The US government collected over $1 billion in immigration fees then refused to process the applications. No denials. No refunds. Just silence. This is the largest fee fraud in the history of the American immigration system. Here's what's happening. 🧵

Legal plunder at its finest!

🚨NEW: Last year, the number of people incarcerated in the U.S. increased again. The driving factor? President Trump’s deportation agenda. Our annual report, The Whole Pie, gives the big picture of mass incarceration. Here are some key takeaways 🧵

I’ve been photographing anti-ICE and related yard/window/tree/street signs around Minneapolis. The variety of commercial and especially handmade signs is amazing, as is the urge for people to let their neighbors know they care and are furious in ways big and small. Batch #5

To date, at least 9 warehouse deals have been canceled due to local community opposition in Utah, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Virginia, Mississippi, and more. Communities that spoke up early, organized fast, and pressured property owners have stopped facilities from opening.

While we're all talking about wages, a reminder that: Nearly 40% of incarcerated workers are paid *nothing* for their work. And the rest are paid at abysmally low wages.

Throughout the Twin Cities, residents are carrying on the state’s long-standing tradition of solidarity. You can read my latest piece on mutual aid and 'Minnesota nice' in The Conversation. theconversation.com/minneapolis-...

BREAKING: #SCOTUS unanimously deals setback to private prison contractor GEO Group. High court rejects company's pretrial immunity claim in immigration detainees' forced-labor suit www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Did an interview for this and I really appreciate NPR for continuing to cover the surreal situation facing observers and commuters here in Minneapolis, even as the attention of the world moves on.

The current person in charge of ICE's procurement for detention is a GEO Group executive who ran the company's immigration detention portfolio. He was granted an "ethics waiver" from DHS allowing him to hand out contracts to GEO in his new role.

Are you in #Minneapolis or the southern suburbs and want to get involved in some ongoing mutual aid efforts? Hit me up! Our group knows we're in this for the long haul, as food and diaper insecurity will continue if/when the feds ever GT the FO. And you can help!

Iowa courts charge people $73 to $83 per hour for court-appointed lawyers. The law specifically allows for such charges when a defendant is found guilty or is acquitted, but not for dismissed cases—something prosecutors want to change.

Wow.

ICE contracts increased private prison company GEO Group's revenues by 800% in 2025, according to an earnings call attended by @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social. But none of that money seems to be going to oversight amid a spate of sexual abuse & physical assault complaints against GEO Group guards.

And in case you missed it, we cataloged the members of Congress who have taken thousands of dollars from private prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group. Find out if your rep is among them: theappeal.org/ice-cold-cas...

Boot off the neck: Homan announces end of Minnesota surge. Hugely welcome news, and shows the vital importance of pushback from government and citizens; but when you tally up the overall cost to Minnesotans, and subtract the public value if any, it’s an insanely huge bill they’re leaving unpaid.

A moving essay by my colleague Amna Akbar: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...

I brought an actual desk out into the snow and gathered a bunch of my neighbors to sing this anti-ICE protest song. On the desk is: -A mug from the North Dakota AFL-CIO I happened to have in my cabinet, containing two (2) pride flags -A photo of Anne Feeney -A sign that reads "Abolish ICE"

New York Times’ Brett Anderson on Minnesota’s secret grocery networks keeping hungry families fed as ICE tries to starve citizens and non-citizens of color. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/d... (gift link). Brett is a Minnesota native, former Twin Cities Reader writer & award-wining food journalist.

This is a really incredible episode of @revealnews.org, in part bc reporters @artiscuriskis.bsky.social and Nate Halverson are MN natives. Esp love the postal carrier perspective on what has happened to people on his route revealnews.org/podcast/minn...

message from MN

ICE has grabbed so many people from their vehicles that there are abandoned cars across Minnesota. This tow truck driver returns the cars for free as a public service, and he’s been getting death threats. They hate the helpers. Which is why must keep helping.

If you don't already support @liberalcurrents.com with your attention and, if possible, with your $, I'd invite you to join me in doing so. Our media landscape is a howling wilderness with very few big outlets that understand the stakes and make them clear to their audience. Liberal Currents does.

