ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps. If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...

At Delaney Hall, the privately-run ICE detention facility in Newark, visitors are forced to wait for hours in life-threatening cold to see their loved ones. But those conditions, advocates say, are arbitrarily imposed. Latest for @documentedny.bsky.social: documentedny.com/2026/02/09/v...

The technology deployed on the border includes everything from hyper-visible tethered aerostats to stealthy devices like unattended ground sensors to detect footsteps, and license plate scanners disguised as traffic cones. And border tech isn't staying at the border.

A mother and her 2 young kids, including her US citizen 4-year-old daughter, were trapped in a hotel room for weeks without contact from the outside world as the Trump administration sought to deport them. "We were experiencing a nightmare," she told @thecity.nyc. www.thecity.nyc/2026/01/28/i...

Trump Has Already Spent $500 Million Deploying Troops to U.S. Cities A report from the Congressional Budget Office reveals the immense expenses of the Trump administration’s military occupations. theintercept.com/2026/01/29/t...

“I just want my children to grow [up] safely,” she said. “Is that too much to ask?” 

“‘The extreme show of force here — seven armed agents in facemasks — was to intimidate staff so they could arrest our client in contravention of city law,’ Molly Lauterback, an immigration attorney with Brooklyn Defender Services, said in a statement.”

Amidst bike thefts and ICE raids, delivery workers have been organizing their own self defense networks. I followed one of these groups, El Diario de los Deliveryboys, on their Virgen de Guadalupe procession for @documentedny.bsky.social. documentedny.com/2025/12/16/b...

Emergency calls were made to 911 at least 15 times a month from Stewart Detention Center for six months in a row as of November 1.

With @nickpinto.bsky.social at Cuomo headquarters for @hellgatenyc.com Tune into the liveliest livestream in the city, starting now! www.youtube.com/live/fKA4Vpk...

Documented went down and spoke with vendors who said federal agents stormed Canal Street without warning — leaving dozens detained and the community in shock and confusion. 📝 @KEXU3 and @Anna_Oakes1 🔗 documentedny.com/2025/10/23/ice-raid-chinatown-vendors-arrested

As masked federal agents target street vendors on Canal Street, THE CITY watched one street vendor being detained. As the operation carried on, agents were confronted with a spontaneous crowd of protesters. MORE HERE: www.thecity.nyc/2025/10/21/i...

Dina and her husband spent their life savings to flee Venezuela. This week her husband was detained by ICE, in front of their children, during a mandatory asylum hearing. In July, she told me how her family longed for safety and stability after years of precarity. tinyurl.com/3uknzf5y @thecity.nyc

These high-profile cases are already having a chilling effect on immigrants' speech across the country. https://documentedny.com/2025/10/10/mahdawi-ozturk-new-york-legal-battle-first-amendment-constitution/

A. Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, says he has been placed under surveillance by ICE without explanation, and is facing years of uncertainty while his asylum case is resolved.

Federal authorities are using immigration law to limit the First Amendment rights of noncitizens. Legal experts warn that this extension of executive power can be used to censor citizens’ speech, too. My latest for @documentedny.bsky.social: t.co/ySnyXiLrpl

ICE reactivated its contract with spyware manufacturer Paragon Solutions. You can read more about it here, but what does that mean for using encrypted chat apps like Signal? 🧵(1/8)

Being a NYC government official and trying to bribe Katie Honan is like being an affiliate of a Gotham crime syndicate and trying to bribe Batman. This is comically dumb as hell

“If we didn’t have international graduates ... we could not stay open — because what do you do if you miss 80 to 90% of your doctors? You’re done.” @annaoakes.bsky.social spent time at a struggling Brooklyn hospital, and documented how the closing of America is rattling its workforce.

What a way to end my work day: arranging for law enforcement to pick up a potato chip bag stuffed with cash.

"For months, the international medical residents who make up a significant number of the Brookdale physician staff, have been caught up in a whirlwind of restrictions and regulations regarding their visa and travel status." — @annaoakes.bsky.social reports www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/14/b...

Barely an hour ago, Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Sharif warned us all: “If this madness doesn’t end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop.” Israel just killed him.

@columbiauniversity.bsky.social’s President Claire Shipman said the school retained full independence, “but it gave in to virtually all of Trump's demands.” @meghnadbose.bsky.social and @annaoakes.bsky.social write for the @theintercept.com about how Columbia “refashioned [itself] in Trump’s image”

Much of what the Trump administration has demanded, Columbia has conceded – though they insist otherwise. @meghnadbose.bsky.social and I tracked months of government demands and secretive Columbia rule changes, for @theintercept.com. theintercept.com/2025/08/07/c...

