U.S.: Latest on ICE

New from Gaige Davila: Since early July, ICE has arrested people daily in traffic stops throughout the Laguna Madre area of South Texas. On July 14, the agency announced that on just one day in June it had arrested 238 people in the Rio Grande Valley, an apparent record.

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— Texas Observer (@texasobserver.org) August 26, 2026 at 12:00 PM

In this episode of 'what new depth of human decency did ICE sink to today?', they're arresting car crash victims at the hospital. BTW: "neither woman had a criminal history." - not exactly 'worst of the worst' Keep reminding voters: These inhumane goons were unleashed on society by the GOP.

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— strea3m.bsky.social (@strea3m.bsky.social) August 26, 2026 at 11:00 AM

Calls to abolish our carceral state are dangerous and unrealistic? OK, let’s talk about our carceral state. ICE has a quota of 2,000 arrests a day. Over a year, that maths out to 0.2% of the entire U.S. population. www.the-reframe.com/soon-you-too...

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— A.R. Moxon (@juliusgoat.bsky.social) August 26, 2026 at 5:51 AM

I’m aware of recent and increased ICE activity in CT. I understand this can be unnerving for our community especially as kids head back to school and my office will continue to closely monitor. www.ctpublic.org/news/2026-08...

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— Rosa DeLauro (@delauro.house.gov) August 26, 2026 at 11:31 AM

2 Men Were Killed by ICE on Their Way to Work; Every Employer Now Has to Pick a Side: A movement that spent years avoiding a labor identity can’t afford that caution anymore. Neidi Dominguez, Common Dreams, Aug 07, 2026

🚨HUGE: Thanks to a newly released trove of ICE contracting records, we have our clearest view yet it into how ICE will operate massive scale deportation centers and street level arrests — including mobile detention sites. More at projectsaltbox.com

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— Project Salt Box (@projectsaltbox.com) August 29, 2026 at 9:10 AM

September 2, 2026: ICE will have a voting database.

Signs that you might be living in an authoritarian state

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— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) September 4, 2026 at 6:40 AM

Today in Second Trump: Iran war, USAID cuts, climate, concentration camps, anti-trans agenda

Andrea Pitzer writes today:

"At this point, we’re over eighteen months into the second Trump administration. Officials have unleashed countless crises in health, science, medicine, government services, military affairs, foreign affairs, and several other arenas. On top of it all, we’re trapped in a totally unnecessary and unbelievably dangerous war that’s following the plot of Groundhog Day.

In addition to the war, there are, to my mind, three particularly significant horror shows unfolding right now—ones that may be easier for most Americans to ignore or fail to notice than the war. The first, which I try to mention almost every week, is the ongoing death toll of the cuts to USAID. We are on track for millions of deaths to take place before the end of the first Trump administration. The second, which is also easy to miss, despite current conditions, is climate change. The third — which is the focus of this post and the one I write most about on here — is the war on immigrants and the concentration camp system that Trump and Stephen Miller have prioritized expanding exponentially while they are still able to.

* * *

...the same tactics and dynamics that radicalized a significant minority of Americans against immigrants are now in play against trans people. We’re just witnessing an earlier stage of the demonization. A story out this week about U.S. Army Captain Kai Proce traces the Department of Defense’s systematic removal of trans people from service through shameful hearings in which the outcome has been decided by top brass before each session even begins."

War helps no one:

Added Fuel Costs Of Trump's War In Iran Hit Estimated $100 Billion For U.S. Families Higher prices for gasoline and diesel fuel have soured Americans on the war and helped drive Trump’s approval rating into the toilet. Dave Jamieson, HuffPost, Sep 8, 2026

Excuse me, which party waged war against Iran?

JD Vance: "The message is don't give power to the crazy people who started these problems in the first place. If you're frustrated about high prices, you have every reason to be."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 21, 2026 at 8:19 PM

Previously

Stoking ‘Trans Panic’?! We Have to Create Other Political Narratives: Andrea Pitzer’s video on ‘Ending Trans Panic’ (my 5-min read on Medium, Apr 2, 2026)

ICE killed three men in a week

The murders will continue until the murders are allowed to continue.

