The specter of a highly militarized police force confronting protesters in Ferguson, Missouri led the Obama administration to begin recalling surplus military equipment from local law enforcement agencies, reversing a trend begun in the wake of 9/11. That trend of arming up was documented in a report by grantee the ACLU. Now, in the aftermath of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, some law enforcement officials are pushing back, hoping to hang onto the grenade launchers, machine guns, armored vehicles and the like to confront a potential future terrorist assault.

Grantees and staff discussed the findings of journalist Peter Bergen’s new book on homegrown jihadis, which proposed that the purveyors of the next attack are likely to be citizens, educated, be married and even have children—“ordinary Americans,” in Bergen’s parlance. The book also argues that while these jihadis will be difficult to extinguish entirely, the threat they pose to the Western way of life tends to be overblown.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson gave a speech in Atlanta denouncing Islamophobia. “Villifying Muslim communities in this country is frankly contrary to our homeland security interests,” Johnson said. Hillary Clinton registered similar sentiments at a Democratic town hall in Iowa on Monday.

The New York Police Department moved to dismiss grantee Muslim Advocates’ lawsuit challenging the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey, citing a settlement on a similar challenge to the department’s surveillance of Muslims in New York City. Muslim Advocates pushed back, arguing the underlying practice in the New Jersey case had not been resolved.

Mi Familia Vota and other advocates in key electoral states with sizable Latino populations have mounted a “naturalization blitz,” seizing on GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s hostile remarks about immigrants to drive attendance at workshops aimed at helping legal permanent residents take what steps are needed to be eligible to vote in the 2016 election.

The news site Fusion, a joint digital and cable venture launched jointly by Disney and Univision, published a piece showcasing the political views of a population all too rarely heard from, interviewing a group of undocumented persons in Iowa on their views of the 2016 presidential race. Prominent among their concerns: hoping the next president won’t deport them.

Trump sought the endorsement of hard-line anti-immigrant Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio (and got it), and claimed he would consult with members of Congress before undertaking deportations of immigrants.

Among other grantee activities:

--MoveOn.org’s petition drive to persuade the US government to accept more Syrian refugees crossed the 77,000 threshold, closing in on its 100,000 goal.

--America’s Voice helped promote a protest in Iowa of Donald Trump’s endorsement by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and other immigration activists.

-- The Sikh Coalition spoke out about a Sikh protestor with a “Stop Hate” sign who was ejected from a Trump rally in Iowa.