John Washington

Blueprints of a proposed DHS detention center in Social Circle, Georgia.

The conservative town has pushed back against the proposed site of human warehousing. Many other communities across the country are facing similar sites. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

"The raids at the family detention site an hour southwest of San Antonio are in response to a ProPublica article published Feb. 9, which features the letters and drawings of children inside, according to Manriquez.” #AbuseofPowerWatch

The U.S. Has Killed More than 100 People in Boat Strikes. We’re Tracking Them All. The Intercept is keeping count of all publicly declared U.S. attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and the number of civilians killed.

Since declaring war in the Caribbean Sea & Pacific Ocean, US has killed at least 145 people in lethal strikes on boats.

These never-ending & interchangeable wars (war on drugs, war on terror, and war on migrants) by US Southern Command no longer even have to specify what org they are targeting!

Republican Lawmaker Wants ICE at Polling Places. That Would Be Illegal. The proposal would station ICE at early voting sites, Election Day polls and ballot drop boxes, even though Arizona and federal law strictly limits law enforcement activity at voting locations.

🚨 ICE at the polls?

An Arizona Lawmaker is pushing a bill to put ICE agents at all polling places throughout the state.

Latest, along with @josephjaafari.bsky.social for @lookoutnews.bsky.social
www.lookoutnews.org/republican-l...

thank you, Greg!

thanks Brian!

LOOKOUT LOOKOUT is a nonprofit news site dedicated to covering Arizona's LGBTQ+ community.

New gig announcement:

I'm very happy to report that today is my first day at @lookoutnews.bsky.social

I'll be covering the Arizona statehouse, immigration and border issues, and plenty more.

Follow Lookout, www.lookoutnews.org, read our work, and reach out with tips or comments!

Full write up on Tuesday’s Surprise City Council meeting where 1000+ community members showed up to oppose a recently purchased industrial warehouse located across from a high school, a preschool and middle school that DHS/ICE plans to use as a concentration camp. It’s the size of 7 football fields.

After a few weeks delay, ICE just released new detention statistics. They show 70,766 people in detention as of 1/26/2026. I believe this is the first time this data source has reported a detained population over 70k.

A long way home - AZ Luminaria One Tucson family’s harrowing journey from Venezuela through the heart of the anti-immigrant policies of México and the U.S.

Yesenia had walked thousands of miles through the Darién Gap and through Mexico to get a modicum of safety and security for her children in Tucson. Then a traffic stop destroyed it all

@jwashing.bsky.social follows the story of one family after deportation

azluminaria.org/a-long-way-h...

well.... we do have a few, but not enough.

BREAKING: Border Patrol shoots person in southern Arizona Emergency crews “found the patient in custody and in critical condition” 15 miles north of the US-Mexico border.

Federal immigration agents shoot another person, south of Tucson: via @maxgranger.info maxgranger.substack.com/p/breaking-b...

I did get help. thanks for checking, Alex!

Free Ebooks: Abolish ICE, Abolish the Border In solidarity with all those standing up for our communities against the brutality of immigrant detention and ICE occupation, we're offering free ebooks of three crucial books about migrant justice an...

Three free (and very relevant) e-books available from @haymarketbooks.org right now

"Unbuild Walls" by @silkys13.bsky.social

"Border and Rule" by @harshawalia.bsky.social

and my "The Case for Open Borders"
www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/525-fr...

Trump Has Made ICE the Largest Law Enforcement Agency in the Country With Congress-approved funding, ICE detention is expected to triple in size, mirroring the scale of Japanese internment.

For @truthout.org I wrote an analysis of the mass deportation boom during 2025. Amid all the spectacle, the passage of the funding bill in July was an ominous milestone in the history of U.S. immigration policy and the Trump administration's aspiring fascism.
truthout.org/articles/tru...

Here's the follow up to last year's story of a Venezuelan snatched off the streets for driving too slowly and deported to Mexico.

Violence of arrest/detention caused her to miscarry.

Collaboration with Erik López of La Silla Rota & @azluminaria.org

johnwashington.substack.com/p/blowtorch-...

The Roots of Bukele’s Gulag Understanding why Trump is using El Salvador to test the limits of illegal deportation requires returning to the US’s long history of outsourcing violence.

www.bunkhistory.org/resources/th...
h/t @jwashing.bsky.social

Medical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording says A fellow detainee says he witnessed Geraldo Lunas Campos being choked to death by guards at the ICE detention center in Texas on Jan. 3.

The Washington Post just reported that the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at the detention facility in El Paso known as Camp East Montana on January 3 may have been a homicide. Coroner reports suggest that he died from asphyxiation — possibly from a choke hold.

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Thanks Alex!

The big-money right-wing push to upend the Constitution—and kill birthright citizenship “We’re in totally uncharted territory.”

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.

Last newsletter of the year, a recap of my reading and how I worked through a writer’s block.
johnwashington.substack.com/p/best-of-2026

I have a chapter in my forthcoming book, How to Close a Camp, about the nomenclature of camps.

Looking for someone who can help me accurately translate a few short lines of Turkish.

It's for a chapter of my book on immigration detention centers.

Any takers, contacts, or tips would be very much appreciated.

American Immigration Council said in October that the Trump admin has been deadlier for ICE detainees than the COVID-19 pandemic. And, as Rep. Jayapal notes below, more immigrants have died since then: www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/trump-d...

Due process at work. I traveled to El Salvador because Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case was always about more than one man. It was about our constitutional rights. We’re fighting for fair treatment for every immigrant wrongfully detained or deported. We need to stay loud.

John Washington (@jbwashing) Reflections on a violent immigration raid in my neighborhood last Friday, a member of Congress getting pepper-sprayed, and the importance of bookstores for community health. Latest newsletter: https:...

On Immigration “extremism”.

My latest newsletter:
substack.com/@jbwashing/n...

ICE raid today in Tucson.
Newly seated Rep Adelita Grijalva and protesters who turned out to protect their neighbors got flash-banged, pepper sprayed, pushed.
At least two were arrested.

Pima County rejects health review as Project Blue land sale nears closing - AZ Luminaria A majority of Pima County supervisors rejected efforts to weigh the health and water impacts of Project Blue, a last-ditch effort by public officials opposed to the plan to conduct more oversight of t...

And another important story from @jwashing.bsky.social reveals that county supervisors rejected efforts (3-2) to weigh the health and water impacts of Project Blue, a last-ditch effort to conduct more oversight of the proposed massive data center.

azluminaria.org/2025/12/02/p...

“More than a million immigrants have disappeared from the US workforce since Trump took office.”

@andrewperez.bsky.social reports on an anti-ICE ad campaign calling for ICE agents to quit.

Read more: zeteo.com/p/ad-campaig...

On the Seventh Day of Hell! We are A-Swimming in Votes for 'Best of 2025' | This Is Hell! Get more from This Is Hell! on Patreon

What interviews were 'Best of 2025'?

Our July guests:

@jwashing.bsky.social, “The Roots of Bukele’s Gulag" @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social.

Suzy Hansen, "Crimes of the Century" @nymag.com.

@kamaufranklin.bsky.social, "No Cop City, No Cop World" @haymarketbooks.org).

www.patreon.com/posts/on-sev...