Connor Kopchick

Rights violations and international public opinion Victims of human rights violations and their activist allies often attempt to rally external solidarity for aggrieved groups in order to end repression. We conduct a nation-wide survey experiment t...

Which types of repression are more likely to elicit foreign sympathy and support for victims? @kgcunnin.bsky.social and I find that US respondents are more sympathetic and supportive of those facing religious and language rights violations, but that these effects are not felt uniformly by partisans.

My mom and stepdad are from the same diaspora group as Zohran Mamdani’s dad (same like “my stepdad was kicked out of the same town and knows some of his classmates”) and apparently the New York Times doesn’t understand how diaspora works, so I am going to tell you a little about my mom’s people!

Scorching and effective summary by @nateschenkkan.bsky.social of how the Trump Administration has undone policy progress made by the prior administration around transnational repression.

The United States Is About to Embark on a Terrifying Experiment in Mass Statelessness This scenario, until recently, might have read like a dystopian projection. But after the court’s decision on Friday, it is no longer hypothetical.

"For the child born this summer in Texas, whose parents receive no documents, whose name never appears in any system, and who grows up asking why she can’t go on field trips, apply for scholarships, or open a bank account, the consequences are not legal theory. They are her life."

Denaturalization (in order to subsequently deport) has long been used as a tool of political repression to suppress dissent.

See Chapters 2, 3, 4, & 5 of "Threat of Dissent" 🗃️

Exclusive: Early US intel assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, sources say | CNN Politics The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an e...

Early US intel assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, sources say, and likely only set it back "months" (while also possibly empowering hardliners and radicalizing the regime and sparking a rally-around-the-flag effect and)

Why am I so unimpressed by these strikes? Israel and the US have failed to target significant elements of Iran's nuclear materials and production infrastructure. RISING LION and MIDNIGHT HAMMER are tactically brilliant, but may turn out to be strategic failures. 🧵 1/17

U.S. Supreme Court allows -- for now -- third-country deportations A federal judge had previously said people must get at least 15 days to challenge their deportations to countries they're not originally from.

The Supreme Court hastened to add that the decision does not apply to members of the Federal Reserve
www.npr.org/2025/06/23/g...

French Lawmaker Says He Was Denied Entry Into the United States

Every one of these petty, ideologically driven visa denials is an assault on *our* freedom of association, our right to hear, and our ability to learn about the world around us. They are meant to make us stupider, more susceptible to manipulation, and less free. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/w...

Australian deported from US says he was ‘targeted’ due to writing on pro-Palestine student protests Alistair Kitchen says he was detained and questioned about views on Israel and Palestine before being deported from LA to Melbourne

"An Australian man who was detained upon arrival at Los Angeles airport and deported back to Melbourne says United States border officials told him it was due to his writing on pro-Palestine protests by university students"

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Judge orders release of Columbia University student detained by ICE Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested by ICE agents following his citizenship interview, has been ordered released while his case proceeds.

🚨🚨 ⬇️

A judge has ordered that Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student who was arrested two weeks ago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following his citizenship interview, be released from detention while his case proceeds.

abcnews.go.com/US/lawyers-c...

From the Chinese Exclusion Act to pro-Palestinian activists: The evolution of politically motivated deportations An immigration historian says removal orders targeting student activists echo America’s long past of jailing and expelling immigrants because of their race, what they say or believe – or all three.

From the Chinese Exclusion Act to pro-Palestinian activists: The evolution of politically motivated deportations
@us.theconversation.com
Rick Baldoz
theconversation.com/from-the-chi...

Reminder that words matter. You can’t “deport” a US citizen. You might be kidnapping, disappearing, exiling, expelling, illegally removing, etc., but you’re not “deporting” a US citizen.

Even established authoritarian regimes consider arresting defiant judges an extreme tactic—a serious escalation usually reserved for after one-party rule is firmly entrenched. Seeing a judge arrested in the US today should alarm everyone who values democratic governance. This cannot be allowed. 🧵

ICE backs down, says it will restore status of thousands of foreign students Hundreds of foreign students in the U.S. on F-1 visas said they were informed their SEVIS records were suddenly terminated by DHS.

