Despite becoming a U.S. citizen two years ago, an Oakland mother recently began planning for her children in case she is detained or deported. @ehellerstein.bsky.social examines the growing use of family preparedness plans in the Bay Area. www.eltimpano.org/english/immi...

My last article for @eltimpano.bsky.social: I met the main source of this story at a workshop a few months ago. Despite winning her asylum case and becoming a US citizen, she was preparing for an unthinkable eventuality: That she could get detained, deported, and separated from her children:

What a nice last day gift from KQED's The Bay, which, in honor of the World Cup, just re-upped our episode from last year about the immigrant youth finding refuge in the beautiful game. I hope you'll give it a listen! ⚽ www.kqed.org/news/1208726...

My final article for @eltimpano.bsky.social explores how immigrant parents are preparing for the possibility of detention and deportation, and grappling with the fear those preparations bring into family life. I hope you'll give it a read: www.eltimpano.org/english/immi...

My final article for @eltimpano.bsky.social explores how immigrant parents are preparing for the possibility of detention and deportation, and grappling with the fear those preparations bring into family life. I hope you'll give it a read: www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/p...

One of my last articles for ET!

For six months, a decentralized network of volunteers has stood watch outside Oakland schools with large immigrant populations, keeping an eye out for ICE. i joined them on shifts outside East Oakland schools. "I feel safer with them around," a parent told me. www.eltimpano.org/english/immi...

Last week, a procedural deadline quietly passed for people seeking asylum in the U.S. @ehellerstein.bsky.social unpacks the local impact of the new change and why it represents a fundamental shift from how the asylum system has historically functioned. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/d...

Member states and the European Parliament have struck a deal on the Return Regulation to build deportation camps (aka return hubs) in faraway countries. It’s a turning point for migration policy. The EU migration enters uncharted territory.

Was out last week when the Weekly Dispatch was named the best politics/policy newsletter in California by the Sacramento Press Club, beating out Politico! It's a lot of work to put out a comprehensively reported, community-powered newsletter every week, but very worth it. Congrats to the team!

Since 2015, more than 6,300 youth who immigrated to the U.S. alone have resettled in Alameda County. But many of those children now face an uncertain future amid potential cuts on both the state and federal level, @ehellerstein.bsky.social reports. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/w...

A little bit of Friday ~personal news~ I'm beyond honored (and a bit in shock) that I've been selected as a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan 😭 I'll be spending the academic yr in Ann Arbor working on a project about America's history wars. wallacehouse.umich.edu/announcing-t...

What an honor to see the Weekly Dispatch as a finalist in the Sacramento Press Club's Golden State Journalism Award for the best politics/policy newsletter. When we launched this, I had no idea what I was doing. I've since written 40+ originally reported editions sacpressclub.org/6th-golden-s...

Next week, Gov. Newsom will release a revision of CA’s proposed 2026-27 state budget. @ehellerstein.bsky.social explains the clash over the future of health care access for 200,000 lawfully present immigrants set to lose Medi-Cal due to changes enacted in H.R. 1. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/s...

From the terrific new book Undue Process by NBC immigration reporter Julia Ainsley: How the Trump administration fired a DHS press person because she refused to call undocumented immigrants "scumbags" in a press release.

Why hasn't the Bay seen the kinds of large-scale, sweeping ICE raids that have paralyzed life in Minneapolis, Chicago, and LA? It may be because of four structural constraints, unique to the region, that together make it harder to carry out mass deportations 👇 www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/w...

April 2: guards cut all phone access in the housing units without warning. When detainees protested, CRS officers allegedly punched a man, threw another to the ground, kicked him in the head, and pinned him by the neck. A third detainee's wrist was broken. The entire cage was pepper-sprayed.

In our latest Weekly Dispatch, @ehellerstein.bsky.social unpacks how policy changes like the federal government’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act may be exacerbating the health care affordability crisis for California Latinos. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/l...

Female octopuses throw rocks at males that bother them, documented in Octopus tetricus

ICE agents shot another driver -- on Tues. He had just asked to call his wife. They shot him six times. One bullet his jaw. Now he can't speak and has been mostly unconscious. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/u...

As California commemorated its first Farmworkers Day last week, @ehellerstein.bsky.social spoke to Bay Area women-led organizations that support immigrant workers about how they are processing the recent revelations about César Chavez—and where to go from here. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/a...

On the 58th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, it's time to reckon with the media's troubling role in the civil rights struggle. (I pitched this to @nytimes.com who found it "fascinating..[but] the news is making deeper & certainly more historical pieces very hard." But they're the news.) A 🧵

I've been on a self-imposed social media hiatus to touch grass, but have not been posting my work. My latest - an analysis of the César Chavez revelations + what they reveal abt the conditions under which abuse metastasizes. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/a...

Great great reporting here by @onofftherecord.bsky.social

On April 1, new changes will go into effect that will cut off food stamp benefits for immigrants w/ humanitarian protections, like refugees, asylees, & trafficking survivors. Here in the East Bay, thousands are likely to lose benefits as a result, I found. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/t...

