brian nam-sonenstein

katie wanted to understand how/why the city decided to evict unhoused people from public parks and what steps the city was supposed to take.

but through months of reporting, a different story took shape: impacted people, advocates, and social workers all said evictions shouldn’t happen at all.

How Local Law Enforcement Collaborates with ICE February 6, 2026

I published a short and quick primer on how local law enforcement, mostly sheriffs, can collaborate with ICE. I hope it's useful -- I also would love to know what people are seeing in their community.
sheriffs.substack.com/p/how-local-...

ICE detainees from Maine being held under ‘inhumane’ conditions in Mass. facility, attorneys say An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said the allegations of overcrowding and lack of access to lawyers are false.

Concentration camps: stories of as many as 50 people to a cell — men and women in some cases — with no windows and limited airflow, a single camera-monitored toilet, aluminum blankets, no showers and poor quality food.

Staff at Youth Prison Recount Lockdowns, Turmoil, 24-Hour Shifts A yearslong staffing crisis at state-run facilities has taken its toll on incarcerated kids and the workers who watch over them.

Do you work at an OCFS secure or limited secure facility? Do you have a loved one incarcerated in one of the facilties? Were you incarcerated yourself?

New York Focus wants to hear from you. Email reporter Chris Gelardi at chris@nysfocus.com or message him on Signal at @cgelardi.42.

From a court efficiency standpoint I get it, but in general i feel like it’s just too exploitable for the side that has unparalleled power and resources.

this countrys institutions are all adversarial toward the completely wrong people

Not a lawyer nor a legal scholar but the entire notion of a presumption of regularity for the federal government is completely obscene and has been well before Trump

I know this is kind of spitting into the wind, but I'd like to make an effort:

Just because ICE calls them "administrative warrants" doesn't make that the most accurate term for them.

They are forms. ICE forms. Signed by an ICE employee. Authorizing an arrest, but still, a _form._

pointing this out has nothing to do with motivating people to outrage. it has to do with understanding the path we took to get here, the consequences of what was often called "common sense" politics, and the work ahead to not just dismantle it but prevent it from recurring.

well yes, as an anachronism that's exactly what he is

and not even 2010 williamsburg hipster. this is mid 2010s bay area hipster.

i humbly submit, as a mid 2000s emo teenager, that this is not emo. it's 2010s hipster. big difference, folks.

"ICE is not law enforcement" and yet the media seems to cover them like they are, regurgitating their press releases with no further inquiry

I’m pretty sure the advocates were shouting this from the rooftops but alas, the sheriff said it so it must be true

Cumberland County officials debate legal obligations over ICE and jail use Advocates say immigrant trust is at stake as officials interpret state law differently.

www.newscentermaine.com/article/news...

Chuck schumer saw his shadow, $6trillion more for ICE ☹️

(Obligatory caveat about how piss poor litigation is as a tool for people who are locked up, and how efforts to free people and stop admissions are far superior… but in the spirit of leaving no stone unturned, this is a big one esp with suing healthcare providers)

The irony i cant get over and I’ve probably mentioned before is that Joyce spent a year telling everyone they HAD to take these detainees bc of state law, which was wrong and everyone said as much. the violin is too tiny to hear

Since we’ve been talking about civil liability for law enforcement lately, were gonna have to deal with the Independent Contractor Exemption in the FTCA

This article is appalling when you remember they’re talking about state sanctioned human trafficking

ICE pulled detainees from Cumberland County Jail. That could hurt taxpayers. The agency already owes the jail more than $1 million for having housed detainees over the past several months. The county manager says both issues are causing budgeting headaches.

Here’s an under-discussed risk of lucrative fed contracts with local jails: what happens when the feds decide to pull out, or (as DHS seems to be doing more and more) stop paying invoices on time? Well, Cumberland county taxpayers are getting hit with a huge bill www.pressherald.com/2026/02/04/i...

Judge Reverses Order, Says Rahm Emanuel Does Not Have to Testify About CPD’s ‘Code of Silence’ U.S District Court Judge John Tharp said that he reconsidered his decision to allow lawyers for Ebony Tate, her mother, Cynthia Eason, and four children to call former Mayor Rahm Emanuel after lawyers...

BREAKING: A federal judge reversed course Friday, ruling ex- Mayor Rahm Emanuel does not have to testify about allegations that a “code of silence” among CPD officers led to a botched raid that violated the civil rights of a family with 4 children. @wttw.bsky.social news.wttw.com/2026/01/30/j...

ICE observer in Maine pursuing legal action against ICE Ways to report incidents with ICE have been set up amid reports agents have followed observers home and labeled one a “domestic terrorist.”

Maine: ICE observers say immigration agents tried to intimidate them. One man is pursuing legal action.
themainemonitor.org/ice-observer...

Thank you!

'Suicide rightism' and the penguin Is it based or soy to kill yourself?

"the Trump administration is, as always, happy to make the subtext text: The penguin rocks because it’s killing itself in beautiful full-color video. Just like us." maxread.substack.com/p/suicide-ri...

Is Anyone Still Crossing the Border? Yes, Actually. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has boasted that border crossings have dropped to zero. That’s not true.

The southern frontier is quiet enough that Border Patrol agents have time to go brutalize Minnesotans.

But people are still crossing.

Who are they? I found out in a peculiar way—by getting briefly confused for a smuggler and stopped on the Rio Grande: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

i know that the PLRA applies to people incarcerated criminally not civilly, but between the 90s and today there's been so much work done to blur those lines...