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— A.R. Moxon (@juliusgoat.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 12:42 PM

The murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo:

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was murdered by ICE. His three sons called him “El mundo entero” — the whole world. They watched as their whole world died in a video posted on Facebook. Lorenzo was our neighbor and fellow Texan. He deserves justice.

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— James Talarico (@jamestalarico.bsky.social) July 12, 2026 at 1:17 PM

The son of the man shot and killed by ICE: I am Ronaldo Salgado, the oldest son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. He should've been picking up the last of his guys before heading to finish up construction. Unbeknownst to all of us, my dad had been shot inside his van by ICE agents in unmarked cars.

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— Headquarters (@headquartersnews.bsky.social) July 9, 2026 at 10:13 AM

His father grieves.

Mexico demands an investigation.

ICE Officer Who Shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo ‘Switched Guns’ Afterward: Witness: Witness accounts of the fatal ICE shooting were published as part of new legal filings this week. Matt Shuham, HuffPost, Jul 22, 2026

Two other men died later in the week.

I wrote: This Week, Three Men Are Dead After Encountering ICE: The U.S. regime continues to wage violence in the streets, 3-min read, July 14, 2026

Trump Says ICE 'Cannot Give Up' Traffic Stops, Undercutting Reported Agency Directive: “The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,” the president said. Marita Vlachou, HuffPost, Jul 15, 2026

While someone attempted (for whatever reason, perhaps only a performative one) to temporarily halt the ICE tactic of stopping vehicles on the road, on July 15, Trump overturned that decision and said it was game on for stopping vehicles again. (Trump overturns suspension of ICE traffic stops, White House official says, Priscilla Alvarez, Kit Maher, Julianna Bragg, CNN, July 15, 2026)

Tom Homan is blaming Democrats. Invalid response.

Senator doesn't regret funding ICE. (Collins Won’t Say She Regrets Funding ICE After Killing in Maine: “Maine does not need a senator who signs the checks and hopes for the best from Donald Trump,” said one Democratic US Senate candidate. Julia Conley, Common Dreams, Jul 15, 2026) Invalid response.

An ICE officer fired at an SUV fleeing a car stop in Pennsylvania. That’s not how it should happen, policing experts say. Shimon Prokupecz, Nicki Brown, CNN, July 18, 2026

"Border Czar Tom Homan claimed the several deaths springing from confrontations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents might not have happened if the deceased were following orders before he admitted he hadn’t seen crucial video evidence from one of the cases." (HuffPost, July 19, emphasis mine)

Federal Agents Were Told FBI Will No Longer Investigate ICE Confrontations: Senior officials deny such a change is in the works, despite guidance shared with agents around the country in recent days. New York Times, July 19, 2026

2026: US admitting only white South Africans as refugees

The US has not admitted any refugees — not really, not exactly — in 2026. Everyone who had this immigration designation has been a white South African. Except for three people who were something other than a white South African.

Andrea Pitzer explains this.

[Andrea Pitzer speaking:] "As Mother Jones has reported, with more than 6,000 refugees admitted to this country since October 1 of last year" [i.e., since October 1, 2025] — [clip of Donald Trump speaking:] "but whether they're white or black makes no difference to me" — [Pitzer again:] "only three asylum seekers who were admitted was anything but somebody white from South Africa." [Clip of Nermeen Shaikh speaking on May 21, 2026:] "The Trump administration is advancing plans to increase the number of white South Africans it admits to the United States as refugees in the coming months. The proposal would see an additional 10,000 white South Africans resettled into the US even as the Trump administration continues to block the entry of refugees from other countries." (0:40-1:15)

"In June 2018, Sullivan posted on Twitter, 'Slowing massive demographic change is not fascist, it's conservative.' He was arguing against undocumented people in America. But did this slight of hand to talk about slowing demographic change? Is he against people coming without papers, or is he against people from predominantly non-white countries showing up? I've thought about this line of reasoning a lot since he made that comment years ago because 'slowing massive demographic change' is eugenics." (13:05–13:48)

"The long-standing ideal of the country as a home for poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free is erased." (15:16-24)

"The trap," says Pitzer, "is the idea that someone else's race or culture is the actual reason you feel lost." (17:03–10)

"Fascism has never — not once in human history — been driven by demographic change, a majority becoming a minority. Germans were under no demographic threat in the 1930s. Poles and Austrians are under no demographic threat. Nor are Italians. Whatever refugees and immigrants have arrived on these shores, they’re hardly to about to establish states where sipping coffee and wine, among other staples of European cultural life, are suddenly outlawed. And yet, neofascist politics are rising in all these places, aren’t they?"

