amazing stuff

Wrote about the new revelations in recent weeks about ICE's plans to send out bounty hunters to track down immigrants, which appear to be pulled from the mass deportation blueprint crafted by Erik Prince & various other military contractors. www.levernews.com/inside-ices-...

Already today, Israel has: -Conducted a drone strike on Khan Younis in Gaza -Shot & wounded two others near Khan Younis -Killed 5 Palestinians in Gaza City -Fired on & wounded a several others near Jabalia All in violation of the “ceasefire.”

after being sued for violating human trafficking law, the GEO Group has brought this case to SCOTUS, a window into a decades-long battle by private contractors for legal immunity. this is what you get when you outsource more &more core govt operations to powerful private firms

The nation’s biggest private prison company — accused of human trafficking — is asking the Supreme Court to make it immune from lawsuits. Their argument? Corporations should be shielded from lawsuits when doing the government’s dirty work.

Shoutout to @katyaschwenk.bsky.social for covering this story in Jacobin: jacobin.com/2025/09/wall...

On the Wall St racket in our campus bookstores www.buzzsprout.com/2396665/epis...

Blackwater comes to the border! The $893 billion defense bill that advanced last week would grant the Pentagon unprecedented new authority to contract out its "border security" operations to private military contractors. new from me: www.levernews.com/defense-bill...

Of course, the reality isn’t quite what Price says it is (and of course there’s an Elon connection) as you can read in this story by @katyaschwenk.bsky.social of The Lever. www.levernews.com/the-headmast...

in recent weeks, the Trump admin has siphoned millions of $ from FEMA to fund ICE. i wrote about how our cruel immigration system became so intertwined with disaster relief, a story that goes back to the early days of the war on terror: www.levernews.com/the-decades-...

in recent weeks, the Trump admin has siphoned millions of $ from FEMA to fund ICE. i wrote about how our cruel immigration system became so intertwined with disaster relief, a story that goes back to the early days of the war on terror: www.levernews.com/the-decades-...

for decades, celebs & billionaires have used a little-known FAA program to try to obscure their private jets' flight records. now, that program, created & expanded by the corporate jet lobby, has a new client: Immigration and Customs Enforcement my latest: www.levernews.com/ice-is-using...

A FT analysis has identified a number of detention facilities housing hundreds more people than they were designed to hold. The experience has left lasting scars. https://on.ft.com/3IAh26M

“I’m plainly convinced that my situation in this ICE jail is direct retaliation for my coverage,” Mario Guevara told @ajc.com in an exclusive interview from the Folkston, Georgia ICE detention center where he is currently detained, despite a judge's bail order. “I haven’t committed any crimes.”

I wrote about ICE's rent-a-cops: www.levernews.com/how-ice-is-o...

A critical investigation of the private DeSantis donor reaping the most reward from helping build the Everglades concentration camp. Incredible independent journalism from @floridatrident.bsky.social.

a multimillionaire reality TV star has made a single Florida county the world's biggest investor in Israel's genocide, & now has ensured there are no state restrictions to invest in junk war bonds! this could funnel millions more public $ to Israel: www.levernews.com/israels-war-...

Investing in Israeli bonds is the central way local govts in the U.S. fund Israel's war on Gaza. Now, as those bonds are considered increasingly risky, Florida is set to pass a new law barring any guardrails for the investments, a new& dangerous model: www.levernews.com/israels-war-...

New from @theappeal.org and @typeinvestigations.org: For years, people incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison have raised the alarm about mystery diseases and foul-smelling water at the prison. But no one is taking responsibility for ensuring the water is safe. theappeal.org/mule-creek-d...

As @jamesglave.bsky.social touches on here, there are potentially significant EU/Canadian privacy law implications of DHS' secretive "Travel Intelligence Program," which does not appear to have been subject to any data sharing agreements (which has been the case for other passenger data).

Direct quote: "We concluded this new opportunity was too valuable not to pursue" !

great thread on our reporting on how an airline-owned financial intermediary is selling your travel data to ICE:

“This is probably the single most significant aggregated repository of data about American air travelers,” said Edward Hasbrouck, an expert in travel data privacy. “That the government has gotten access to it is a very big deal.” www.levernews.com/airlines-are...

Smart reporting by @katyaschwenk.bsky.social showing how airlines collect passenger data to sell to ICE. I'd be curious to know if these records are headed to the ImmigrationOS machine Palantir is building the White House for September. www.levernews.com/airlines-are...

Great find here. Airlines are collaborating to sell ticket data to ICE and DoD.

EXCLUSIVE: New procurement records obtained by The Lever reveal that an aviation financial clearinghouse — owned by major US airlines — is selling reams of private travel data to ICE. This is a *massive* database, an "unparalleled intelligence resource," ICE says. www.levernews.com/airlines-are...

