“It’s not at all surprising that this is happening with these ICE [removal] officers being sent out to basically treat people terribly,” a one-time deputy chief counsel with the agency told me, anticipating more escalation of violence. My latest for @motherjones.com:

Biased-take, but @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social is among the absolute best immigration journalists of 2025, no question. In a time when we *especially* need to record history as it is, not how the government tries to sell it, principled, professional journalism like Isabela’s is paramount.

This year felt like a decade. I wanted to highlight some of the immigration reporting I've done over the past 12 months: In January, I wrote about the big money fueling the right's plot to end birthright citizenship.

Much of the current immigration policymaking—if this rampant clampdown and unleashing of brutalizing force can be called that—seems to be now distilled to a simple modus operandi: we do it because we can. My reflection on a year of hell for immigrants and the Trump administration's casual cruelty:

The hepatitis B vaccine had been recommended for all newborns since 1991. From 1990-2019, acute hepatitis B infections reported among children and teens fell 99 percent. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/w...

After 20 years in the Navy, Buzz Grambo thought he'd spend his retirement playing video games and watching baseball. Instead, he patrols the streets of Baltimore to protect his neighbors from ICE. He even upgraded his scooter to a Segway that reaches 26 mph to keep up with the agents. My latest:

“I want their morale as low as possible because a team with low morale is ineffective.” Meet the veteran who chases ICE on a scooter

we need a department of kerning

Beatings. Sexual assault. Psychological abuse. These are some of the horrors endured by the more than 250 men the US sent to El Salvador on flimsy evidence of gang membership, according to a new comprehensive report.

Catalina “Xóchitl” Santiago spent nearly two months in ICE detention—despite having protection under DACA—until a federal judge ruled that the government had no reason to keep her in custody and ordered her release. DHS is still vowing to "explore every available option to remove" her. My latest:

"The bitterness is still there. The anger about what happened to him is still there.” After four months, more than 200 men sent to El Salvador have been released from CECOT and returned to Venezuela. @nlanard.bsky.social and I spoke with family members and friends waiting to be reunited with them.

"When you look at rural communities, it is not uncommon that if that AmeriCorps member wasn’t there, the service that they are taking on wouldn’t be happening at all." washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/07/h...

Every employee considering returning to government (no judgement, it's important work regardless of administration), should demand a public apology and 3x salary. Make them remember what happens when you fuck with the good people who keep the country afloat. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

More than 32,000 low-paid AmeriCorps service workers were terminated in a sweeping budget cut last month that gutted the national service program. The April 25 move was one of the biggest government cutbacks since the Trump administration took office, but went largely unnoticed. Here’s why:

"Investing in AmeriCorps is an investment in America’s future, empowering communities, strengthening families and revitalizing economies." hechingerreport.org/opinion-canc...

Ahead of SCOTUS hearing on Trump's executive order attacking birthright citizenship, here are a few articles I've written that help understand how we got here—and where we could be headed. The conservative effort to undermine birthright citizenship has been a long time in the making:

If I’m ever president, I will outlaw any iteration of “Make America _____ Again.” How about some new messaging ideas you hacky losers. You know who you are.

I don't agree with Congressman Bacon on everything (probably most things), but he's spot on. I served in AmeriCorps NCCC in Nebraska and it was among the best experiences of my life. It makes civic, financial, and moral sense to support and defend AmeriCorps. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

“I felt this kind of fear, like something was telling me we weren’t going to Venezuela at all. Because the cops, when they had us here, they kept laughing a lot." @nlanard.bsky.social and I interviewed six Venezuelans who were nearly removed from Bluebonnet—presumably to El Salvador—on April 18.

“I can’t remember a situation that was this urgent or extraordinary," ACLU's Lee Gelernt told @nlanard.bsky.social and I, "where we were worried that every minute we delayed filing something could mean that our clients would end up permanently in a brutal foreign prison for the rest of their lives.”

In a powerful piece, our mentor Brett Davidson and late Executive Director Lola Adedokun share why communications must be at the heart of leadership. aspenglobalinnovators.org/stories/comm... ✨ Support the award in Lola’s honor: as.pn/award @aspeninstitute.bsky.social @dorisdukefdn.bsky.social

Latest with @nlanard.bsky.social: We spoke with relatives of Omar Cárdenas, one of the Venezuelans at the Bluebonnet detention center in Texas who could be removed under the Alien Enemies Act any day now. "He is not a criminal, as he is being portrayed. He is completely and utterly innocent.”