BREAKING: In a sudden about-face, a DOJ attorney saiys ICE will be RESTORING the status of thousands of foreign students whose SEVIS records were terminated w/o notice earlier this month.

The move comes amid mounting losses in courts around the country.
www.wusa9.com/article/news...

the govt is so clearly just grabbing at stereotypes of "latin american gang" (mostly derived from MS13, as far as I can tell?) and pasting them onto tren de aragua, even though there's no actual connection

JUST IN: U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen has announced plans to travel to El Salvador this week if Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported, is not returned to the U.S. by then.

Websites tracking the student visa revocations and ICE abductions on college campuses
www.wearehighered.org/campus-abduc...

This is exactly right. We have a duty to our students to defend their right to live and work freely and safely in the United States, and we have a duty to our institutions and communities to advocate for our own best interests. These are completely aligned.

International students will stop coming to American universities if their visas are going to be at risk. This will make our intellectual community poorer and also make tuition more expensive for domestic students.

Indian skeptic Sanal Edamaruku, who lives in exile in Finland, has been arrested in Poland. The Rationalist International organisation, founded by Edamaruku, reported the matter in a statement on Saturday. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs confirmed to the news agency STT on Sunday that it is aware of the arrest. According to Rationalist International, Edamaruku was arrested on 28 March at Modlin Airport in Warsaw, where he was scheduled to speak at a human rights conference. The arrest was based on an Indian-issued Interpol notice for Edamaruku. India is seeking his extradition, according to Rationalist International. Edamaruku is accused of blasphemy in India and has been living in self-imposed exile in Finland since 2012. He told STT in 2020 that his life would be in danger if he returned to India. His organisation's statement also references the violence and killings faced by rationalists like Edamaruku.

If this reporting is accurate, it is extremely disturbing. Sanal Edamaruku, an Indian author living self-exiled in Finland since 2012, has reportedly been arrested in *Poland* as India is seeking his extradition on blasphemy charges. He was in Warsaw to speak at a conference. yle.fi/a/74-20154223

The Trump administration has admitted it committed an "error" when it deported Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran resident of Maryland, back to El Salvador last month.

The administration should work with the Salvadoran government to ensure his safety.

I’m so sorry Nate!

Florida college fires Chinese professor under state’s ‘countries of concern’ law New College of Florida fired Kevin Wang, a professor who sought asylum and is authorized to work in the US

Adjunct here legally, seeking asylum.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Leaders of Harvard’s Middle Eastern Studies Center Will Leave Harvard University has been under pressure by the Trump administration to follow directives related to diversity and combating antisemitism.

“Now their universities are on notice that the government is looking for a settlement that includes abridging the autonomy of centers and departments devoted to the study of the Middle East,” Professor Bali said…. “I’ve never seen anything comparable to this. This is totally unprecedented.”

We have had nearly two decades of panic about Free Speech on Campus and not a single case, not even the ones they made up, were as bad as what's happening now

Marco Rubio says 300 student visas have been revoked, including detentions at Tufts, Columbia and more The comments come amid two more high-profile detentions by ICE of a Tufts University student and a University of Alabama student.

Hearing our secretary of state basically argue that free speech does not apply to foreign students on American soil is shocking and sickening -- even aside from the fascist way student are being seized off the streets by masked police in plain clothes.
www.cbsnews.com/news/marco-r...

This is so dire, particularly after the lecture Vance gave Europeans on the evils of censorship. Breathtaking hypocrisy.

NEW! The Trump administration appears to have sent a married father with NO CRIMINAL RECORD in any country to rot in a prison in El Salvador because of a PAPERWORK ERROR.

This man doesn’t even have tattoos! But his paperwork has two different peoples’ ID numbers listed and the wrong last name!