— umair haque, Why it’s a Myth That Fascism’s About Demographic Change and Cultural Anxiety: How Neoliberals Have Taught You to Play Right Into Fascists’ Hands — Without Knowing It, Medium, Aug 17, 2018

The right-wing used to talk about freedom, and it doesn't really do so anymore:

"For the first time in a generation, the idea of freedom is not an especially important animating principle for the right. They use the word still, but they are fundamentally about something else now, fundamentally about protecting people from supposedly menacing forces like demographic change and changes to M&Ms and children’s books and 'woke' corporations. This is the pitch not of freedom but of the strongman."
Anand Giridharadas, Kamala Harris on Freedom: It's not just a Beyoncé song — it's about reclaiming an American ideal, The Ink, Jul 25, 2024

It's not "polarization" either.

"The other thing I have been working and writing on is a proper deep dive into all the many ways the 'polarization' narrative obscures far more than it illuminates. Really, if only we could stop talking about 'polarization.' I'll make the case to you why we need to finally move beyond that utterly misleading tale."
— Thomas Zimmer, Big News: Democracy Americana Now Also Available in German, Democracy Americana, June 13, 2026

Here's a mention of "demographic change" and "polarization" I found. (emphases mine)

"The premise of the Mindful Resistance Project is that understanding and addressing the root causes of Trumpism is important—so important that we shouldn’t let Trump’s antics and outrages get in the way of this mission. To put a finer point on it: 1) We need to respond to each day’s news about Trump wisely—with moral clarity and forceful conviction but with awareness of the way overreactions to his provocations can play into his hands. 2) Meanwhile, we need to get a deeper understanding of the forces that led so many people to vote for Trump. These forces include globalization, demographic change, the loss of jobs through automation, and a political polarization that is grounded partly in the tribalizing tendencies of social media. This polarization is also grounded in what you might call the psychology of tribalism, in cognitive biases that afflict us all—so fostering an understanding of how our minds work will be among the goals of this project."
Robert Wright, How to Fight Trump Mindfully: Plus: Non-Trump news. Trump goes hawk? A setback for EVs? (Working) class-less Dems. And more! NonZero Newsletter, Nov 8, 2024

U.S. Homeland Security demands 'remigration' — Nov 28, 2025

Homeland Security @DHSgov posts to X today:
The stakes have never been higher, and the goal has never been more clear:
Remigration now.
8:38 AM Nov 28, 2025

A reminder for those who are not aware: "remigration" is the process of deporting all non-white people from a country. It includes citizens and is, by definition, ethnic cleansing. And to be clear: this is not fake. I just screenshot it myself.

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— Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly (@rtodkelly.bsky.social) November 28, 2025 at 1:12 PM

Citing 'biology' to pretend that some people are better than others

Thomas Zimmer wrote this very interesting paragraph in Democracy Americana yesterday:

Most importantly, studies that don’t simply correlate educational attainment and voting decision but include and control for other factors clearly indicate that the “education polarization” narrative vastly overestimates the impact of education. Study after study suggests that education functions mostly as a proxy for other factors that have a much greater impact on political attitudes and decisions. The most important among those by far is racial resentment. As a concept, racial resentment is not necessarily the same as biological racism (meaning: the assumption that some races are biologically inferior/superior). Since the 1980s, for instance, the American National Election Studies (ANES) attempt to measure racial resentment by asking people whether they believe the significant wealth and income discrepancies between Black and white Americans are mostly a result of racist discrimination or rather a function of Black cultural deficiencies (a lacking working morale, perhaps, or pathologies of the Black family; or maybe Black people simply don’t try hard enough)? Based on their responses, people are placed on a scale from lower to higher levels of racial resentment. The correlation between where people fall on the racial resentment scale and their voting decisions is vastly stronger than that between voting and educational attainment. In the 2020 election, for instance, almost 90 percent of the people with low racial resentment scores voted for Joe Biden; over 90 percent of those at the higher end of the racial resentment scale supported Donald Trump. Talk about “polarization.”