On Friday night, the federal government sent Harvard a five-page fusillade of new demands that would reshape the school’s operations, admissions, hiring, faculty and student life. It took less than 72 hours for Harvard to say no.

"If you don’t see all of this as one of the darkest days in American history, in which the President is openly embracing disappearing people without due process in the name of 'liberty,' you are a part of the problem."

bloomberg: ~90% of deported migrants to el salvador had no criminal record

this is Mohsen Mahdawi, the green card holder who was just arrested by ICE for rendition at his citizenship interview

If the U.S. government is going to take the position that, once removed from the United States, folks can’t be brought back, then it sure seems to me that federal courts should be reflexively and categorically barring *all* removals until they’re 100 percent certain that the removals are lawful.

As an American, if even an ounce of you cares about human rights, the rule of law, and the Constitution, every cell in your body should be screaming at this. If you're not enraged, you never cared about "freedom," you only cared about winning.

Expulsions based on tattoos, and students targeted for supporting Gaza: Trump’s immigration actions are raising eyebrows and constitutional questions. On this week's Reveal, we dive into Trump's deportation black hole.

When I'm occasionally asked about my political beliefs, I always come back to the expansion of civic participation. If the US wants to live up to its ideals where everyone has a voice, then things like the SAVE Act must die. Voter suppression is a coward's tool. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Spoke to @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social and Noah Lanard who have spoken to family members or friends of 10 people who have been sent to the El Salvador gulag. The number of Venezuelans who are totally innocent we sent there seems to be even greater than we imagined. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz4r...

The propaganda presidency. In describing the Trump regime's White House X account (a continuous stream of extremist internet memes), Warzel notes a trend that isn't limited to the U.S., the use of AI to generate not deepfakes, but visual propaganda that reinforces strategic frames & narratives.

And huge shout out to @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social who’s the co-author. Absolutely essential work.

"This is some of the finest journalism I've read in the Trump era so far," says @chrislhayes.bsky.social on @motherjones.com's reporting on the Trump admin deporting people to El Salvador, and in one case, over an autism awareness tattoo.

@nlanard.bsky.social and I spoke with the relatives, friends, and lawyers of 10 Venezuelan men the Trump administration sent to El Salvador without due process. What they have in common? Tattoos.

In no world or circumstance is the side that disappears people the "good guys." Accept no excuse to justify this authoritarian practice. I wouldn't care if he was the most MAGA, xenophobic, homophobic piece of shit, free speech is a right for all legal residents. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

I felt compelled to ask my parents about their lives under the Brazilian dictatorship after seeing the Academy Award-nominated "I’m Still Here." Here's what they told me and my thoughts on why this movie is more than an exercise in remembering some of the darkest chapters in the country’s history:

Слава Україні

authoritarians will steadily replace real journalists with propagandists anyway, so what's left of the profession might want to demonstrate something vaguely resembling a backbone

Reading today's @politico.com Playbook has me thinking that every single Republican needs to read "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende and remind themselves very quickly that they are not special. If you're lazy, read the last third starting with Alba. www.goodreads.com/book/show/93...

See here's how to do a headline. fortune.com/2025/02/13/e...

Everyone talking about Collins, Cassidy, Murkowski or any other "moderate," voting for this brain worm-infested grifter salesman need to remember and maintain their rage for every. other. Republican. Senator. that voted to confirm RFK Jr. All preventable deaths going forward are *equally* on them.

Alternative WSJ headline: "Cherokees Relocated, Why Can't Gazans?"

Nothing says "strength" and "leadership" like abandoning your allies. I didn't realize it was the "Art of the Deal" to negotiate away your leverage before you and your allies come to consensus. Beyond shameful. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

It was @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social who first sounded a clarion call as to Vought's schemes to institute Project 2025 and a white Christian nationalists agenda. This piece, from the fall, is still very much worth a read: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

both Donald Trump and Elon Musk have made a career out of refusing to pay people money they are contractually owed and unfortunately this now applies to payments made by the federal government

On YouTube: m.youtube.com/watch?featur...

I am now regretting my "At least Rubio is fairly normal," sentiments.

Oh, so he’s going to “Twitter Files” the USAID? People need to get up to speed real quick on this cast of characters and how they “work” to spin conspiracy theories and twist facts into false political narratives. Mr. “frame game” here (quoted by Musk) might be a good place to start.

Having watched with growing alarm the developments of the last 24 and 36 hours in Washington, I thought I’d take a stab at how the US media would cover this story if it was happening in a foreign country. Here’s that story that should be written this weekend: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/musk-s-jun...