Silky Shah

Another shutdown consequence: Democrats can’t visit ICE detention facilities Democratic lawmakers had been suing the Trump administration over their previous attempts to visit ICE facilities.

NEW: ICE says it no longer has to provide Congress access to detention facilities — thanks to the shutdown.

That requirement was part of the appropriations law that expired last month — and now operations are funded by Trump’s megabill.

w/ @myahward.bsky.social

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

ICE Agents Are Using Family Separation Tactics Central to US State Violence The US’s family policing system honed many of the tactics now being used by ICE agents in Chicago.

"One of the most important systems of control and mass separation is hidden in plain sight: the child welfare system.” @truthout.org truthout.org/articles/ice...

Unbuild Walls | The upEND Podcast Season 2, Episode 4 - upEND Movement Season 2, Episode 4

And if you want to continue learning about the connections between #ICE and the #FamilyPolicingSystem, listen to “Unbuild Walls” with Silky Shah on The upEND Podcast. buff.ly/ebPItcb @silkys13.bsky.social

thanks for having me, Mariame! Those spaces are always so rewarding to be in.

Local Sheriffs Are Turning Their Jails Into ICE Detention Centers Jails play a growing role in immigrant detention, housing thousands of people who have never been convicted of a crime.

“We have the largest jail infrastructure in the world, and it’s an easy thing for ICE to fall back on,” said @silkys13.bsky.social, the executive director of @detentionwatchnetwork.org, to @nytimes.com. “The jail is a really central component of the deportation machine.”

Yet another person killed by ICE. 32-year-old Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas, QEPD 💔 t.co/mmHdsHYJij

Mahmoud Khalil on exile, liberation and Ice detention: ‘It was a clear act of cruelty’ His grandparents survived the Nakba and he fled Assad’s Syria. Khalil is no stranger to political persecution, but not even Trump’s crackdown can silence him

Mahmoud Khalil on exile, liberation and Ice detention: ‘It was a clear act of cruelty’

🚨The Supreme Court today gives Trump a license to engage in racial profiling, with Justice Kavanaugh writing in concurrence to expressly endorse ICE and Border Patrol targeting any Latinos they observe in Los Angeles speaking Spanish and then demanding their papers.

Thank you for reading and sharing! I am glad to hear it was useful to you despite how much more dire things are than when I wrote it.

Cover of the book Unbuild Walls: Why immigrant justice needs abolition by Silky Shah

Just finished Unbuild Walls by Silky Shah. Appreciated the history lesson of immigration law in the US, the struggle to make progress, and the abolitionist framing for reformist reforms and unreformist reforms; those that increase the overall system of incarceration vs those that reduce it.

‘Zombie Prisons’: How ICE Detention Is Raising Troubling Facilities From the Dead ICE needs more detention space, and it’s faster to open old facilities than to build new ones.

ICE wants more detention space and it’s faster to re-open old facilities to hold immigrants than to build new ones. Enter: ZOMBIE PRISONS

www.themarshallproject.org/2025/08/29/m...

Trump’s unprecedented agenda is unmistakably authoritarian.
The deployment of the National Guard in Washington DC and in 20 states, including Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Texas and Louisiana, is an alarming unilateral move that is supercharging the already massive police presence in communities.

'It’s happening everywhere': 1 in 3 ICE detainees held in overcrowded facilities, data show As ICE detainees top 60,000, some detention centers stack mattresses on the floor.

@silkys13.bsky.social: “There are so many things we’ve seen before — poor food quality, abuse by guards, not having clean clothes or underwear, not getting hygiene products. But the scale at which it’s happening feels greater, because it’s happening everywhere.”

www.latimes.com/politics/sto...

The money doesn't matter. There is never any sustained backlash for spending money for death-making institutions.

The Dystopia of the World’s Tallest Jails - Jarrod Shanahan & Zhandarka Kurti - Inquest New York City’s plan to replace Rikers with skyscraper jails is a cautionary tale of how decarceral talking points can be misappropriated.

"[T]he most striking feature of the skyscraper jails' design is the degree to which these buildings have been represented by their boosters as anything but facilities for large-scale human caging."

