Amy Qin

Bumping again--I'm back full time starting today. Am especially interested in hearing from unhoused people and advocates in Chicago who have been impacted by ICE and the now-looming National Guard deployment in our city. Signal is katie.507.

About 1 in 4 U.S. adults worry they or someone close to them could be deported About four-in-ten immigrants (43%) say they worry a lot or some, up from 33% in March.

About 1 in 4 U.S. adults worry they or someone close to them could be deported, according to a June @pewresearch.org survey.

ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team Documents show ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.

NEW: ICE is planning to hire a team of nearly 30 people to surveil social media 24/7, build dossiers on people, and flag them for arrest and deportation. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...

What we just saw: state police not only assisting federal agents with crowd control out here, but also protester arrests.

All morning, this has been a nonviolent demonstration. Have not seen a single crime from this crowd (not that that would excuse the brutality).

A column chart showing the average time by days spent at the Broadview processing center spiking in June.

There’s no medical staff or services at Broadview. No food preparation. No beds. That’s all by design because the facility was created for holds less than 12 hours.
@bylaurenfitz.bsky.social @adrianacardmag.bsky.social
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

ICE's Broadview facility has become a de facto detention center, minus the rules and oversight ICE regularly held immigrants far beyond the hours they set for the Broadview processing center, data through July shows. Immigrants held there say there are no beds, limited food, and toilets are out...

Broadview was never designed to be a detention facility, but the administration of President Donald Trump is now using it as a de facto one. As a “service processing center” it’s intended to hold up people picked up by immigration authorities for up to 12 hours. chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

JUST IN: In declarations to the court, top officials in the Portland Police Bureau and the Oregon State Police say they really don't need federal/military assistance to contain the relatively minor protests they're seeing outside ICE facilities.

www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Obama Center Housing Ordinance Passes City Council After 2-Year Delay And Overhaul Alderpeople on Thursday approved an ordinance to fund homeownership programs and reserve city-owned land for income-based housing in three South Side neighborhoods near the future Obama Presidential C...

City Council just backed a plan to set aside city-owned land for affordable housing and fund homeownership programs near the future Obama Center.

The ordinance passed within a day, after an initial draft — focused solely on South Shore — stalled for 2 years. blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/25/o...

Since 2023, the city has drawn between $70 million and $90 million of an approximately $325 million federal loan for lead service line replacements that expires next year

via @keertigopal.bsky.social and @juanpab.bsky.social grist.org/economics/ch...

USDA cancels survey tracking how many Americans struggle to get enough food The Department of Agriculture said it will end a longstanding annual food insecurity survey. Experts say the move will obscure the effects of recent changes that will lead to people losing food aid.

The Department of Agriculture said it will end a longstanding annual food insecurity survey. Experts say the move will obscure the effects of recent changes that will lead to people losing food aid.

Revealed: US law enforcement claimed emojis could signal Tren de Aragua affiliation Claims are ‘an unsophisticated, uneducated approach that demonstrates a lack of knowledge’, says one professor

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 ⬇️

Chart showing the recent spike in late rents. nearing 12 percent means more late payments than anytime since January 2021, according to the chart.

Late rent payments have jumped up.

In recent months, the percent of tenants who are late on rent has risen toward 12%.

But that’s not the whole story 🧵

Elgin man who is a US citizen was briefly detained in latest Chicago-area ICE blitz An Elgin man who was born in Texas said he was handcuffed and placed in a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol vehicle, as part of the latest Chicago-area ICE blitz.

Elgin man who is a US citizen was briefly detained in latest Chicago-area ICE blitz (gift link) www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/16/e...

How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart Contracted AI raters describe grueling deadlines, poor pay and opacity around work to make chatbots intelligent

“AI isn’t magic; it’s a pyramid scheme of human labor,” said Adio Dinika, a researcher at the Distributed AI Research Institute…These raters are the middle rung: invisible, essential and expendable.”

ICE agents in the Park Ave neighborhood spark large-scale protest The group shouted “shame” and "Gestapo,” and applauded as agents in the ICE-led action drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed.