His blog is paywalled. I'm a paid subscriber, and perhaps you can become one too.

Anyhow, what interests me about this passage is the recognition of how the idea of "biology" can be used to wield epistemic authority while saying things that are actually false.

This is linked to the idea of "biology" as it is used to attempt to correct and corral trans people, which I've been thinking about lately.

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It doesn't matter, by the way, that a red cedar is actually a juniper. Why would you care? (What Horticulture Can Teach Us About Gender Diversity Ramona Crossland, Medium, Jan 27, 2025)

Both-sidesing: Democrats trying to impress Republicans on how harsh they can be on immigrants?

This person who identifies as an "abundance liberal" suggests that Democrats should propose taxing immigrants more for the purpose of (somehow?) impressing Republicans (who care about real numbers? who argue in good faith?).

I'm kind of shocked that anyone is still proposing technocratic solutions to the "debate" over immigration. Even if this were a good idea (and it is not), Republican elites and media will never tell their base about it. You can't policy your way out of a propaganda problem!

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— Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) September 6, 2025 at 1:47 PM

There is no indication that republican leaders or voters even know what current immigration policy looks like. Their views are driven by Breitbart blowups about caravans, Haitians eating cats and MS-13. Change the policy all you want, they'll never give you an ounce of credit for it.

— Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) September 6, 2025 at 1:53 PM

There is no compromise policy Democrats can offer Republicans to make them act normal on this issue. We simply have to state the basic reality — immigrants contribute to our country in myriad ways — and fight for it. I don't know how so many journalists convinced themselves this isn't an option.

— Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) September 6, 2025 at 1:59 PM

Exactly. Exactly. We know there is no compromise to be had on immigration *BECAUSE DEMOCRATS HAVE TRIED TO BROKER ONE FOR 30 YEARS*. Three f’ing decades! As long as Jerusalem Demsas, who offered another “let’s hear the right out” proposal this week, has been alive!

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— Greg Greene (he/him/his) (@greene.haus) September 6, 2025 at 6:56 PM

If the punishment is going to happen, if you cannot stop it (And Democrats have never been able to stop it), then you need to extract cost for it; or else you're just allowing your enemies to shift costs onto you for nothing. You are building political externalities that make it more difficult for u

— jessdee.bsky.social (@jessdee.bsky.social) September 6, 2025 at 7:04 PM

Every Single Participant in NYT Focus Group Preferred Progressive Candidates Over Moderate Ones: “The Democratic Party needs to embrace voices that resonate with people,” said one participant. Julia Conley, Common Dreams, Feb 18, 2026

POTUS intends to disappear U.S. citizens

Scoop: State Dept. to use AI to revoke visas of foreign students who appear "pro-Hamas", Marc Caputo, Axios (March 6, 2025)

Trump calls for deporting US citizens: "We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time ... many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that'll be the next job."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 1, 2025 at 11:32 AM

Trump on Tuesday threatened to strip U.S. citizens of their nationality and then deport them if they commit certain crimes ― including some who were born in the United States.

“They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth,” he said during a visit to a new migrant detention facility. “So maybe that will be the next job that we’ll work on together.”

The comments echo what Trump said in April when speaking of deportations to El Salvador.

“The homegrowns are next,” Trump said during a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

— Authoritarianism Expert Reveals 'Chilling' Phrase Trump Used During New Threat: Ruth Ben-Ghiat called out the president for threatening to deport U.S. citizens. Ed Mazza, HuffPost, Jul 1, 2025

BREAKING: Documents filed in court today assert that officials from El Salvador told the United Nations that it "facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure" by the U.S. but that "the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the" U.S.

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— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 2:54 PM

Normal has been given too wide a berth, one I try to narrow when I discuss history or current events. Normal is often a cover story for wrong. Slavery was normal. Genocide was normal. “White-collar crime”, “collateral damage”, “ethnic cleansing”: normal. Euphemized, euthanized, eulogized.

