Emma Janssen

Do SNAP Food Restrictions Help Health, or Punish Poor People? Indiana is among several states restricting the purchase of sugary foods with nutrition assistance funds.

This summer I traveled to NW Indiana—"The Region"—to see how SNAP restrictions will hit both rural & urban communities.

Trying to make sense of the gulf between the MAHA movement's rhetoric & its harmful actions. Read here for a story about health, food & poverty:

prospect.org/health/2025-...

Cane Sugar in Coke Will Not Save Us Big food and drink companies know exactly how to play Trump and RFK Jr.

It's a familiar cycle: a food company makes a superficial promise, maybe sets a long deadline to accomplish it, & then gets free advertising from Trump, the White House, & RFK Jr. That's what Coke's up to with this cane sugar business. @emmarjanssen.bsky.social explains:
prospect.org/health/2025-...

“What was going on in those courtrooms is absolutely unacceptable,” Barnette said, adding that the judge “chastised” them for entering a public courtroom and said that in the future she was planning on locking her door at night. “It is a place of intimidation, it is a place of fear.” She and Lander sat in a number of courtrooms, watching defendants getting their cases dismissed “with completely inadequate explanation” of what that meant. No one told defendants, for example, that a dismissal of their case subjected them to forcible removal by anonymous masked agents once they stepped out of the courtroom, Barnette said. “That is not the rule of law. That is not due process. That is not acceptable in this country or anywhere else,” she said. “I am very rattled, frankly.” In one instance, the proceeding for a man whose native language was Yoruba was held in French. The judge dismissed his case and “it was clear he had no understanding” of what had happened, Barnette said. Then he was sent out into the hall, where immigration agents were waiting. Edgardo, the person Lander was helping when ICE agents attacked, spoke Spanish. The judge dismissed his case but said he had the right to appeal and gave him a date in July. “So the guy thinks he has a month to appeal,” Barnette said. “Nobody says, ‘ICE is waiting for you on the other side of the door

It’s not only the courtroom treatment of defendants that’s egregious. So are the living conditions at 26 Federal Plaza. In an interview with the Prospect, Daniel Coates, director of public affairs at Make The Road New York, said that ICE is using the building to hold people for multiple days before transferring them elsewhere, packing them in so tightly that some have no room to sleep except for on the bathroom floor. The rooms are hot because the air conditioning is inadequate, detainees have “no opportunities to get a change of clothes or clean themselves,” have no access to medical treatment, and cannot maintain their dietary restrictions, said Coates, who spoke at the press conference held after Lander’s detention. “The space is exploding,” Coates said, “and it’s sort of a black hole there because ICE is refusing entry to members of Congress,” who are supposed to be allowed to oversee such buildings. It’s an open question of “what actually 26 Federal Plaza is being used for,” he said.

So @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social did a writeup of Brad Lander's arrest today at 26 Federal Plaza in NYC, focusing not just on Lander's treatment, but the treatment of immigrants inside, both in the courtroom and once they are detained.
prospect.org/justice/2025...

Your tax dollars feeding hungry children? ❌🙅‍♀️❌
Your tax dollars building a missile defense system that will probably never work ✅😍✅

My colleagues @prospect.org are covering No Kings protests today. I’m in Chicago, where folks are shoulder to shoulder and ICE is a main concern of protesters.

Chicago’s Public Transit Is in Limbo As COVID transit money finally runs out, the city looks for new lifelines.

Good discussion @emmarjanssen.bsky.social @prospect.org Yes to fare integration, but frequency is higher priority for supermajority of riders. No magic bullet for frequency; investment needed (all benefit-collective equity, economy & environmental benefits). prospect.org/infrastructu...

Republican Mega-Bill Charges Federal Workers for Basic Rights on the Job If the spending bill is passed, an estimated three-quarters of eligible federal workers may be coerced into at-will employment.

Important story from American Prospect's ‪@emmarjanssen.bsky.social‬ on reconciliation bill's sneaky provision that could undermine federal workers' ability to defend themselves and stand up against cuts to critical services

Republican Mega-Bill Charges Federal Workers for Basic Rights on the Job If the spending bill is passed, an estimated three-quarters of eligible federal workers may be coerced into at-will employment.

Scoop from @emmarjanssen.bsky.social: Trump's Big Beautiful Bill would force federal workers to pay 5 percent of their income or become at-will employees: prospect.org/politics/202...

I watched a lot of solar bro TikToks for this story — give it a read so my sacrifice has meaning.

The Squad Could Have a New Member in 2026 Justice Democrats endorses Donavan McKinney, their first endorsement in four years, to challenge multimillionaire Shri Thanedar for a House seat.

