AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We turn now to the story of a military veteran who joined an ICE protest and is now being charged with conspiracy to impede or injure officers. Legal experts have called the charges a test case for how far the Trump administration will go to punish dissent.

Bajun Mavalwalla, who goes by “Baji,” is a 35-year-old former Army sergeant who survived a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. On June 11th, he saw a social media post by the former City Council president of Spokane calling to protest the detention of a legal asylum seeker. The post said, in part, quote, “Three weeks ago I became the legal guardian [to] a young man from Venezuela seeking asylum. He has turned in all paperwork and has a future court hearing. I went with him to ICE check in today. They detained him and are shipping him to Tacoma. … I am going to sit in front of the bus. Feel free to join me,” the City Council president wrote.

Baji was one of hundreds who responded. The protest became confrontational. More than two dozen people were arrested at the scene, but Baji wasn’t one of them. In a minute — a one-minute video posted on Instagram, the Army veteran is briefly visible, jostling with an agent before locking arms with other protesters. He was also injured by a rubber bullet at the protest.

More than a month later, FBI agents came to his home at 6 a.m. — more than a month later — and arrested him. Baji’s father, the retired intelligence officer Bajun Ray Mavalwalla, filmed part of his son’s arrest. His is the first voice you hear in this clip.

BAJUN RAY MAVALWALLA: I want the search warrant before you go in the house. That’s my house, not his. Hold that.

FBI AGENT: OK, just —

BAJUN RAY MAVALWALLA: I am —

FBI AGENT: We’re going to put him in this car, OK?

BAJUN RAY MAVALWALLA: Oh, OK.

FBI AGENT: I’m just saying, if you can just step back? We’re going to come around here. Thank you.

BAJUN MAVALWALLA II: I’m an Afghanistan veteran. I’m an American citizen.

AMY GOODMAN: The conspiracy count against Baji Mavalwalla carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison, a quarter of a million-dollar fine and three years of supervised release. He’s now out on his own recognizance awaiting trial.

We’re joined now by two guests. In San Francisco, Aaron Glantz is an investigative reporter who’s covered this story for The Guardian. In Spokane, Washington, Bajun Ray Mavalwalla, the father of Baji, is with us.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Bajun Ray Mavalwalla, you’re former Army intelligence with three Bronze Stars earned, that you have earned during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. You’re the father of Baji, a U.S. Army veteran arrested by the FBI and charged with conspiracy. Explain how this all has come down. And your response? You’re both retired National Guard.

BAJUN RAY MAVALWALLA: I’m retired from the National Guard. My son did his full tour, and when he completed his tour in Afghanistan, he decided to get out of the service, so he did not retire.

This whole event has been staged by the Trump administration. And my son was responding to a Reddit post and just wanted to go down and protest, to do what he could to raise up the voices there and show that they were opposed to ICE’s actions, which literally were called for because the two gentlemen that were being detained were abiding by their mandatory court dates. They tell these guys, “Hey, you’ve got to come here for court so you can get your status to remain on in the United States.” And then they arrested them for coming to court. It’s unconscionable.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Aaron Glantz, I wanted to ask you — you’ve talked to many legal experts for your article on this case. The significance of being charged with conspiracy for, in effect, just participating in a protest?

AARON GLANTZ: Yeah, it’s important to note here, not charged with obstruction, not charged with assault, charged instead with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, which carries, as Amy said, a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $250,000 fine and three months of supervised release. And the legal experts I talked to said that the burden of proof here for the prosecution is on proving agreement between the demonstrators to show that they collectively wanted to impede these officers. And as you heard Amy say, there’s video of Baji locking arms with other protesters, which, you know, might show agreement. So, it’s a very easy case, actually, for the federal government to make, which is why the legal experts I spoke to said that these cases are brought sparingly by prosecutors, and they exercise a lot of discretion usually.

And in this case, the acting U.S. attorney in Spokane, Washington, resigned two days before this indictment was handed down. It was noted earlier in the segment more than a month passed between the protest and the arrest. In between that time, the U.S. attorney in Spokane, the acting U.S. attorney, turned in his resignation. And the new U.S. attorney in Spokane, Pete Serrano, has filed amicus briefs in his old job saying that the 14th Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship. So we have a real legal dynamics playing out here with huge implications for the whole country.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Bajun, I wanted to ask you if you could talk about your family’s service to this country and why your son decided to join the military.

BAJUN RAY MAVALWALLA: In 1987, my first wife and I joined the Army together. We went to the language school in Monterey, and we both learned Russian. We were both electronic warfare specialists in the intelligence field. And I continued on in the National Guard. I was a recruiter for seven years, then went on to a full military career as an officer after 17 years enlisted. We were a military family. We lived on the Presidio in San Francisco, which has, of course, a 200-year history of a military installation.

But our son wanted to go learn Japanese, and he wanted to have a military career himself. So, at 17, he joined the National Guard, just like his mother, just like his father had joined the service. And he went, learned Japanese at the language school, went on for his intelligence training. And he did almost two years at CYBERCOM, had a top-secret security clearance, with all kinds of caveats there. And then he volunteered to go to Afghanistan, where, at 23 years old, he was leading a team in combat in Kandahar. So, I mean, there’s a long history of military service in our immediate family.

AMY GOODMAN: Mavalwalla, as a retired U.S. Army intelligence officer, what concerns you most about the Trump administration?

BAJUN RAY MAVALWALLA: I’m afraid that’s a long list. My immediate concern is as related to your earlier story. I spent — both my son and I were in the National Guard. The first thing they start teaching you about in the National Guard is Posse Comitatus and that it is illegal to use military force against U.S. persons on U.S. soil. This is reinforced by the Dick Act of 1903. And the abuse of the military on —

AMY GOODMAN: We have 30 seconds.

BAJUN RAY MAVALWALLA: I’m sorry — on domestic issues is what I fear most, because that is, indeed, to quash our own freedoms and our First Amendment rights.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. Bajun Ray Mavalwalla, retired U.S. Army intelligence officer, the father of Baji Mavalwalla, charged with conspiracy for protesting ICE. Aaron Glantz, we’re going to link to your piece in The Guardian, the piece that you wrote, and as well as your books, The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans.

That does it for our show. Democracy Now! is produced with Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Deena Guzder, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Nicole Salazar, Sara Nasser, Charina Nadura. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Thanks for joining us.