls the reproductive rights of immigrants in detention; and prosecutions for migration funnel more people of color into the criminal justice system, including incarceration, while generating massive profits for private prison companies.

How does Trump’s border wall fit in here?

In the spending bill approved by Congress last month, Trump got $1.6 billion for border wall and fence construction. Yet Trump remains fixated on building a massive border-wide wall despite the irreparable harms it would cause, including to the private lands in its path. He continues to distort the truth about conditions along the border, ignoring DHS’s own conclusion that the border has never been harder to cross undetected, and unjustifiably demonizing asylum-seekers fleeing persecution. 

Trump’s narrative that our border is under attack is just not true. Border apprehensions are near all-time lows. We already have over 16,000 Border Patrol agents at the southwest border — so many that the average agent apprehends only two people per month, many of whom are families or children turning themselves in to seek protection. And we’ve just learned that CBP has been falsifying and inflating attacks on its agents, painting a phony picture of increased violence against Border Patrol agents when the real data demonstrates the opposite. It is clear that what we need is increased oversight and accountability for Border Patrol agents who act abusively — things like body-worn cameras — not military reinforcements or a wall.

The administration continues to ignore facts, data, and truth — in short, to lie — to vilify immigrants, foment fear-mongering, and waste taxpayer dollars on more border militarization, creating in one Republican congressman’s words, a “mini industrial complex syndrome.” At the same time, it conveniently glosses over its evisceration of due process and the Fourth Amendment, retaliation against dissenters, relentless attacks on immigrant families, and repeated attempts to evade congressional oversight and accountability.

What can people do about these attacks on immigrant communities?

The ACLU is fighting back: in the courts, in Congress and the states, and with coalition partners through national advocacy and grassroots organizing and actions.

Congress holds incredible oversight power and responsibility to make DHS accountable and hold Trump to our constitutional values. There should be a vocal majority in Congress calling for investigations of ICE and CBP. Indeed, just this week, conservative columnist and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson wrote, “[Abuse at ICE] is an issue ripe for more rigorous congressional oversight — even an independent commission to investigate charges of physical and sexual abuse in the ICE system.”

For the people reading this, it’s important to weigh in with members of Congress so they know you care about how they vote and what they say. More critically, Congress also funds DHS, so legislators can choose to limit how those funds are used. As Congress reviews its funding priorities for fiscal year 2019, tell your representatives that DHS’s budget is excessive, harmful, and not where you want your tax dollars going. We need your voices and your advocacy to help us resist Trump and this administration’s anti-immigrant policies.