New House Dem primary alert: State Rep. Donavan McKinney is going to challenge Shri Thanedar in Detroit. It's the first endorsement for Justice Democrats in four years.
@emmarjanssen.bsky.social has the story:
prospect.org/politics/202...

The risks facing our anti-hunger and anti-poverty programs are chilling. If Republicans go through with SNAP cuts, a truly vicious cycle of hunger will be set off, devastating the poorest states and economies. Link below.

The Republican Budget Plan: Snatch Food From the Mouths of Hungry Children SNAP cuts are ‘going to have a massive shock wave across the country, and everybody will feel it.’

Republicans are looking for cuts to pay for more tax cuts for the rich. One item on the chopping block is food stamps. From @emmarjanssen.bsky.social: prospect.org/health/2025-...

Who has power, and who is actually using it? We ranked Democratic-led states and found some useful patterns.

Check out my thoughts on the #WiSupremeCourt race in the @theprospect.bsky.social
and why — as @ddayen writes — it is “the most important election of the year.” @emmarjanssen.bsky.social

The Wisconsin Court Election Drawing Elon Musk’s Money Liberals and conservatives face off in the most political apolitical race in the country.

The most important election of the year is an allegedly nonpartisan state supreme court race in Wisconsin that is going to pull in over $100 million in campaign spending. Good report from @emmarjanssen.bsky.social
prospect.org/justice/2025...

got pizza from one of these at the DNC influencer brat-themed afterparty (a sentence that is perhaps new to the english language)

Making Room Under the Bus After Donald Trump’s transphobic campaign, will Democrats continue to support transgender people?

BTW, Dems have been making trans people scapegoats for ages now. My colleague and I wrote about it right after Trump got elected: prospect.org/politics/202...

Dems are making their strategy choices and Newsom has evidently decided that throwing trans people under the bus is the way to go. But there's another way! Look at Pritzker in IL and his unabashedly pro-LGBTQ agenda and rhetoric. Newsom should take notes (and so should voters).

Advocates at #AfghanEvac, a coalition working to resettle Afghan allies who aided the U.S. before the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, say that Trump’s executive order is placing 2,000 people in limbo, and could affect thousands more in the coming months. Those 2,000 people, some of whom are family of U.S. service members, have already been vetted by the U.S. and are waiting for resettlement. Now, their dangerous wait will continue indefinitely. I could also mention the fact that refugees in the U.S. work at higher rates than non-refugees, or the fact that they open new businesses at higher rates, or that they have reinvigorated neighborhoods in cities like St. Louis, Columbus, and Cleveland. But I think the moral case here is more important. We have a duty to be members of the global community, to take in some of the most oppressed and targeted among us—especially but not only when their oppression is a direct result of our foreign wars. This executive order is strategically, economically, and—most importantly—morally bankrupt. –Emma Janssen

More executive action reactions: here's @emmarjanssen.bsky.social on abandoning the Refugee Act of 1980 and what that means for displaced people fleeing violence: prospect.org/politics/202...

Hundreds of incarcerated firefighters have been fighting the blazes down in LA. The job is voluntary, but most other forms of prison labor aren't. In November, Californians voted to keep it that way. Slavery is alive and well in California's prisons.

Consider joining me as a writing fellow at the Prospect! I'm learning so much about writing and myself as a thinker every day at this job.

Anonymity can be protected ofc!

Journalist request !!

I'm looking to speak to folks who are making plans to protect themselves/their undocumented loved ones before Trump takes office. Specifically hoping to hear from couples considering marriage to get documentation for their partners.

(312) 989-2992 or ejanssen@prospect.org

My colleague Janie Ekere passed away last week. She was writing stories that needed to be written, about rural and low income communities, queer rights, and much more. My thoughts are foremost with her family, but also with journalism, which lost so much when we lost her.

Grassroots Abortion Funds to Receive Debt Relief Since the fall of ‘Roe,’ abortion debt has become a major phenomenon in the country. The Debt Collective is trying to do something about it.

Read more about this latest announcement/partnership to prevent and eliminate abortion debt (a cursed phrase that in any decent society should not exist) in this great piece by @emmarjanssen.bsky.social

prospect.org/health/2024-...

Trump and the incoming Republican Congress could reverse some of the Biden administration's regulatory wins. Potentially on the chopping block: EPA rules on methane emissions and lead in drinking water, a CFPB rule on protecting financial data, and more. My breakdown of how it could happen:

Listen for our takes on Gaetz, RFK Jr., Dr. Oz, mass deportations, judicial noms, and more.

My most recent piece is about how we should think about the dangers posed by RFK Jr. when a lot of his rhetoric has surface-level bipartisan appeal. My thesis: look at what he can *actually* do and follow the money/power.

I'm here! Follow for my thoughts on who has power and what they're doing with it in American politics. I can also offer cat, poetry, and language learning content.