Surprise!

EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration plans to use funds dedicated to "extremely vulnerable" refugee populations to resettle white South Africans in the U.S. An internal memo I obtained indicates that the first group of Afrikaner "refugees" will arrive within days. www.levernews.com/trump-taps-r...

After 7-Eleven sponsored a Chicago Police Department gala, stop-and-frisks on city blocks with 7-Elevens jumped dramatically, new research shows. It's some of the first evidence to demonstrate just how much private companies can influence cops through donations. www.levernews.com/how-7-eleven...

SCOOP: Trump's EPA just took down its chemical accident tracking tool, weeks after chemical lobbyists demanded the administration shut down the website. The locations of thousands of high-risk chemical plants across the country are now shielded from public view. www.levernews.com/the-governme...

An important story reminding everyone why JD Vance is going to Greenland today. www.levernews.com/trumps-tech-...

the true profiteers of the $2 billion US bail industry are murky insurance companies — which, per shocking new court allegations, have led a years-long campaign of collusion & retribution to keep the price of bail bonds high wrote about it for @levernews.com www.levernews.com/the-secret-c...

NEW: The GOP spending bill has quietly stripped away the few transparency requirements that existed for ICE's private aviation vendors These contractors are making billions from ICE's deportation flights. www.levernews.com/inside-the-b...

Hours before he was killed by Israel, Hossam Shabat filed his last report for @dropsitenews.com, “Report from the Frontline of Israel’s War of Annihilation.” We are publishing Hossam’s story along with a deeply moving tribute to Hossam by Sharif Abdel Kouddous: www.dropsitenews.com/p/hossam-sha...

TWO HUNDRED. 200 of my international colleagues have been brutally murdered in Gaza

Jon Logan embodies the grotesque profiteering of America’s for-profit incarceration system. This piece details how he rakes in millions from imprisoned people and their families by charging steep fees for basic communication. By @katyaschwenk.bsky.social in @levernews.com buff.ly/FIhKYvX

Want to get really, really angry about for-profit prisons this morning?

Luxury cars, mansions, a superyacht called Convict, and wined-and-dined sheriffs — a legal war is exposing the big business of extracting profits from prisoners. Incredible reporting by @katyaschwenk.bsky.social for @levernews.com www.levernews.com/the-successi...

🚨Luxury cars, mansions, a superyacht called Convict & wined-and-dined sheriffs — a legal war is exposing the big business of extracting profits from prisoners. Amazing reporting by The Lever's Katya Schwenk. You gotta read this story to believe it.

“Luxury cars, mansions, a superyacht called Convict, and wined-and-dined sheriffs — a legal war is exposing the big business of extracting profits from prisoners.” @katyaschwenk.bsky.social www.levernews.com/the-successi...

Back in December, I stumbled upon a stunning detail in a prison technology company's bankruptcy case: The company's CEO owned a $10 million yacht called "Convict." And he was offering corrections officials sunset cruises on it. That was just the beginning. www.levernews.com/the-successi...

great coverage from @katyaschwenk.bsky.social on the up-and-down stream crises surrounding the Colorado River drought as US development, especially in Phoenix AZ, continues to crash into the discounted future of groundwater. www.levernews.com/the-american...

Carceral immigration tech is on the rise - like ankle monitors, facial recognition apps, and surveillance watches. Now, investors "openly salivate[] over the potential profits they could see from a Trump immigration regime" [email protected] @levernews.com www.levernews.com/inside-the-p...

REVEALED: Drop Site News has uncovered that Israel has now contracted private companies specializing in settler construction to work in northern Gaza. Younis Tirawi reports for @dropsitenews.com www.dropsitenews.com/p/israeli-pr...

ICE appears poised to expand its flagship surveillance program — a move, I found, preceded by months of lobbying by private prison companies. Latest for @levernews.com: www.levernews.com/inside-the-p...

🚨This is the bill that Trump Transportation nominee Sean Duffy voted for - pass it on

🚨🚨JOB ALERT Amid a huge subscriber surge, The Lever is expanding! We are hiring: - Political Newsletter Writer - Senior Political Reporter - Political Reporter Apply right now. LeverNews.com/jobs

“The fact is that in this market, we have an oligopoly. And the people that Mr. Duffy represented as a lobbyist — they are that oligopoly,” @wjm-air.bsky.social told me and @lucydeanstockton.bsky.social on Trump's pick for Transportation Secretary: www.levernews.com/trumps-trans...

grateful to be part of this team. i cover corporate greed & political corruption, with particular interest right now on profiteering in our immigration & criminal legal systems. send tips, ideas, gossip, etc. to [email protected] or 413-658-4677 (text or Signal)