What a photo. ( @staceywescott.bsky.social )

At Broadview ICE facility, federal agents hurl tear gas and pepper spray at protesters blocking vans www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/19/t...

At least three people were detained by federal immigration enforcement agents Wednesday morning outside the Menards store in Naperville.

Neighbors and activists remember Silverio Villegas González as a friendly dad. They are grappling with questions, anger and fear about his killing and ICE’s presence in Chicago. chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

NEW: Employers Have Exploited and Abused H-2A Farmworkers for Years. It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way. By @maxblau.bsky.social

🔔 Join us to discuss first steps newsrooms need to take when ICE arrests a journalist, with @attorneynora.bsky.social, @scarletprim.bsky.social, @caitlinvogus.bsky.social, @writeralejandra.bsky.social, Samantha C. Hamilton, and Marium Uddin. 🕒 Sept. 15, 4 pm EDT RSVP: freedom.press/arrested-by-...

BIG breaking news from Cook County Court — after 24 years, there is a new chief judge. www.injusticewatch.org/judges/court...

It's been a pleasure to be involved in this important project!! Huge congrats to @amyqin.bsky.social @estheryjkang.bsky.social and the rest of the @wbez.org team and our collaborators at @miurbanchicago.bsky.social The work @writeralejandra.bsky.social and I began with #TheTenantTrap continues!

Who owns your building? Chances are, it's an LLC. We looked at ~26m property records in Chicago and found LLC ownership of large rental properties went up nearly 4x in the past two decades. New story + data out from me and @estheryjkang.bsky.social www.wbez.org/housing/2025...

I found this post really helpful in wrapping my brain around the different agencies that might do Chicago raids. The biggest takeaway: A lot of attention is on the the National Guard. But federal LEO's (ICE, FBI, etc.) can exert just as much (if not more) muscle & there's less to stop them.

NEW: More details on Trump's Chicago immigration blitz. -230 agents arrive from LA this weekend w/ 140 unmarked vehicles -30 already arrived and are practicing crowd control with shields/flashbangs -agents will leave base daily by 5 a.m. -new no-fly zone at NSGL to keep away news choppers/drones

Immigration raids are being planned in Chicago around Mexican Independence Day celebrations this month, Gov. JB Pritzker said. blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/02/i...

As President Donald Trump mulls sending the National Guard to occupy Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson delivered a defiant message to the White House at a spirited Labor Day rally Monday.

It's also interesting this is happening within a week of Trump saying he wants to deploy the National Guard to Chicago. Illinois was the first state totally eliminate cash bail and Chicago is a sort of symbol in the American imagination when we talk about crime (I could unpack that forever).

Are there important conversations to have about if those safety evaluations are fair and do what their architects promise? Yes. Of course. Lots to explore. But we should be clear on what ending cash bail does or does not do.

Another thing people get confused about: Ending cash bail does not mean that everyone charged with a crime walks free. It means the decisions about who is held behind bars are made based on evaluations of safety risk-- not how much money someone can pay.

Early research in Illinois shows eliminating cash bail didn't increase crime. In fact, Chicago is having a big crime drop. It's difficult to attribute that drop to a single cause (crime data is messy!) But it is safe to say ending cash bail didn't lead to a spike. news.wttw.com/2024/09/18/i...

Guevara’s arrest and detention “represents an erosion of democratic norms in the United States and a curtailment in journalists’ ability to do their jobs, as guaranteed by the First Amendment, without fear of prolonged detention,” reads the letter. www.freepress.net/news/press-f...

There are so many wtf moments in this piece I just COULD NOT put it down. Don't tell my boss I've been reading all morning. Great investigation by my colleague @mdoukmas.bsky.social www.injusticewatch.org/project/fore...

New from @mdoukmas.bsky.social @injusticewatch.org: A Chicago forensic toxicology lab used discredited scientific methods and faulty machinery to test people’s blood and urine in DUI-cannabis cases. Illinois has no way to prevent it from happening again. www.injusticewatch.org/project/fore...

My latest investigation! A story about some wild things that happened at a UIC forensics lab and how inadequate crime lab oversight is in our state. In the course of reporting I: -filed 45+ FOIA requests -did 100+ interviews -reviewed 8000+ pages of records www.injusticewatch.org/project/fore...

While a hotel may seem preferable to other types of detention centers, advocates said Valentina Galvis’ detention at a Sonesta hotel near Chicago O’Hare Airport raises concerns about what types of facilities are quietly being turned into de facto detention centers across the U.S.

It's ICE detention by another name. (via @injusticewatch.org and @aurabogado.bsky.social)

“I was sad, confused, and often terrified,” Valentina Galvis, who was detained by ICE at the Sonesta Chicago O’Hare Airport Rosemont hotel without access to a phone, said. “I wanted to call my husband, my attorney, or anyone at all to let them know where I was.”