🚨DHS asks the Supreme Court to halt an injunction restricting the ability of ICE and Border Patrol to stop and question people based on factors such as speaking Spanish, being Latino, doing day labor, or being in certain areas. Hard not to read this as a request for a license to racially profile.

just wild that there was basically a $17 million heist last month using the city’s youth job program — and it barely registered

The NYPD and summer youth program agency are not saying much about the heist that pulled $17 million from payment debit cards through repeat withdrawals. But reports abounded of schemes to pay kids for cards, and ATM industry insiders told @annaoakes.bsky.social they see signs of a network hack.

A scheme that gave young people earning minimum wage cash for their government-issued debit cards extracted $17 million in repeat withdrawals still under investigation by the NYPD. www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/04/s...

"Without intervention, the remaining journalists in Gaza will die... Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us remembers seeing a colleague die of hunger."

The clerks where I get my lunch said a man came in last week and asked them where the public entrance to 26 Federal Plaza was. He locked his bike outside, and it’s been there since.

‘Like Dogs in Here’ — Videos Expose ICE Lock-up Inside 26 Federal Plaza www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/22/v...

'Family Reunions for Mexican Immigrants Persist in the Shadow of Immigration Enforcement,' by @annaoakes.bsky.social, @documentedny.bsky.social, @thecity.nyc

Transnational groups persist in flying in relatives for reunions with undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S. after decades of separation because what else can anyone do? A poignant portrait by @annaoakes.bsky.social.

FDNY helped NYPD identify a pro-Palestinian protestor using the facial recognition tech, Clearview AI — which the NYPD isn’t allowed to use. Manhattan DA used the ID to charge a hate crime. A judge dismissed the case & warned about government surveillance: www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/18/n...

New data from the Deportation Data Project confirms what we've seen on the ground in NYC for the past few weeks -- immigration arrests are spiking, while the # of people arrested w/ no criminal history is also shooting through the roof. www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/14/i...

Early this morning, a high school student from Queens was reunited with her family after three weeks in ICE detention, some of which she spent in Louisiana. www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/16/q...

At least ten people arrive at the hotel every day seeking shelter, a 20-year hotel employee said. Some with young kids and babies. "They look lost. They all got the same scared look,” a hotel staffer told @annaoakes.bsky.social www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/02/r...

You want quotable New Yorkers? We got 'em! The words of voters "whose options included a pack of career politicians, a former governor who resigned in the face of sexual harassment allegations — and a heap of uncertainty." Check it out, check it out in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/24/m...

Here's a longer video of Brad Lander's detention just now inside 26 Federal Plaza as he tried to walk a man out of immigration court, by masked federal agents.

Yesterday, Cuomo's campaign set up tents outside the poll sites in Parkchester - a predominantly Muslim neighborhood, with an additional Hindu minority - with a BBQ giving away free hot dogs. In case you were wondering how much he understands - or cares about - his Muslim constituents.

@marisakabas.bsky.social reports that ICE agents, in effect, no longer have to justify warrantless arrests, as per an email they received on Wednesday: www.thehandbasket.co/p/ice-warran...

coverage of tonight's protests, from @gwynnefitz.bsky.social + @annaoakes.bsky.social:

Downtown Manhattan now, where a large crowd chanting “ICE out of New York” has filled Foley Square, next door to where immigrants are being detained at Federal Plaza

Scenes from Federal Plaza today, where a group of activists tried to physically block ICE vans carrying detained immigrants

Rats have infested the walls, bedrooms, and bathtubs of a Brooklyn housing complex – all the way up to the 10th floor. Now, there's a livestream! For @hellgatenyc.com 👇

"The hallways...were absolutely lined with ICE agents. And immigrants were scared to leave, even though their cases were still open. What happened was that ICE agents then stormed into the courtroom, kicked out the attorneys, and detained everyone in the courtroom over the judge's objections."

A Crown Heights Building's Rat Infestation Gets a Livestream

“Constitutional law may apply differently at private universities than public streets, but Columbia should nonetheless respect the freedoms this nation was founded on,” Seth Stern tells @meghnadbose.bsky.social and @annaoakes.bsky.social.

NEW: #Columbia issued blanket suspensions after Wednesday’s protest. But even students who had nothing to do with the protest were suspended, with no due process – and given 48 hours to vacate their residences. With @meghnadbose.bsky.social, for @theintercept.com theintercept.com/2025/05/10/c...

New court filings show the NYPD is attempting to backslide on legal commitments it made to stop arresting journalists who are reporting on police actions. hellgatenyc.com/nypd-journal...