We made a special episode about the damage being done to public mental health here in Minnesota. Even if you don't live here, it's a bracing look at the dangerous position we're in, what we stand to lose, and what our community is doing about it.

Here’s an under-discussed risk of lucrative fed contracts with local jails: what happens when the feds decide to pull out, or (as DHS seems to be doing more and more) stop paying invoices on time? Well, Cumberland county taxpayers are getting hit with a huge bill www.pressherald.com/2026/02/04/i...

NEW: Abigail Spanberger this afternoon ordered that all state agencies leave ICE's 287(g) program. This means that the state police (and some other agencies) will no longer be empowered to detain and arrest people for ICE. Big, big move by the governor within weeks of coming into office.

Heads are going to explode 💥 Cato Institute just nuked the lie. Immigrants have cut U.S. deficits by $14.5 TRILLION since 1994, slashing the national debt by a third. All that “immigrants are bleeding us dry” noise? Absolute bullshit. 1/3

We need more worker-governed news collectives NOW. I WANT an editor. I WANT a fact checker. I NEED an attorney to defend my reporting against the fascist regime. Freelancing is a nightmare right now, y’all. I can’t make enough to survive and I could have published 3X the news were I on staff.

We're cosponsoring this year’s Carceral Political Economy Conference at The New School for Social Research, NYC, March 27–28. Register to attend (it's free!) and *UNTIL FRIDAY* submit presentation proposals.

I wrote about neighborism — specifically, about small business joining the resistance. mattdpearce.substack.com/p/the-other-...

This is the largest winter bike ride I’ve been in so far since I’ve moved here. Estimated 1500-2000 people.

Wow, here in MPLS, the Alex Pretti memorial bike ride is massive. It’s been passing near my house, and the riders just keep coming. It’s a beautiful tribute, here and around the world.

a tribute to everyone who hasn’t forgotten how to love their neighbors 💙 www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...

This morning, federal agents arrested my friend Jamael Lundy for exercising his first amendment rights along with members of the media. He was violently awakened by federal agents, and I’m disappointed to see the Trump administration weaponize the justice system. 1/

Many thanks to the brilliant @kbdphd.bsky.social for having @joshpage.bsky.social and me on her podcast, Disrupted. One of the best experiences I've ever had doing a podcast. www.ctpublic.org/show/disrupt...

For my first piece for Group Threat I wrote about the grotesque profits being made off of people's lives through ICE contracts. If we're going to survive this, we have to abolish the profit motive that ever made us see swaths of people as expendable for profit. groupthreat.com/p/tracking-i...

I wrote about the long history of Border Patrol racism and violence for the New York Times www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...

The Deportation Data Project just released their first full report based on immigration enforcement data: "Immigration Enforcement in the First Nine Months of the Second Trump Administration" by Graeme Blair and David Hausman. deportationdata.org/analysis/imm...

Like never forget that Pam Bondi was a GEO lobbyist.

Shovel snow outside during subzero temperatures or go to solitary. That’s the choice incarcerated folks in Missouri faced, while everyone in the free world was hunkered down. Prisons never miss a chance to remind us that the cruelty is the point.

Make sure you always read @radleybalko.bsky.social too bsky.app/profile/radl...

brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis

I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...

Alex Pretti’s coworkers take a moment of silence this morning

This is such an important point. This family tried to follow the rules. The distinction is going to get more important when they start mass deporting the people whose TPS status Trump revoked. They’ll call them “illegal” too, even though they were here legally until Trump yanked the rug.

Interestingly, the best thing from last weekend's SNL is this clip that was cut for time and posted on a Tuesday night: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA8O...

I’ve been writing Popular Information for 8 years, and this is one of the most important stories I’ve ever published. This is a humanitarian crisis that has gone unreported.

Meanwhile…

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order to open jury service to roughly 350,000 people who were banned for life. “It’s monumental,” says Dameon Stackhouse, a formerly incarcerated advocate who spent years pushing for this change.