In today's Weekly Dispatch by @ehellerstein.bsky.social, how new federal rules will limit who qualifies for SNAP, known in California as CalFresh. “Unfortunately, the numbers are higher than we originally anticipated." www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/t...

In our latest Weekly Dispatch by @ehellerstein.bsky.social unpacks what the crackdown on DACA recipients means for California, which is home to the nation’s largest Dreamer population, and includes thousands of estimated DACA holders in the East Bay. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/a...

Last month, a 42-year-old DACA recipient living in Sacramento, was deported to Mexico after spending 27 years in the U.S. Her story reflects a wider pattern unfolding under the second Trump administration: ICE is targeting Dreamers in unprecedented numbers. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/a...

Typical NYT coverage of the Bay. Bad headline. Facile observations. Fearmongering. Next! www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u...

In our latest Weekly Dispatch, @ehellerstein.bsky.social unpacks a newly proposed federal housing policy that takes direct aim at mixed status families, threatening housing stability for thousands of Californians. www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/t...

These are Kenyan contractors based out of Nairobi who for years have been speaking out against their horrific working conditions & its toll on their mental health. Most of them are young & vulnerable. If you want to learn more abt them, read my 2023 investigation: www.codastory.com/authoritaria...

Since Nov, 4 ppl have died, 40 have been hospitalized, & 3 have gotten liver transplants after eating toxic mushrooms in CA. The majority appear to be immigrants & Spanish speakers. I talked to the wife-a Mam speaker from Guatemala-of one of the transplant patients: www.eltimpano.org/english/heal...

Border Patrol released Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56 yo man, nearly blind with serious medical conditions, at "an old address & his family had since moved" in Buffalo, NY in the winter. "His family was not initially notified." He was found dead. @news4buffalo.bsky.social www.wivb.com/news/local-n...

In today's Weekly Dispatch by @ehellerstein.bsky.social: Why a delegation of Bay Area immigrants’ rights groups traveled to the Twin Cities to offer support and music to a city facing an immigration crackdown. www.eltimpano.org/english/immi...

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

I'm just smiling bc 1) Benito made a show for people who know history, and 2) so many people in town for the Super Bowl are shocked to realize the Bay Area is one of the most beautiful places on earth & that they fell for the organized right wing propaganda campaign

This is Maria, a 6-year-old detained by ICE last year. She began to unravel soon after arriving at a detention center in Texas, wetting the bed after years without accidents, crying through the night and begging to breastfeed again. Most of all, she wanted to be reunited with her cat, Milo. 1/

While it’s unclear if the Trump admin will deploy ICE agents to the Super Bowl as it has promised, local rapid response networks are working 24/7 to ensure immigrants feel safe as thousands flock to the Bay. Latest Weekly Dispatch by @ehellerstein.bsky.social: www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/b...

DHS Secretary says filming ICE is illegal and amounts to doxxing. They’re absolutely wrong. Recording law enforcement in public spaces is protected by the First Amendment — and courts have affirmed that right time and again. Watch @freedom.press’s @trevortimm.bsky.social explain.

Just talked to an organizer in the Bay a few minutes ago who told me Minneapolis has led to an explosion of interest in hyperlocal foot patrols and neighborhood pods locally. This has been happening since LA. Networks sharing lessons across state lines & replicating successful strategies.

And tbh, the people who have the most interesting perspectives + whose voices are most valuable rn will probably be shut out. People whose parents pay their rent and who have rich techie partners who foot the bills will be able to publish a few fancy mag pieces a yr and call it a day. Journalism!

🔴 Three things you should know about the arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort (hint: this never ends well for the government). 1. They were just doing their job. 2. The government keeps losing these cases. 3. We must call out attacks on journalists of color. Watch @adamrose.bsky.social explain:

Friday's demonstration in Fruitvale was part of a nationwide strike held in solidarity with immigrants and residents of Minneapolis. El Tímpano's @ehellerstein.bsky.social and @kat-nagasawa.bsky.social spoke with participants about what motivated them to show up. www.eltimpano.org/english/immi...

Precisely why I've been losing sleep over what could happen in Oakland

A statement from Sahan Journal, Minnesota Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, Minnesota Reformer, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Center for Broadcast Journalism and Minnesota Newspaper Association:

Georgia Fort's is chilling, and it's being overshadowed by the equally chilling arrest of Don Lemon. A GoFundMe is being set up for Fort. In the meantime, you can support her work directly – without paying massive fundraising platform fees – through her website: www.georgiafort.com/support

It's not just Don Lemon! Journalist and BLCK Press Founder Georgia Fort was arrested for reporting on a Minneapolis church protest.

Don Lemon has been taken into custody after anti-ICE confrontation in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month. https://cnn.it/4roAO6t

Indigenous Central Americans are erased in the immigration debate. They get lumped in with Latino stories, face language barriers here, and if deported, return to Guatemala to be stigmatized and discriminated against. Their invisibility isn’t accidental.

"A French documentary filmmaker was searching through a flea market when she found a photo album that chronicled Nazi-occupied Paris from 1940 to 1942. A note in the front read, 'If you find this album, take care of it and have the courage to look at it.'” www.poynter.org/commentary/2...