"[T]he new jails would simply 'create little Rikers around the city.'"
#NewYork #USA #Incarceration

Thank you for reading/listening/sharing! It’s a strange thing to have written a book about abolishing a system that is becoming so much worse than I could have imagined. I’m glad it’s a resource at least and that we have more resources as we mitigate the harm/build power for when there are openings

Unbuild Walls Audiobook on Libro.fm Drawing from over twenty years of activism on local and national levels, this striking book offers an organizer's perspective on the intersections of immigrant rights, racial justice, and prison aboli...

Thanks to the audiobook release, I powered through the rest of @silkys13.bsky.social 's Unbuild Walls with a bitter taste in my mouth, knowing how things are unfolding. Really grateful to have this analysis of campaign successes, struggles & the need for an abolitionist uniting of struggles 📚

Journalists: Please stop using phrases like "despite having committed no crime" in articles about immigrants.

As @silkys13.bsky.social says, "It continues to make the connection between immigration and public safety, which ... is a lie."

Immigration is NOT a safety issue.

Another way out: Hiding and obedience won't stop fascism By being obedient to the point of giving up all self-determination, we’re poised to return to what many before us fought to overturn

Some people are attempting to make their compliance with fascism into something it's certainly not. For @prismreports.org, I wrote about how the promotion of obedience, hiding, and disengagement is taking us backward, despite attempts to make it seem reasonable. prismreports.org/2025/08/21/o...

lol no. It was an actual voice actor with skills unlike my amateur radio personality wannabe self

💥 An abolitionist organizing must-read is now an abolitionist organizing must-listen! 👂👂👂

The audiobook of Unbuild Walls is now available! bit.ly/unbuildwalls...

Also, physical copies are 40% off if you buy at @haymarketbooks.org sale ends Friday! www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/462-su...

Unbuild Walls Audiobook on Libro.fm Drawing from over twenty years of activism on local and national levels, this striking book offers an organizer's perspective on the intersections of immigrant rights, racial justice, and prison aboli...

#UnbuildWalls is a timely intervention as anti-immigrant sentiment fueled by fear-mongering, a scarcity mindset, and racist rhetoric has reached a dangerous fever pitch in today’s political discourse.

🔗Order your audiobook today from @libro.fm at bit.ly/unbuildwallsAUDIO

Unbuild Walls Audiobook on Libro.fm Drawing from over twenty years of activism on local and national levels, this striking book offers an organizer's perspective on the intersections of immigrant rights, racial justice, and prison aboli...

NEW! 🎧 Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition is now an audiobook!

Unbuild Walls, from @silkys13.bsky.social executive director of @detentionwatchnetwork.org, dives into 40 years of US immigration policy & mass incarceration, exposing their intertwined systems of repression.

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care — Interrupting Criminalization What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? Let This Radicalize You by Kely Hayes and Mariame Kaba is a practical and imaginative resource for activis...

A number of people who have read "Let This Radicalize You" are unaware that we made numerous resources and tools to accompany the book. You can find all of them here including a workbook, discussion guide, zines and more. www.interruptingcriminalization.com/resources-al...

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A Fight Is Brewing in the Midwest Over Immigrant Mass Detention As ICE expands its presence across the Midwest, activists fight the reopening of private prisons to jail migrants.

Check out my article mapping ICE detention & resistance in the Midwest for @truthout.org @silkys13.bsky.social #AbolishICE BD

truthout.org/articles/a-f...

A Fight Is Brewing in the Midwest Over Immigrant Mass Detention As ICE expands its presence across the Midwest, activists fight the reopening of private prisons to jail migrants.

"It is no surprise that ICE is expanding in the Midwest."

"The Midwest has long been a critical site of resistance against ICE's attacks on immigrant communities, and this time around is no different."
#Indiana #Kansas #Michigan #USA #Incarceration #Deportation #EthnicCleansing

“But communities across the country are demanding to shut down detention centers and halt detention expansion. The Midwest has long been a critical site of resistance against ICE’s attacks on immigrant communities, and this time around is no different.”

As ICE expands its presence across the Midwest, communities are organizing against the reopening of private prisons to jail migrants.