The concentration camp the Trump administration built in Florida is being marketed as normal. It has a cheeky name and merchandise. Right now, it disgusts many Americans. As concentration camps become more common, they will offend fewer people — and they will be called normal. When this happens, you must remember that normal is not the same as right, no more than law is the same as justice.

— Sarah Kendzior, Guns or Fireworks: America is not its government and normal does not mean right. Jul 07, 2025

Florida is committing "enforced disappearance," a very serious violation of international human rights law. www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i... www.ohchr.org/en/special-p...

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— Adam Isacson (@adamisacson.com) July 13, 2025 at 10:45 AM

The Trump regime's

"immigration policies are deeply unpopular and unlikely to improve as Americans learn more about them. Today a report by Hatzel Vela of NBC South Florida went national as a former corrections officer for a private contractor who worked at the detention center in the Florida Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by supporters, said the detainees “have no sunlight. There’s no clock in there. They don’t even know what time of the day it is. They have no access to showers. They shower every other day or every four days…. The bathrooms are backed up because you got so many people using them.”

Florida is running the Everglades detention facility in expectation of reimbursement by the federal government. Immigration advocate Aaron Reichlin-Melnick pointed out that, unlike the federal government, the state of Florida “can be sued for civil rights violations and punished with monetary damages.”" (Heather Cox Richardson, August 6, 2025)

In July 2025, over 1,800 men were detained at the Florida concentration camp. By the end of August, the Miami Herald couldn't determine where two-thirds of them were. Were it a federally run camp, this would normally be easy to verify. But it's run by Florida, and Florida has not set up a system to make it public knowledge who's in the camp. Were they sent to another country? Released in the US? send to another facility? Still in the Florida camp?

The Miccosukee tribe is suing over the concentration camp: ABC, El Pais

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ put detainees in metal cages labeled ‘calming areas,’ watchdog finds, Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, September 14, 2026

Denny Carter says (Sept 25, 2025):

"It is, I think, a simulation of an occupation. It’s what the president and his terminally online lackeys image an occupation to be. Having never read a book and having no understanding of history and no real concept of the 20th century fascist movements they so adore, these folks are playacting fascism, sometimes to great effect – kidnapping immigrants and U.S. citizens off the streets – and sometimes in ineffective and silly ways. Listen to the vampiric Stephen Miller blather on like he’s Dwight Schrute speaking to a Dunder Mifflin conference, trying his best to be frightening and authoritative, and try not to laugh.

Miller, like Trump and JD Vance and Kristi Noem and Brendan Carr and Pete Hegseth, is doing a bit. He’s simulating what he thinks a tyrant should sound like, what they sound like in documentaries. It’s not the real thing, as New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently said, but a simulacrum of an authoritarian state generated so that, maybe, one day, these people can “make the simulacrum a real thing.”"

Stephen Miller's Wife Threatens To Revoke Trump Critic’s Citizenship After He Insults Her: Katie Miller, wife of top White House aide focused on immigration and extrajudicial boat killings, got angry that Cenk Uygur called her and her husband liars. S.V. Date, HuffPost, Oct 30, 2025

Alligator Alcatraz Is A New Kind Of Immigration Jail — And It’s Multiplying: A wave of new immigration jails is drawing widespread criticism for terrible conditions and restricted access to legal resources. Matt Shuham, HuffPost, Sep 27, 2025

I wrote this: I Saw Jurassic World and All I Could Think About Were the Alligators (4-min read, July 8, 2025)

Alligator Alcatraz gates closed: What's next for environmental groups?, Alexa Ryan, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News, The St. Augustine Record, July 13, 2026

I’ve been asked about Joe Arpaio and last decade’s “show me your papers” laws in a few interviews recently. The current regime feels even worse because showing ICE your papers is not enough if you look Latino. Officers just refuse to believe the papers are real. ij.org/case/alabama...

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— Jared (@jaredmcclain.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:22 AM

To be clear: LA County has declared a state of emergency BECAUSE OF the federal government. The Feds, LA County is (correctly) saying, have CAUSED the emergency. This is a striking political moment of internal collapse. Local govts feeling compelled to protect their ppl from … their own govt.