Federal immigration agents were seemingly forced to retreat from a roofing job site in Rochester, NY, after being confronted by more than 100 protesters

The workers stayed on the roof and agents drove away in a Border Patrol SUV on four flat tires, which had been slashed

The Gaza family torn apart by IDF snipers from Chicago and Munich Five-month investigation reveals how four members of one family were shot and killed in a single day and highlights a pattern in which Israeli troops target unarmed civilians

IDF sniper from Chicago who says he killed Gazan teenager just for trying to retrieve his brother's corpse: “They’re thinking, ‘Oh I don’t think [I’ll get shot] because I’m wearing civilian clothes and I am not carrying a weapon' and all that, but they were wrong. That’s what you have snipers for.”

So the Supreme Court just allowed ICE agents to racially profile **in an order that was “unsigned and gave no reasons.” **

It's been a pleasure to be involved in this important project!! Huge congrats to @amyqin.bsky.social @estheryjkang.bsky.social and the rest of the @wbez.org team and our collaborators at @miurbanchicago.bsky.social

The work @writeralejandra.bsky.social and I began with #TheTenantTrap continues!

this is good timing because i have finally updated the data in deseguys.com so it's current as of Sept. 2nd

as a bonus, it not only includes LLC managers and addresses, but also lets you layer in contracts and political donations

Know your building. Know your landlord. “The Tenant Trap,” a yearlong Injustice Watch investigation, found Chicago tenants regularly face eviction and informal displacement at buildings with

And for folks who want to dig thru public records, here's very helpful FAQ on how to research your building owner/violations from @mdoukmas.bsky.social @writeralejandra.bsky.social @msivit.bsky.social www.injusticewatch.org/civil-courts...

In the meantime, some folks have created workarounds. whoownschi.miurban-dashboards.org
from @miurbanchicago.bsky.social,
landlordmapper.org/chi/home from @landlordmapper.bsky.social, and deseguys.com from @anthonymoser.com

For renters in Chicago, there's no simple way to look up who owns a particular property and what other properties they own.

What tenants/advocates want is a rental registry where owners are required to disclose who they are, what they own and contact info.

They met husband-and-wife investors Shai Wolkowicki and Lauren Lampert. They agreed to some union demands, but declined most, like annual inspections. But the union still don't know who else is involved. It's near-impossible to tell b/c of the complex network of LLCs their portfolio is held in.

Map of properties in the CKO Tenant Union

Earlier this summer, they formed the CKO Tenant Union after digging thru public records to reveal a common investor in their 31 buildings. They were able to get the city officials, the mayor, and some of the investors to the negotiating table.

Portrait of Russell Carter

But this lack of transparency creates problems for tenants. A group of tenants on Chicago's South Side dealt with rodent infestations, no heat, and crumbling buildings for years w/o knowing who was responsible. This is Russell Carter, who had no working bathroom for 4 months.

Believe it or not, LLCs actually have their origins in the 1970s in the oil industry, but they caught on with real estate investors b/c of their minimal disclosure requirements. Today, they're preached as standard practice.

Owners of LLCs don't have to disclose who they are, and it's this feature that's made it easier than ever for problem landlords to hide in the housing market, and harder than ever for tenants and the city to keep them accountable

Line chart showing an increase in the percentage of 7+ unit rental properties in chicago that are owned by LLCs, going from 9% in 2006 to 34% in 2022.

Who owns your building? Chances are, it's an LLC.

We looked at ~26m property records in Chicago and found LLC ownership of large rental properties went up nearly 4x in the past two decades.

New story + data out from me and @estheryjkang.bsky.social

www.wbez.org/housing/2025...

Trump is making thousands of rule-abiding immigrants undocumented Inside the largest delegalization campaign in modern US history.

Today, DHS announced the termination of the 2021 TPS designation for Venezuela, adding to the largest de-legalization push in modern US history: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Flash-bang grenades and early morning raids: How Trump is planning to target Chicago Hundreds of federal agents are being sent to a suburban naval base from Los Angeles, where an immigration blitz this summer spurred protests that pushed Trump to call in the National Guard. Trump has ...

NEW: More details on Trump's Chicago immigration blitz.

-230 agents arrive from LA this weekend w/ 140 unmarked vehicles

-30 already arrived and are practicing crowd control with shields/flashbangs

-agents will leave base daily by 5 a.m.

-new no-fly zone at NSGL to keep away news choppers/drones