An outpouring of grief and condemnation has followed the Israeli assassination of five Al Jazeera staff in Gaza, including prominent correspondent Anas al-Sharif. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/...

NEW: For Valentina Galvis and her seven-month-old son, the Sonesta hotel near Chicago O’Hare Airport wasn’t a vacation spot — it was a jail. They were detained for five days after being apprehended by ICE agents, our investigation with @theintercept.com found. buff.ly/9R4MEwo

For five days, Valentina Galvis and her seven-month-old son were locked in a hotel room, cut off from the outside world after being snatched by ICE. (with @injusticewatch.org)

NEW: An ICE contractor held a mother and her 7-month-old son at an O'Hare Airport hotel for 5 days in June, with no phone or contact with the outside world, @aurabogado.bsky.social reports for @injusticewatch.org, in partnership with @theintercept.com www.injusticewatch.org/civil-courts...

For five days, Valentina did not have access to a phone or proper food for her young son. Important reporting from @aurabogado.bsky.social

A Chicago woman went to immigration court. Her case was dismissed; she and her infant were taken by federal agents who turned her over to contractor MVM. They spent five days confined at the Sonesta O'Hare hotel without communication to the outside world. My first byline at @injusticewatch.org:

So proud of my colleagues, esp. @writeralejandra.bsky.social and @mdoukmas.bsky.social, for this recognition of their work. Congrats to all the finalists!

The Chicago Tribune laid off seven employees on Thursday, five of whom were members of the paper’s union. The cuts amount to roughly 10% of the newsroom. https://trib.al/5lM85na

Gaza faces a severe humanitarian crisis as Israeli restrictions on aid lead to widespread malnutrition and starvation, with hospitals overwhelmed by malnourished children.

Last week the party nominated a diverse slate for a record-low number of vacant judicial positions open to countywide voting. @injusticewatch.org @mdoukmas.bsky.social www.injusticewatch.org/judges/judic...

Los Angeles residents were outraged after dozens of federal agents marched through MacArthur Park, in one of the city’s most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. Homeland Security officials said it was an immigration enforcement operation, though it was unclear if anyone had been arrested. trib.al/JYW5IsU

“Guevara is currently the only jailed journalist in the United States who was arrested in relation to his work. Immigration authorities must respect the law and release him on bail instead of bouncing him from one jurisdiction to another." cpj.org/2025/07/ice-...

I wrote about how the Everglades experiment fits into the history of concentration camps in the US and abroad, and how it will connect a domestic network of camps to an international one. We’re watching the imposition of a global concentration camp network.

Chicago 🌈🌈

The majority is unmoved by the argument. Barrett: not our problem! let the lower courts handle it. Kavanaugh: yeah it's not ideal but after a several-year interim all will be well. SEVERAL YEARS OF A PATCHWORK CITIZENSHIP POLICY!

Which means a baby born in New York to undocumented parents will be a citizen. But a baby born to undocumented parents in Kentucky will not be a citizen. This is madness.

The upshot of this decision, for now, seems to be exactly the crazy patchwork scenario we were warned about: - the lower-court injunctions continue to protect the parties (immigrant orgs, individuals and 22 states) from Trump's EO - the EO can (and will) be enforced in the other 28 states

Jackson: "Eventually, executive power will become completely uncontainable, and our beloved constitutional Republic will be no more."

Breaking news: The Supreme Court upheld a portion of the Affordable Care Act that requires health plans to provide free preventive care such as cancer screenings, contraception and immunizations.

The data, obtained through public records requests, show that at least 60 percent of the centers analyzed had reported serious pregnancy complications, suicide attempts, or sexual assault allegations. www.wired.com/story/ice-de...

Scoop: Florida is building a detention facility for migrants nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” in the Everglades designed to help the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. DHS will help pay for the detention facility with money from FEMA. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/u...

Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which helps represent the plaintiffs, called the ramifications of the court's action "horrifying," stripping away "critical due process protections that have been protecting our class members from torture and death."

“We have yet to see any tenant win a retaliation lawsuit or come out with any kind of recognition of that retaliation.”   www.injusticewatch.org/civil-courts... By @injusticewatch.org's @writeralejandra.bsky.social #housing+ #urbanism+ #urbanism

Asked after this release if his arrest had been a political stunt in the final days of his mayoral campaign, Lander pushed back. “I did not come today expecting to get arrested.” www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/17/b...

Mind-blowing from @writeralejandra.bsky.social: tenants in substandard apts assert their legal rights, landlord retaliates, tenants sue over retaliation, landlord files evictions anyway. Then, to drop the evictions, landlord requires tenants to sign NDAs. www.injusticewatch.org/civil-courts...