@samtlevin.bsky.social
Guardian senior reporter, based in Los Angeles. Sam.Levin@theguardian [dot] com. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sam-levin
DOJ is ending protections against sexual abuse in prisons for LGBTQ+ people. Trans, intersex, nonconforming, queer folks already faced rampant violence behind bars, but a new memo says "effective immediately" institutions won't be held responsible for violations.
"It's a green light for predators."
BIG: FBI spied on Signal group chat of immigration activists CourtWatch, classifying them as violent terrorist extremists for quietly sitting in on court cases, as revealed in intel bulletin we obtained & shared w/ @samtlevin.bsky.social @us.theguardian.com. #FOIA www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
21.11.2025 16:13 — 👍 179 🔁 104 💬 4 📌 7
“Basic civic participation is not a terrorist threat” - @rshapiro.bsky.social of @propertyofthepeople.org. “The FBI treating it like one is yet another example of the Trump regime’s profound contempt for even the most rudimentary of democratic freedoms.”
Full @us.theguardian.com story here:
Comptroller @bradlander.bsky.social, a regular court watcher: “This FBI surveillance tactic is ripped straight out of the J Edgar Hoover playbook. Observing immigration court...is a legal and non-violent act, unlike the ICE abductions we have witnessed regularly for months outside of the courtrooms"
21.11.2025 19:02 — 👍 60 🔁 21 💬 1 📌 0The FBI/NYPD report was sent to other agencies, warning of “extremist actors targeting law enforcement officers + federal facilities." The report provided no evidence of ties to extremism or violence among court watchers, who've monitored courts across the US as ICE has ramped up courthouse arrests.
21.11.2025 18:59 — 👍 31 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0
text screenshot from article: The FBI said the information came from a “sensitive source with excellent access” and introduced the report as a warning about “extremist actors targeting law enforcement officers and federal facilities”. In “late May”, an individual “participated in a debrief session held via a Signal call within the ‘courtwatch’ Signal groupchat”, the FBI wrote, without identifying the individual or the specific group or organizations involved. That person “discussed how to improve future activities near federal facilities in New York City, including 26 Federal Plaza, 201 Varick Street and 290 Broadway”, the report continued, listing the addresses of three immigration courts in Manhattan.
The records don't make clear how the FBI accessed a private Signal chat. FBI said the intel came from a “sensitive source with excellent access.”
The report quoted chats from unnamed ppl discussing how to access public hearings at immigration court, what to say upon arrival, what floor to go etc.
NEW: The FBI spied on a Signal group chat of NY immigrants' rights volunteers organizing court watch+ labeled activists “anarchist violent extremist actors.”
Joint FBI/NYPD report shows law enforcement accessed private planning convo of ppl monitoring ICE
Docs obtained by @propertyofthepeople.org
After José's arrest sparked outrage in August, DHS attacked him in a press release, calling him a "criminal illegal alien, not a firefighter." DHS has cited a 12-year-old drug delivery charge while failing to acknowledge the charge was dismissed.
Full @us.theguardian.com interview and story here:
José and another firefighter in uniforms and holding tools while standing on a road near a row of trees on fire
José worked as a firefighter since 2019 + ran a landscaping business in Monmouth, OR, the area where he grew up
Cecelia Koontz, Monmouth’s mayor, who for years hired José for landscaping: “It hit ppl really hard. He cares so much about his work. Ppl respected that + were horrified he was detained”
Cruz-Estrada in a firefighting uniform in the middle of the woods by a large plume of smoke, while responding to the Hermits Peak fire in New Mexico in 2022
Cruz-Estrada in a firefighting uniform and helmet holding a saw while working at the Bootleg fire in southern Oregon in 2021.
José's crew spent a week in August battling the Bear Gulch fire, then a 9,000-acre blaze + largest in 70+ years in WA’s Olympic Peninsula.
Border Patrol showed up to his remote forest location, surrounded the crew + ultimately arrested José + another immigrant firefighter.
"It’s backstabbing.”
NEW: The US has deported a longtime Oregon firefighter who was arrested by Border Patrol while deployed at a major wildfire in Washington state.
José Bertin Cruz-Estrada, separated from his family, is speaking out from Mexico for the first time:
“I feel betrayed ... What am I going to do now?"
NEW: police depts across the US spread a false story that Venezuelan gang members were planning to kill officers.
Records obtained by @propertyofthepeople.org and shared with @theguardian.com, reveal that the FBI quietly acknowledged a widely shared rumor about Tren de Aragua was false.
“They are using our work to minimize the harm of conversion therapy. There are few practices where there is as much demonstrated evidence of harm” -Lisa Diamond, renowned psychology + gender studies scholar, whose work ADF cited to promote conversion practices. “The misinterpretation is so profound"
06.10.2025 22:29 — 👍 53 🔁 11 💬 1 📌 2The case, CO notes, is manufactured: No one has filed a complaint against Chiles. The state has not disciplined her. The law is narrow: it bans conversion practices for licensed clinicians with youth patients, but does not impact religious counselors or life coaches or Chiles' speech outside of work
06.10.2025 22:26 — 👍 39 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0ADF defended its quotations as "accurate." The group reps Kaley Chiles, a Colorado counselor who claims a ban on conversion therapy violates free speech rights to discuss Christian faith + beliefs about “biological sex” with patients.
