Straight Outta Brooklyn

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Two weeks ago, I went to Chicago, where I spoke with Black residents about concerns over a possible federal takeover. Reporting like this — centered in community — is only possible with your support.
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Chicago’s Black Immigrants Face New Wave of ICE Arrests and Uncertainty Nearly 70,000 immigrants from African countries live in the city, making up 5.2% of the population according to 2023 U.S. Census data.

Black Chicagoans are divided on how to respond to Trump’s renewed immigration crackdowns.
Some see echoes of overpolicing in their own communities.
Others say: “It’s not us against them.”
Here's what’s happening when I went on the ground to Chicago last week: capitalbnews.org/trump-ice-ra...

She Nearly Died in a Domestic Violence Attack. Illinois Denied Her Victim Compensation. Advocates are challenging compensation rules that leave Black and brown survivors behind.

“I should have gotten it.”
After surviving a brutal attack, Yolanda Carter was left with permanent injuries — and zero financial help from Illinois’ victim compensation fund.
Here's why the system is failing survivors:
capitalbnews.org/crime-surviv...

Black Mayor in Rural Alabama Once Denied His Seat Faces Opponent For the first time in the majority-Black town’s history, residents on Tuesday get to participate directly in the democratic process.

Remember Newbern, Alabama — the rural town where a Black man was blocked from serving as mayor and where elections had never been held?

Today, voters are making history as they cast ballots in the town’s first-ever municipal election.

NEW: capitalbnews.org/newbern-alab...

Cashless Bail Helps Keep Families Together. Trump Wants to Shut It Down. As the president escalates his federal takeover of D.C., his latest efforts target a system held up as a model since 1992.

The threat is specific to the nation’s capital, but it puts already-threatened “sanctuary jurisdictions” with cashless bail policies on notice.
Click the link for more:
capitalbnews.org/cashless-bai...

Allowing an individual facing charges the opportunity to be released from jail before their case is resolved prevents job loss and housing instability, studies show.

Hey y’all hey! Quick 🧵🚨
The federal takeover of D.C.’s government has been kicked up a notch with President Trump’s executive order that threatens to take away funds from the district if it doesn’t end its cashless bail policy.

Newsletters We write the untold stories of Black America. Sign up now for Capital B's national, Atlanta, Gary and Everything's Politics newsletter emails.

In Saturday's @capitalb.bsky.social newsletter "Seen & Heard," I wrote about a nostalgic weekend that made me wonder what’s next for “sanctuary jurisdictions” during this administration, the 2003 blackout, and Amadou Diallo.
Sign up here to read it tomorrow morning: capitalbnews.org/newsletters

Undocumented Black Communities Brace for Ripple Effects of Federal Takeover Attorney General Pam Bondi released a list of 35 “sanctuary jurisdictions” across the country.

But what does all this mean for undocumented Black people living in these so-called “sanctuary” cities today — especially with threats to withhold federal funds and lawsuits against those 35 locations?
Click the link to read the full explainer:
capitalbnews.org/sanctuary-ci...

Justice Department Publishes List of Sanctuary Jurisdictions WASHINGTON – Today, the Justice Department published a list of states, cities, and counties identified as having policies, laws, or regulations that impede enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Yes — the nation’s capital was even listed as a “state” on Bondi’s list. (📄 DOJ link: www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...)
Sound familiar? It should.
Many of you might remember similar crackdowns from Trump’s last term.

Then, Trump announced a temporary deployment of federal troops to Washington, D.C., following a threat he made after an ex-DOGE employee was allegedly carjacked by teenagers.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Pam Bondi released an overlapping list of cities, counties, and states accused of defying the administration’s mass deportation efforts through sanctuary policies.
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Correction: It's called the Oklahoma Survivors Act.

She Got 27 Years for Killing Her Abuser. Oklahoma’s Survivors Act Could Free Her. A judge will submit a written decision in Tyesha Long’s hearing next month.

Supporters of Tyesha Long said she is the “poster child” for the state’s Survivor’s Act because of her documented history of abuse.
But one advocate said it’s “hard to imagine more Black women benefiting” from similar second chance laws.
To learn more about her case:
capitalbnews.org/tyesha-long-...

D.C. Faces Federal Takeover: What It Means for Black Communities Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and threat to take over the city’s police comes as crime reaches a 30-year low in the nation’s capital.

President Donald Trump announced a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., and its police department.
Click the link for more:

capitalbnews.org/dc-police-fe...