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— John Pfaff (@johnpfaff.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 8:54 PM

US citizen shot from behind as he warned ICE agents children would be coming to get bus, lawyers say

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— Los Angeles Times (@latimes.com) November 2, 2025 at 6:25 PM

Advocates Warn of ‘Forced Labor’ Camp for Homeless People in Utah Designed to Enforce Trump Order: An advocate for the National Homelessness Law Center warned that the 1,300-bed facility could be a “pilot” to put homeless people into similar conditions to Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz.” Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Oct 28, 2025

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Immigration Jail Could Close: NYT

‘Worst of the Worst’? DOJ Figures Show 97.4% of 614 Detained Immigrants in Chicago Had No Criminal Record: Of 614 people on list who may have been unlawfully arrested and detained by federal officials, only 16 had a criminal record of any kind. Jon Queally, Common Dreams, Nov 15, 2025

Barbara Parker in HuffPost (Nov 23, 2025):

"My son isn’t the only one facing a potentially unimaginably bleak future. Michael is one of an estimated 45,000 adults adopted as children by American families who have yet to obtain U.S. citizenship, according to Adoptee Rights Campaign. Some advocates believe there are as many as 70,000 transnational adoptees in limbo. They’re often merely missing or unable to secure minor information to complete the incredibly complicated process, or their American parents assumed a legal adoption made their child a U.S. citizen and took no further action to make certain.

I think most Americans would be stunned to learn that international adoptees have not all been automatically granted the same status as their U.S. parents. Several grown adoptees have already been deported, including individuals who came to the United States as infants and know no one in their birth countries or the language spoken there.

Congress partially addressed this issue in 2000 by passing a law automatically granting U.S citizenship to transnational adoptees, but it only covers children adopted after the law went into effect in 2001, only those under the age of 18 that year, and only those with very specific documentation, some of which Michael’s home country would not provide. Michael and countless others adopted by U.S. families as children were left out in the cold by the law."

"They had submitted extensive paperwork and paid fees. The foreign spouses had been fingerprinted and passed medical exams. None had criminal records. None had entered the country illegally. They had already been granted employment authorization." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

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— Jonathan Cohn (@jonathancohn.bsky.social) November 27, 2025 at 7:38 PM

Because this isn't about immigration. It is about race. Wake up and cover the racism. The U.S. citizens getting caught in Trump’s immigration crackdown www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

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— Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis.bsky.social) December 7, 2025 at 7:12 AM

Calling it nativism and calling on the history of the '20s gets closer, but it should be noted that this is reaching a Nazi pitch. Trump’s latest anti-immigration push echoes the nativism of the 1920s www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

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— Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis.bsky.social) December 7, 2025 at 7:23 AM

ICE Has A Plan To Arrest Undocumented Migrants Voluntarily Leaving U.S.: Memo: “Operation Irish Goodbye,” as it’s being called, could be aimed at boosting numbers for Trump’s much-hyped deportation campaign. Dave Jamieson, HuffPost, Dec 8, 2025

U.S. Latinos are now more worried about being asked to prove their legal status during their daily activities (43% today vs. 31% in March), and roughly 1 in 5 have changed their daily routines because of it.

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— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch.org) December 11, 2025 at 11:30 AM

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR. I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol. They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

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— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) December 24, 2025 at 10:08 AM

Trump has revoked legal status for at least 1.6 million immigrants over the past year by cancelling programs like TPS and student visas. Remember: these are people who entered the country legally. Trump never cared about “legal immigration" — just inflicting cruelty.

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) December 23, 2025 at 2:15 PM

Trump administration has revoked 85,000 visas since January, State Department official says, Jennifer Hansler, CNN (Dec 8, 2025)

"A 20-year-old Crystal man was detained by immigration agents in Robbinsdale early Jan. 8 in an encounter his family described as violent and that a relative livestreamed on Facebook.

The man, Jose Roberto Ramirez, was born in Minneapolis, according to a copy of his birth certificate provided to the Minnesota Star Tribune by his family."

— U.S. citizen swept up in ICE enforcement as Twin Cities operation continues The arrest in a Robbinsdale parking lot was streamed live on Facebook and comes a day after the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by an ICE agent. Kim Hyatt and Sofia Barnett, The Minnesota Star Tribune, January 8, 2026

A few years ago, Kristi Noem was complaining about trans girls playing sports. In 2026, she's known as a professional liar.

