The same day DHS announced the surge would end in Minnesota, ICE activity increased in small towns. Read more from @gabydvj.bsky.social: buff.ly/LRrOesS

border czar tom homan said DHS is ending its surge in minnesota. but minnesotans i spoke to (literally yesterday!) said ICE had ramped up its presence in st. cloud and surrounding small towns www.theverge.com/policy/87871...

I find it hard these days to read too much about what's happening but I try always to stop what I'm doing to read @gabydvj.bsky.social and this is great. Stay for the history at the end.

Really grateful for @gabydvj.bsky.social's in-depth reporting, especially crucial in finding the continuity amidst the new chaos and cruelty, and clearly showcasing the lines between what people can do for each other on their own, and what government needs to do. www.theverge.com/policy/87710...

Incredible, on-the-ground reporting from @gabydvj.bsky.social. It's easy to embrace the triumphalist "Minnesotans fought back" narrative, but the reality is that the Trump administration has done long-term damage

@gabydvj.bsky.social on the namesake of the Whipple building in Minneapolis, where immigrants and their neighbors are being held

ICE may have lost the battle for public opinion, and its operation may be hampered by local pushback, but it has succeeded in one respect: It has instilled terror in Minnesota’s immigrant communities, forcing them into the shadows. Read more from @gabydvj.bsky.social: buff.ly/eSAhblK

i went to minneapolis and wrote about what i saw (a massive, robust mutual aid network that is ultimately just a bunch of regular people) and what i didn’t see (thousands of people who are terrified to leave their homes)

they’re calling it My Most Personal Essay Of All Time and i’m literally never doing it again gabydelvalle.substack.com/p/accidents-...

A dispatch from Surprise AZ where residents gathered to protest plans for a warehouse concentration camp in their community by @azrww.bsky.social “Despite this evidence of authoritarian power, it is possible for even the most local form of government to take a stand in the name of the people.”

One local who was arrested while protesting at the site of Alex Pretti’s killing talked to The Verge about his harrowing experience in custody at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building and how the community is fighting back. Read more from @gabydvj.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/policy/87365...

Remember that midnight raid in Chicago supposedly to arrest Tren del Aragua members? Newly revealed court docs show that the raid was facilitated by the building owners who are now accused of using the raid to evict tenants. DHS never mentions TDA in their filings: www.propublica.org/article/chic...

This is the couple from @gabydvj.bsky.social’s Land Ho, which I think is the best thing ever written about Trads

i interviewed one of the people who was detained by DHS while protesting alex pretti’s killing. here’s how it all went down, in his own words: www.theverge.com/policy/87365...

Another @sarahjeong.bsky.social banger on how ICE is tear-gassing children and families turning out to protest, which is only serving to radicalize people even more. 'When Broeker had first been tear gassed, she had been terrified. But the fear has since faded, leaving only rage.'

I visited hotels all over Minneapolis, went into back rooms & talked to the staff. They're afraid. One told me she resents how her undocumented coworkers spend their days cleaning the rooms of agents who are “hunting down their family members.” @notus.com: www.notus.org/immigration/...

We have @gabydvj.bsky.social in Minneapolis. This is a quick peek of the great, on-the-ground reporting she has in the works:

This war will destabilize the entire region and set off a global shockwave of anti-Americanism vs. no it won’t

we live in hell www.axios.com/2026/01/03/m...

the various parties involved in an affair order of intrigue/coolness/etc: 1) the other woman (a classic!) 2) the woman scorned (victim) 3) man with whom the affair is being conducted (never as interesting as you’d think) 4) man being cheated on (cuck)

"No one understands anything about immigration policy everyone has opinions on it anyway" loved this from @gabydvj.bsky.social

At NatCon, there were two topics dominating everyone’s discussions: the imminent end of the right’s support of Israel — and the existential threat that technology posed to Western civilization. I wrote about the second discussion. www.theverge.com/politics/773...