New York’s Sexual Assault Law Excludes the Intoxicated. This Bill Aims to Fix It. State Senate Bill A101 bans using a survivor’s inebriation as a defense in sex crime cases.

🔈 Choosing to drink shouldn’t disqualify someone from being believed or protected after a sexual assault. A NY bill —reintroduced 6 times — aims to close the legal loophole around voluntary intoxication.
Learn more: capitalbnews.org/bill-a101-ne...

DOJ Seeks Just 1 Day In Prison for Cop Who Fired Into Breonna Taylor’s Home Brett Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment. None of those bullets caused her death.

One day.
capitalbnews.org/breonna-tayl...

Marilyn Mosby Scores Partial Victory, Has One Federal Conviction Overturned She gets to keep the Florida condo at the heart of her mortgage fraud case, but her felony perjury convictions stand.

This ruling allows Marilyn Mosby to keep the $476,000 condo the government tried to force her to forfeit after her conviction, according to the decision.
capitalbnews.org/marilyn-mosb...

Saniyah Cheatham’s Family Demands Answers in Her Death Officials from the New York City Chief Medical Examiner’s Office said the 18-year-old died by hanging while in police custody.

Since Sandra Bland’s death 10 years ago, advocates have called on the authorities to look into other killings of Black women in which police have been accused of using excessive force, including Breonna Taylor, Sonya Massey, Jada Johnson, and Niani Finlayson.

capitalbnews.org/saniyah-chea...

Newsletters We write the untold stories of Black America. Sign up now for Capital B's national, Atlanta, Gary and Everything's Politics newsletter emails.

Sign up here to read it tomorrow morning: capitalbnews.org/newsletters

In Saturday's @capitalb.bsky.social "Seen & Heard" newsletter, I shared a trip to Center, Texas, where I met relatives of Leonard McCowin — a 21-year-old WWII vet killed by the city marshal in 1947 — and a distant cousin fighting to preserve the truth about Shelby County’s Black history.

Jabari Peoples Was Killed by Police. His Family Wants The Truth. Parents of an 18-year-old college student, who was fatally shot by an Alabama officer, want police body camera footage to be released.

“We don’t know how we are going to go on without Jabari, but we are going to fight for Jabari,” Williams Peoples, Jabari Peoples' dad, said at a presser.
Peoples was killed by a Homewood, AL, officer on June 23.
Activists said there are "serious issues in Homewood."
capitalbnews.org/jabari-peopl...

Texas Man’s Fight to Move a Lynching Marker Sparks New Battle for Truth Seven decades after a white officer killed a Black WWII veteran, Shelby County eyes an NAACP chapter.

As Black history faces growing erasure from textbooks, I took a trip to Center, Texas. Click the link to find out what I learned about Jackson's fight to correct the record of Shelby County's history:

capitalbnews.org/texas-lynchi...

Quick 🧵🚨:
Delbert Jackson has launched a campaign to relocate a historic marker and add a second — honoring his distant cousin Leonard McCowin, a 21-year-old Black veteran who witnesses say was killed by a Center, Texas, city marshal in 1947.

Journalists need to frame gun violence as a public health issue Gun violence is a public health issue, not just a criminal one. That was the key message from speakers at Health Journalism 2025.

“Go to hospitals and talk about hospital-based violence intervention programs, talk to victims of gun violence and prove that no, this is not solely about police courts and crime."

Judge says Trump administration can't end protected status for Haitian migrants this year The Trump administration cannot cut off legal status and work permits for thousands of Haitian migrants this fall, a federal judge ruled.

A federal judge ruled that the DHS can't end protected status for thousands of Haitian migrants this fall.

This is a win for immigrants' rights.

And Cassie has.

Split Verdict: Diddy Convicted of Prostitution Charges, Acquitted of Sex Trafficking Sean “Diddy” Combs, who turned a career as a music producer into a portfolio of businesses worth a billion dollars, has been found not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering but convicted of prost...

capitalbnews.org/diddy-split-...

After a DUI Stop, He Vanished Into the ICE System Black immigrant families are being left in the dark as ICE moves loved ones from state to state.

Today, under Trump’s deportation policies, families like Rony Dieujuste’s are living in fear, often unaware of the whereabouts of their detained or deported loved ones.

Click the link to read more about his story and how transportation industries are also involved:
capitalbnews.org/black-immigr...

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For generations, people from the Caribbean have migrated to the U.S. — some directly from their home islands, others through countries like Canada or the United Kingdom.