After each such incident, Kristi Noem rushes to a microphone and rattles off a series of factual claims, which are always the same, and are always false. It's prescripted, in complete indifference to the truth. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

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— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 7:28 PM

Trump DHS Post Calling for ‘100 Million Deportations’ Suggests Intent to Kick Out Nonwhite Citizens One journalist called it “absolutely insane Nazi propaganda, posted by the US government.” Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Jan 02, 2026

Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old US citizen, was arrested and detained by ICE. She was held for TWO DAYS. ICE agents handcuffed her, called her a racial slur, and she was knocked to the ground so hard she got a concussion. This cannot continue happening. ICE needs to leave.

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— Minnesota House DFL (@mnhousedfl.bsky.social) January 21, 2026 at 8:42 PM

ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment ICE halted payments in October, and the situation will persist for at least several more months, Judd Legum, Popular Information, Jan 20, 2026

Kristi Noem: "Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 28, 2026 at 8:21 AM

And Stephen Miller is hinting there may have been wrongdoing in the killing of Alex Pretti. (Jan 28, 2026)

Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.

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— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) February 3, 2026 at 6:14 PM

This is a legitimately great idea. Turn every ICE concentration camp into a museum of their crimes and the people who fought against them.

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— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) March 26, 2026 at 1:34 PM

Karen Bass: 'They need to leave right now. This is UNACCEPTABLE.'

Federal immigration officers, some on horseback and in armored vehicles, descended on MacArthur Park in Los Angeles this morning as part of what ICE called a “large–scale federal immigration enforcement operation” in a statement to CBS News. ICE also said that CBP led the operation.

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— WIRED (@wired.com) July 7, 2025 at 3:25 PM

This is footage from today in MacArthur Park. Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing — then, the MILITARY comes through. The SECOND I heard about this, I went to the park to speak to the person in charge to tell them it needed to end NOW. Absolutely outrageous.

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— Mayor Karen Bass (@mayor.lacity.gov) July 7, 2025 at 4:10 PM

Border patrol walking McArthur park here in LA

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— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 12:49 PM

MAYOR BASS: “They need to leave right now. This is UNACCEPTABLE.” The mayor showed up as Trump’s Gestapo/ICE marched through MacArthur Park like an invading army. Ridiculous. They left. (h/t FOX LA)

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:06 PM

REALLY AMERICAN BREAKING: The military and ICE just RAIDED LA's MacArthur Park, with over a hundred soldiers marching through.😳 Mayor Karen Bass immediately showed up, and demanded they leave. They did. No arrests were documented. 👏👏

— Mariah 🇺🇸🦋🇺🇸🦋🇺🇸🦋 (@mariahbrown.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM

This is Macarthur Park in Los Angeles. Republicans have turned the United States in a military police state. I could not even imagine what Fox and Republicans would be saying if Biden or Obama sent the US military to terrorize communities in Texas.

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— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:09 PM

NEW: Federal agents rolling into MacArthur Park in LA like they are trying to take Kabul. Absolute madness. As the reporter says here, it’s an unmarked, heavily armored vehicle with armed ‘soldiers’. No-one knows if it’s ICE or National Guard.

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— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:21 PM

After Bass spoke with what I assume is a DHS rep, they packed shit up and headed out. The whole neighborhood turned out to chase them out of the park. Some fruit was thrown, alot of yelling

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— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 1:29 PM

Our taxpayer dollars are going towards paying for white supremacists to cosplay as soldiers in Los Angeles for photo ops that are designed as propaganda for the Trump regime so they can convince their Fox News followers of a lie that the United States is under “invasion” and ICE is their savior.

— 50501 New York (@50501newyork.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:42 PM

Kristi Noem: "I do know that LA wouldn't be standing today if President Trump hadn't taken action."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 31, 2025 at 9:37 AM

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 𝕱𝖗𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖆 𝖂𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕻𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖘 (@fronterawaterprotectors)

LA Protester Permanently Blinded After DHS Agent Unloads ‘Nonlethal’ Round Into His Face The victim—whose skull was fractured and nearly died—said federal agents mocked him, saying, “You’re going to lose your eye.” Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Jan 13, 2026

Race and gender are different constructs

Tyra is on Instagram too

The Gender/Sexuality Journal by Tyra Blizzard

I wrote: "Why Did Richard Dawkins Tweet About Rachel Dolezal? (April 27, 2021)

ICE does not care about birth certificates

Since 2008, Donald Trump has insisted that Barack Obama's birth certificate was fake.