Chiles, ADF says, has "begun censoring herself" due to the law.
ADF also cited a deceased researcher and psychologist as a proponent of conversion therapy, prompting his family to tell me they were “deeply disturbed” by the “distortion” of his work, and that he “strongly condemned all forms of conversion therapy."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
ADF used two scholars' work to argue for conversion practices to be permitted, even though their paper explicitly condemns conversion therapy as "psychologically damaging" + linked to suicide.
“This is the most upsetting use of my scholarship in my career ...It's lethally dangerous to LGBTQ+ kids"
NEW: Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom "deceived" the Supreme Court + "profoundly misrepresented" LGBTQ+ research, according to scholars cited by ADF.
Quoted experts speak out about ADF's "distortions" + "false evidence" in major case, on deck tomorrow, to revive "conversion therapy"
CoreCivic, the operator, opened the California City ICE facility without proper permits or a business license and bypassing state law, the city’s mayor told me. The private prison company has denied mistreatment claims, and says it “submitted all required information” to the city for its license.
27.09.2025 17:57 — 👍 77 🔁 32 💬 2 📌 4
NEW: Six people detained in California’s newest + largest ICE facility speak out, saying they are confined in filthy cells, struggling to access basic medications, going hungry due to insufficient food, drinking dirty water, and faced with “military-like” staff.
“This place is built to break us”
Image that says: “The FBI and NYPD say using these emojis could signal affiliation with the Tren de Aragua gang … Experts and immigration attorneys who reviewed the records said the claims were ludicrous, uneducated and baseless” Followed by pictures of alien, ninja, crown, hand, swords, train, and shield emojis
The law enforcement briefings + counterterrorism training materials were obtained by @propertyofthepeople.org / @rshapiro.bsky.social and shared with @us.theguardian.com.
Experts say US officials’ claims linking emojis to the Venezuelan gang are “ludicrous,” “baseless,” “uneducated” + “absurd”
👽 🛡️ 👑 🤘🏼 ⚔️ 🥷 🚂 🏛️ 🍓
Those are emojis the FBI, NYPD, CBP and US Army have said could be signs of affiliation with the Tren de Aragua gang + part of their “code language”, internal records show.
“Just like tattoos, we could see folks rounded up + tortured based solely on their use of certain emojis”
BIG: US law enforcement claims certain *emojis* could signal Tren de Aragua gang membership, leading to deportations, as revealed in intelligence documents we obtained & shared with @samtlevin.bsky.social / @maanvisingh.bsky.social / @us.theguardian.com. #FOIA www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
19.09.2025 16:05 — 👍 100 🔁 36 💬 0 📌 3
US law enforcement officials have claimed the use of certain emojis could signal affiliation with Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan gang, according to internal records reviewed by the Guardian and obtained by @propertyofthepeople.org, a government transparency non-profit.
19.09.2025 13:28 — 👍 39 🔁 30 💬 11 📌 9
NEW: US law enforcement have claimed the use of certain *emojis* could signal affiliation with the Tren de Aragua gang, records reveal. The "ludicrous" claims, like assertions about tattoos, could further fuel false gang labels + deportations. W/ @propertyofthepeople.org
emoji docs excerpted here ⬇️
Butler and others targeted were given no info about the nature of the claims against them and the university suspended normal processes for reviewing complaints, they said: "That means allegations sent to the administration, even anonymous ones, were simply forwarded without having been adjudicated
12.09.2025 21:45 — 👍 363 🔁 118 💬 8 📌 14
Names include international students, lecturers and part-time faculty, Judith Butler says: “The consequences of this compliance could be terrible for a lot of people’s lives, most of whom are much more vulnerable than I am. They can suffer deportation, expulsion, job loss, harassment, surveillance"
12.09.2025 21:42 — 👍 361 🔁 92 💬 9 📌 11
UC Berkeley gives the Trump admin the names of 160 faculty + students for a federal investigation into “alleged antisemitic incidents.”
Judith Butler, one of the targeted scholars, tells me: "It is an enormous breach of trust... It's shocking. Did you consider not complying with this request?”
When ICE + Border Patrol agents were spotted at hotels across LA region, communities organized sustained rallies that forced them out + pressured hotels to take action. Intelligence records obtained by @propertyofthepeople.org + shared with @theguardian.com show how the US military responded:
21.08.2025 18:50 — 👍 108 🔁 45 💬 2 📌 0
NEW: Los Angeles protesters successfully disrupted ICE's crackdown by targeting hotels where officers stayed, emails show. Widespread rallies led Army to make list of "hotels to avoid" due to "harassment."
"When we don’t want ICE in our neighborhoods, we can actually take actions to force them out"
