What Iran’s Struggle Teaches us as Trump Tests America’s Democratic Guardrails

Rutgers Democracy Lab COO Ava Majlesi was featured in NJ.Com as a Star-Ledger guest columnist in an article published on February 22, 2026.

In What Iran’s Struggle Teaches us as Trump Tests America’s Democratic Guardrails, Majlesi draws on her Iranian-American identity to find parallels between the repression of protest movements in Iran to a series of smaller-scale actions taken by Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota in late 2025 and early 2026. Intimately familiar with the enduring culture of protest for political and economic freedoms in Iran amid authoritarianism and state-sanctioned violence, she discusses how recent ICE actions set a dangerous precedent for ignoring Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable stops, arrests, and searches without proper legal justification. She argues that Iranian protestors should remind us of the principles legitimate governments must uphold, including the rule of law, protection of civil liberties, and the right to peaceful dissent.

Read the full article here.