That sort of racist nonsense has led us here today.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez was born in Georgia, yet he's been arrested and detained by ICE.

Read the story on HuffPost

Many people want to destroy everything rather than share it

I've blogged a bit about U.S. fascism (2024, 2019)

Christina Greer says this now ("Black Americans Are Not Surprised", New York Times, April 7):

"...this moment, the one that was explicitly promised by Project 2025 and Donald Trump when he was a candidate, looks a lot like what my grandmother experienced every day for much of her life. It is frightening and disappointing but not surprising if one knows anything about the Black experience in America. And not the sanitized just-so version of the Black experience in which America skips from slavery, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and somehow ends with a postracial America and Barack Obama."

Some people are eager "to burn this country to the ground before they share it with those deemed other and unworthy," and this threatens everyone. Everyone has to reckon with this. Otherwise we won't survive, let alone learn and move forward.

"I find myself reminding those who are surprised by this moment that my still very spry mother attended legally mandated segregated schools her entire life. The past has somehow turned into prologue, and the head-scratching of many tells me there is a fundamental lack of understanding of this country and what Americans are capable of."

Black women warned everyone:

"People like Stacey Abrams, Vice President Kamala Harris and Representative Maxine Waters walked all of us through the political, social and economic ramifications of a second Trump term. Higher Heights for America mobilized for candidates across the country to help energize and educate the electorate."

Greer's books:

Black ethnics: race, immigration, and the pursuit of the American dream is at the Brooklyn Public Library.

Charlie Angus: 'We see Kristi Noem doing this really disgusting video'

In January 2025, Kristi Noem was confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary.

And in March, here we are:

"This video, posted by Kristi Noem, provoked in me a visceral reaction. I hesitate to post this image because as a student of Holocaust studies, I know how even gazing on images like this can further the dehumanization of prisoners subjected to these conditions. But I also know that those who have the power to do something also have the obligation not to look away.

The juxtaposition of Noem, with her hair and makeup done in the latest Republican style, with earrings dangling and sporting a (reportedly) $60,000 Rolex, against the backdrop of men seized and detained without due process..." (Kristin Du Mez, Mar 27, 2025)

On March 28, Canadian lawmaker Charlie Angus said Canadians are paying attention as they are "watching our nearest neighbor slip into totalitarianism." He said, reported by HuffPost:

“When we see people being pulled off the streets, when we see people at universities being grabbed, detained, rendered and kidnapped, and when we see Kristi Noem doing this really disgusting video in front of half-naked men in an overcrowded El Salvadoran prison cell...We’re looking at a nation that we don’t understand anymore and we don’t want to be like that nation and we’re thinking, ‘If we go down the road with this regime, we’re talking about the disappearance of the rule of law.’”

She shot her dog

My poem: Cricket’s Still Alive: Out of the gravel pit, up into the light. Tucker Lieberman, May 7, 2024

And this happened:

The governor of South Dakota is forbidden from setting foot on 20% of South Dakota. I'm sorry, but that's just hysterical. Maybe if she had spent more time building trust and connections at home instead of slathering herself with Trumpish obsequience to the maga cult she wouldn't have this problem.

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— Kelly Barnhill (@kellybarnhill.bsky.social) May 15, 2024 at 11:32 AM

They are middle schoolers:

NEW: DHS invoked the “national emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rules for a $220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign. We found that a firm with deep ties to Kristi Noem secretly benefited from the deal.

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— ProPublica (@propublica.org) November 14, 2025 at 8:00 AM

Official U.S. Government account refers to its citizens as "imbecilic morons".

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— StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻🚫👑 (@strictlychristo.bsky.social) November 14, 2025 at 10:14 PM

MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported? NOEM: We haven't deported veterans MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) December 11, 2025 at 11:22 AM