Block Club reporters were there every day as immigration agents teargassed, shot, violently arrested & separated Chicagoans from their families. Bolstered by hours of video analysis & hundreds of documents, "Chicago Under Siege" is the record of what happened. blockclubchicago.org/2025/12/30/c...

News: On Day 2 of Cmdr. Gregory Bovino’s chaotic return to Chicago earlier this month, a CBP supervisor dialed 911 as a convoy of federal vehicles sped north on Lake Shore Drive. Records capture CPD, OEMC coordination with the feds as they headed to Evanston. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/30/a...

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR. I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol. They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

iCloud, Mega, and as a torrent. Archivists have uploaded the 60 Minutes episode Bari Weiss spiked.

From LA to Chicago, press arrests were used to silence protest coverage across the country in 2025. Each arrest signaled a shift in how authorities police information and those who gather it. Read @pressfreedomtracker.us's new report by @stephaniesugars.bsky.social:

Border Patrol is back. "Law enforcement agencies in the area have been alerted that Bovino and about 200 Border Patrol agents have arrived in Chicago for more enforcement action, sources said." blockclubchicago.org/2025/12/16/b...

Max Blaisdell’s 2023 investigation of how CPD deals with—or in most cases, doesn’t deal with—abusers on the force is once again relevant

“Even after the agent inside Frazier’s Jeep drew his gun and ordered her to pull over, she allegedly continued driving and stopped only after reaching the New Hope Police Department.”

Timeline cleanse

The @southsideweekly.bsky.social’s final issue of 2025 is on newsstands, and it’s chock-full of incredible stories. Here’s a preview. On the cover: @almacampos.bsky.social and Max Blaisdell’s investigation of how immigrants seeking legal paths to citizenship are defrauded by scammers. 1/🧵

Don’t look away. sahanjournal.com/immigration/...

“In 2019, researchers estimated that CBP officers are 5 times more likely to be arrested than local and state law enforcement personnel. CBP personel have been arrested for corruption, sexual assault, aggravated assault, domestic violence, and sex crimes against children.”

“The Communists are awash in overabundance while we must ration our limited resources” is a new one

U.S. prosecutors in Chicago are dropping another case tied to Operation Midway Blitz, "without prejudice." It's USA v. Nathan Griffin. Below is the motion, followed by excerpts from the complaint. The feds don't say why they're dropping it, but they had until today to secure an indictment.

Yours truly and @meganpiont.bsky.social are quoted waxing poetic about zines, lol. What's new? www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

UPDATE — For those who want to help, there’s now a way to donate directly to the 7500 South Shore Tenants Union to help with emergency relocation costs as residents “vacate in one of the snowiest winters in Chicago’s history.” Details in our story. thetriibe.com/2025/12/judg...

O'Hare-based Border Protection officer sexually abused, robbed women at gunpoint, indictment claims UPDATED @chicago.suntimes.com story: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

ICE and Border Patrol agents shamelessly photograph people by pointing their phones in any direction, and no one can refuse it. This data stays with ICE for 15 YEARS regardless of your citizenship status. The goal is to keep on collecting, collecting, collecting....

UPDATE: Another Chicago-area church has put up an immigration-themed Nativity scene. A church member at Urban Village Church sent this one along, where Mary, Joseph and Jesus are gone and replaced with a sign that reads: “Due to ICE activity in our community, the Holy Family is in hiding.”

“It feels a lot like a storm where people have to stay inside and not go out… But it’s heartbreaking because it’s a storm that’s only affecting a third of the population and other people may not even be aware of it.”

There is no sight that more efficiently puts the lie to immigration “court” than the common sight of children “representing themselves.” Children too small to climb into the chair, children in pajamas who don’t know where they are, children not yet old enough to speak.

I spoke with Any Lucía López Belloza, the Babson College student who was on her way to surprise her family for Thanksgiving when ICE deported her. "My 5-year-old sister still believes that I might go home for Christmas," she tells me. www.thecut.com/article/any-...

This video a must watch. Gives you a good sense of what Elgin residents experienced today.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in Chicago this morning for a Christmas event at Navy Pier. The Elgin Area Rapid Response team meanwhile reported this morning that immigration agents are active in the suburb of Elgin.

