Important subtext: Hard to oversell how rare this precise Christian coalition is, and how unusually defiant this letter they're signing is.

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

U.S. citizens.

Oseguera caught another break from the Trump administration. The president’s campaign to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally has taken federal agents away from drug-traffic interdiction. In Arizona, two Customs and Border Protection checkpoints along a main fentanyl-smuggling corridor from Mexico have been left unstaffed. Officers stationed there were sent to process detained migrants. A senior administration official said the U.S. border is more secure than it has ever been. Colombia is producing records amounts of cocaine, and the volume of the drug arriving in the U.S. is driving down prices, the people familiar with cartel operations said. Cocaine prices have fallen by nearly half to around $60 to $75 a gram compared with five years ago, said Morgan Godvin, a researcher with the community organization Drug Checking Los Angeles. “The price of pure cocaine has plummeted,” Godvin said.

The Trump-Miller administration's single-minded focus on migration is starting to impact the availability of drugs in the US, according to this detail from a very good investigation @wsj.com published today.

www.wsj.com/world/americ...

Today’s sunrise was a winner. Arlington, MA

at the center of the efforts to destroy civil society in russia, hungary, georgia and elsewhere is the stigmatization, harassment, & criminalization of NGOs. that's what this is about, a full-on assault on democratic debate & freedoms.

this is not hyperbole. it's right here.

For months, the @bostonglobe.com DC Bureau has been traveling the country, documenting the impacts that Trump administration DOGE funding cuts are having on Americans in all facets of life. We found the cuts had ripple effects, not all of them obvious at first blush. Thread:

What.

Welcome to the era of COVID-booster international tourism.

Props to @miamiherald.com. They're ON the Venezuela TPS news.

Well this one hits hard.

Trump 'emergency' declaration clashes with reality of quiet border SÁSABE, Ariz. — At a volunteer-run migrant-aid camp, about 22 miles east of the Sásabe port of entry, the only action on this quiet Wednesday afternoon was the rustle of

The southern border is now fortified by 16,500 border agents, 3,600 active-duty soldiers, 4,500 Tex. National Guard & 2,200 Natl Guard deployed under Biden. With just 29,000 migrant arrests in Jan., that equates to about one migrant per agent/soldier per month, Adam Isacson of WOLA said. @tucson.com

Me, seeing egg prices at the store 10 days ago: It's only a matter of time before these are inside a locked case

"Better than a worm."
— Rob Ertefken Neddy, Nominee

a man in a chef 's hat is cooking while a stuffed chicken looks on Alt: The Swedish chef is "cooking" while a chicken puppet looks on

Wife and me: "Do you know what a 'character' is?"

5yo: "Yeah, it's like the chef with no eyes who cooks with chickens."

(Don't miss this one, @beckawall.bsky.social)

If Noem chooses to terminate the Venezuelan TPS designation that will suddenly be set to expire in April again, that could mean around 300,000 people would lose their jobs and deportation protections in a single day.

Another 300,000 would be set to lose the same in September.

Oh advocacy org, if you only knew how many Zooms I already join on Thursday ...

Note the subhead too, but the immigration orders are ... oof. Knowing (generally) what's coming doesn't make it more fun when it starts to arrive. immigrationforum.org/.../murray-i...

Blue Hill Observatory reports that 2024 was their 3rd warmest year on record. The top 8 have all been set since 2010, with the last of the top 10 being 1998 and 1999.

BHO is the longest continuously run climate site in North America. #wbz

Behind the journey: A Venezuelan family braves jungle, cartels to be reunited in the U.S. One Venezuelan family trekked through the lawless jungle and risked kidnapping in Mexico to reunite. Trump’s win casts a shadow over their future.

In this @houstonlanding.bsky.social account of a Venezuelan family's journey to Texas, by @annacat.bsky.social, you'll lose count of the times they have to pay money to criminals to avoid being kidnapped or worse. Mexico seems worse than the Darién Gap.

Great narrative:

Wow.

Border Patrol Apprehensions by Country at the U.S.-Mexico Border October 2024: Mexico 45% of total, Guatemala 12%, Colombia 6.9%, Honduras 6.7%, El Salvador 4%, Ecuador 3%, All Others <3% Since October 2019: Mexico 34% of total, Guatemala 12%, Honduras 11%, Venezuela 7%, Colombia 5.1%, Cuba 5.0%, All Others <5% Line drawn from November 2024's level. Every month is above the line going back to July 2020.

"U.S. authorities made about 46,700 arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico in November, down about 17% from October to a new low for Joe Biden’s presidency," reported @elliotspagat.bsky.social: apnews.com/article/bord...

The fewest since July 2020. Here's what that looks like:

Always a good day when Idaho cheese arrives.

"America is built for dreamers, explorers, people who can challenge their limitations and decide to dare." 🥲 www.dispatch.com/story/entert...