"This is why the DHS twitter account now posts deportation ASMR and caked up ICE shawtys. The edgelords are in control, and the opposition is too busy quibbling over zoning reform white papers to do anything about it." This was really good from @gabydvj.bsky.social

oh how i’ve Suffered gabydelvalle.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-...

ICE will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump admin. to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications.

hey remember when i wrote about the pronatalist right for politico and got accused of “nut-picking” lmao www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Read this very carefully: *61%* of all the people who have died of starvation in Gaza over the past 22 months have died in the past *3 weeks*

apropos of nothing

student activists at Columbia have been warning about the harms posed by Canary Mission and other far-right doxing groups for years. Now we know ICE is using Canary Mission’s database to find targets for deportation www.theverge.com/policy/70772...

they’re letting me be mean online again www.theverge.com/policy/70538...

i reviewed jen pan’s selling social justice for the new issue of @readlux.bsky.social lux-magazine.com/article/woke...

25.5 hours left and still waiting on a fair contract betting this auspicious Solidarity Moon will help 😌

when the median voter hears “mass deportations” they think “trump is going to get rid of ms13 and tren de aragua but not my neighbor, who is a good person.” which is why polls show that some people say they want both “mass deportations” AND a path to citizenship

gate agent just said they’re going “biometric boarding” on my flight to spain. yeah ok for sure. here’s my face delta i hope you don’t do anything weird with it

how do you do fellow kids www.theverge.com/tech/657409/...

i’ve been saying! thebaffler.com/salvos/live-...

NEW: A secretive surveillance company is building "AI persona" bots for cops intended to gather evidence on people. Personas include "college protesters," "radicalized" divorced moms, children. We have docs that shows how it works and what cops can do with it: www.404media.co/this-college...

heartwarming! local app that claims to pay bounties for deportation tipoffs probably just pump-and-dump scam

NEW: GOP lawmakers are preparing reconciliation bill with $90-175 BILLION in new funding for immigration enforcement. ICE's entire annual budget is ~$9 billion. Inside the Trump administration's plan for the real mass deportation campaign: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... @theatlantic.com

networked computers were a mistake

thought i was writing a story about an app that pays crypto bounties for reporting undocumented immigrants. but i was actually writing a story about something worse: a crypto pump-and-dump disguised as an app that pays crypto bounties for reporting immigrants www.theverge.com/tech/650015/...

I wrote about those TikToks from Chinese factories that claim to "cut out the middleman" for Lululemon, Birkenstocks, and more. They're designed to entice US shoppers who are nervous about tariffs and used to low prices. Most claims are also probably bullshit. www.theverge.com/tech/649049/...

I spoke to the person who filmed Mohsen Mahdawi’s arrest: “He knew he was a target,” but remained calm. “He went like a Buddhist: peacefully, calmly, and serenely.” www.theverge.com/policy/64942...

This cop was convicted of real crime and got probation. Wouldn’t be surprised if he was back in law enforcement. Abrego Garcia wasn’t accused of any crime. He was accused by a dirty cop of being in a gang. For that, DOJ unilaterally imposed a life sentence in a horrific prison with no due process.

This shifts the administration's position to not only saying that they are not going to do anything to facilitate Abrego García's actual return, but if _somehow_ he was released from CECOT and found his way back, they would immediately detain him and remove him again

New — The court has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the removal of Mohsen Mahdawi from the US or Vermont. The Trump-Vance administration ignored such an order previously, when it moved Rumeysa Ozturk out of Massachusetts to Louisiana.

if you’ve recently traveled into or out of the US and had any unusual interactions with CBP, i’d like to hear about them (regardless of immigration status—citizens, permanent residents, visa holders) email: gaby @ the verge dot com, i’m also on signal ✨

ahem

Scoop: Ekaterina Diestler, one of the "winners" of Elon Musk's $1 million handout in Wisconsin, works for a company founded and headed by Republican mega donors. Bruce Bell, the founder of Belmark, has donated thousands to Brad Schimel's campaign & other GOP causes. www.theverge.com/politics/640...