Turns out police superintendents CAN order their officers to intervene in unlawful immigration detentions.

Video footage going around of what appear to be Border Patrol agents chasing folks in someone’s backyard here in Chicagoland

Failed mayoral candidate Ja'mal Green is once again claiming on social media that @thetriibe.com's story on how Paul Vallas’s campaign paid him is untrue. I edited that story; @tonia.thetriibe.com reported it. So once again: here are the receipts. bit.ly/JaymalPaid

Chicagoans are paying about $40 apiece just for lawsuits tied to disgraced former cop Reynaldo Guevara Jr. So far this year, the city is on the hook for some $285M in police misconduct settlements—roughly $100 per resident

Municipal executives routinely flout FOIA law around deadlines—Chicago’s mayor’s office has really worsened in this regard in recent years. These are the people’s records. Sue early and often!

This isn’t just about individual scams but also about a system so confusing and inaccessible that people feel they have no choice but to trust anyone promising a path forward. And reporting fraud is just as complicated.

Great article -- can't count how many clients have come in after being scammed by their attorneys or "notarios". Frequently the lawyer refuses to even give them a copy of the file unless they pay thousands of dollars.

In one shocking case, a pair of fraudsters in Chicago and Melrose Park were named in complaints with the Illinois Attorney General alleging they defrauded clients of more than $100,000 between 2022-23 alone. @ilattygeneral.bsky.social didn’t answer our questions about the status of those complaints.

A months-long investigation by @almacampos.bsky.social and Max Blaisdell examined how immigrants who are trying to follow a legal path to residency can be defrauded by unscrupulous “notarios.” With @typeinvestigations.org

University of Alabama suspended publication of two student-run magazines, claiming they weren’t in compliance with federal guidance on DEI “This is an attack on the student press and nothing less”

NEW: Judge Howell barred the Trump administration from continuing to make warrantless immigration arrests in DC unless there is probable cause to believe there is a risk of flight. The admin illegally lowered the standard, she said. w/ @hassankanu.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

ICE agents arrested a Chinese father and his 6-year-old son, separating the two and sending the father to Orange County Jail while the whereabouts of the son remain unknown as of Tuesday morning. www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/02/i...

Also in Chicago legal news: Juan Espinoza Martinez, who the federal govt accuses of placing a hit on Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, yesterday filed another motion for pretrial release. He withdrew another pretrial motion last week.

IT'S TIIIIIIIIIIME!!! December is here, which means the inaugural 2025 #FOIAdvent calendar has arrived. ☃️✨ Every day this month, the calendar will update with a new records request prompt for you to file with an agency of your choosing, for a fun run of holiday FOIA requests. bit.ly/31-days-of-f...

Link: thetriibe.com/2022/04/essa...

And to be clear, the mayor's 2026 proposal is not just a "no police cuts" budget -- it's a budget in which CPD (already the city's most expensive dept. by far) received a larger year-over-year net increase of non-grant funds than any other dept. Larger than most other departments' entire budgets!

And one more other thing I’m seeing now, that Northwestern unsurprisingly didn’t mention in its statement, effectively banning gender affirming care at NU school of medicine

We feed you. They hunt us.

Bodycam footage from Operation Midway Blitz released: ‘It’s all about arresting people’ (gift link) www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/28/b...

Rep. Underwood says Broadview detainees and staff had been moved before her visit, but it was still apparent that the detention center does not meet minimum standards

[Judge Ellis] repeatedly found testimony by Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino... not credible. Bovino was evasive, either giving “cute” answers to attorney’s questions or outright lying, the judge said in her [233-page] ruling. blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/25/f... 📝 @minabloom.bsky.social

Ms. Kuyateh was one of 19 third-country nationals sent to Ghana on Nov. 6. At least 61 TCNs have been removed there since September. Others report similar treatment. Nigerians were forced to cross into Togo w/o documents, rendering them essentially stateless www.nbcwashington.com/investigatio...

Gregory Bovino’s deposition is out. Check here and @chicagotribune.com for highlights. Throughout, Bovino was evasive and combative. In this, while being asked about a photo showing him throwing tear gas, Bovino said: “You said canister. I threw two. That’s plural.”