Matthew Boaz

Alt text: Screenshot of an article from The Cut titled “What happened at the South Shore apartment raid, exactly?” The article reports that on September 30, about 300 federal immigration agents stormed a five-story residential apartment in South Shore during an overnight raid. Witnesses said agents rappelled from helicopters, kicked down doors, used flash-bang grenades, and detained adults and children with zip ties. Thirty-seven people were arrested, including four U.S. citizen children. A resident, Pertissue Fisher, said she was handcuffed, had guns pointed at her, and held for hours despite being an American citizen. Photos from the scene showed broken doors, scattered toys, shoes, and food.

It feels crazy even saying out loud everything that they're doing but this is all really happening.

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

100%. Though obviously that take a lot of digging.

Agreed! The hardest part of this is getting detailed info. Great reporting and thanks to you both for these resources.

Litigation seems the main way that details are revealed, and then only sparingly.

Yes! I’m working on identifying and grouping the different types of removals into specific categories. My goal is to identify the various legal mechanisms used in each. The challenging bit has been to identify the substance of the agreements with the receiving countries.

“third-country deportation,” like South Sudan/Ghana, are actually just extended chain refoulements, where the third country takes over returning them to their country of origin, or the conditions in the third country are so bad that they’ll be coerced into returning to their country of origin.

Deportations are happening in a matter of hours through a little known authority called expedited removal

In our latest @migrationpolicy.bsky.social article, we looked at this potent tool for speeding deportations & limiting access to asylum bit.ly/expedited-re...

MEMORANDUM OPINION By way of context, a federal prosecutor is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all. The obligation to govern impartially concerns, above all, the state’s exercise of coercive power—meaning its power to deprive its subjects of life, liberty, or property . . . As a representative of the state, a prosecutor’s exercise of coercive power must be impartial . . . [in] that prosecutorial power may not be exercised vindictively—meaning that the prosecutor may not punish a defendant for exercising a protected statutory or constitutional right. United States v. Zakhari, 85 F.4th 367, 384–85 (6th Cir. 2023) (Kethledge, J., concurring) (citations and quotations omitted). This context frames review of Defendant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s (“Abrego”) motion to dismiss his indictment for vindictive and selective prosecution. (Doc. Nos. 104–05). The Government opposes the motion (Doc. No. 121), and Abrego has replied (Doc. No. 127). Abrego’s motion is not ripe for decision because he seeks discovery and an evidentiary hearing because there is some evidence of vindictiveness here. For the reasons that follow, the Court holds that the totality of events creates a sufficient evidentiary basis to conclude that there is a “realistic likelihood of vindictiveness” that entitles Abrego to discovery and requires an evidentiary hearing before the Court decides his motion. United States v. Andrews, 633 F.2d 449, 457 (6th Cir. 1980) (en banc), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 927 (1981).

BREAKING: Federal judge in Kilmar Abrego Garcia's criminal case finds that "there is a 'realistic likelihood of vindictiveness' that entitles Abrego to discovery" in response to his motion to dismiss the case for vindictive or selective prosecution. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

What an utter disgrace. Noem's actions to "vacate" Secretary Mayorkas' grant of TPS over the direct command in the statute that no early termination can be done was flagrantly unlawful. And yet the majority offers not a SINGLE word of explanation for why they think she could do that.

Shameless!

Tracking All of Trump’s Third-Country Removals (That We Know Of) Bookmark this post, it will be updated.

This is *excellent* hardghistory.ghost.io/tracking-all...

Un-Disappearing Research, Research, analysis and documentation of rights abuses in the name of immigration policing

A new writing project--please check it out. Subscriptions are welcome but not necessary and all content will be free. un-disappearing.ghost.io

Diving in!

Working on an analysis of this. Had no idea about Qatar, Bhutan, Egypt, or Uzbekistan.

Been desperate to find something like this!

Sup Brett Kavanaugh

Three weeks ago, Brett was justifying the #KavanaughStop by saying:

"Plaintiffs have no good basis to believe that law enforcement will unlawfully stop them in the future based on the prohibited factors—and certainly no good basis for believing that any stop of the plaintiffs is imminent"

Young’s opinion, which rules that the Trump admin illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation, is absolutely scathing.

“In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police…ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it.”

ICE officer seen on video pushing woman to ground has returned to duty An ICE officer who was initially relieved of his duties after being captured on video pushing a woman to the ground has been returned to duty, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told CBS News...

In today’s completely unsurprising news, the ICE officer very briefly, taken off duty for shoving a woman to the ground in New York is back on the job not even a week later.

www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-off...

This is true, & backed by the best peer-reviewed research.

@kevinshih.bsky.social of @ucrchass.bsky.social uses large shocks to international student supply in the past to test the hypothesis that they crowd out natives. They crowd *in* natives, via tuition revenue—>

doi.org/10.1016/j.jp...

In other words, the real story of 2025 so far is a drop in far-right terrorism, NOT the rise in far-left terrorism.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio explained it best: "We won. We’ve got what we wanted."

JUST IN: A judge concludes the Trump administration sent a man to Mexico to sidestep protections against torture.

He has no criminal history and had legal protection from being sent to his native El Salvador — where it appears Mexico is sending him. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Just a reminder that in the Los Angeles ICE case, Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence played up the extent to which those *not* properly subject to immigration arrest were detained "briefly" and released "promptly."

www.stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-177-...

That wasn't true in L.A., and it isn't true here.

Policy process:

1) Issue legal pronouncement without adequate legal or policy review.
2) Read legal pronouncement for the first time.
3) Consider policy implications for the first time.
4) Begin issuing clarifications.
5) Begin (maybe) an interagency legal and policy review of underlying issues.

Very cool and very free speechy, no notes

THERE'S ALWAYS THIS YEAR 5:00 You will surely forgive me if I begin this brief time we have together by talking about our enemies. I say our enemies and know that in the many worlds beyond these pages, we are not beholden to each other in whatever rage we do or do not share, but if you will, please, imagine with me. You are putting your hand into my open palm, and I am resting one free hand atop yours, and I am saying to you that I would like to commiserate, here and now, about our enemies. And you will know, then, that at least for the next few pages, my enemies are your enemies. But there's another reality: to talk about our enemies is also to talk about our beloveds. To take a windowless room and paint a single window, through which the width and breadth of affection can be observed. To walk to that window, together, if you will allow it, and say to each other How could anyone cast any ill on this. And we will know then, collectively, that anyone who does is one of our enemies. And so I've already led us astray. You will surely forgive me if I promised we would talk about our enemies when what I meant was that I want to begin this brief time we have together by talking about love, and you will surely forgive me if an enemy stumbles their way into the architecture of affection from time to time. It is inevitable, after all. But we know our enemies by how foolishly they trample upon what we know as affection. How quickly they find another language for what they cannot translate as love.

Here’s a literary palate cleanser: the first page of Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year. It’s a book about community & vulnerability & resilience. It’s the best thing I’ve read this year.

Ruby Bridges, age 6

Ruby Bridges flanked by three U.S. Marshals on the steps of her school

Norman Rockwell's painting "The Problem We All Live With," depicting the event originally published as a centerfold in the January 14, 1964, issue of Look magazine.

Ruby Bridge talking to President Obama as they look at Rockwell's painting when it was temporarily displayed at the White House in 2011.

Happy 71st Birthday to Ruby Bridges, who at the age of 6 desegregated the New Orleans public schools.

She’s younger than 30 senators and our last two presidents—and only 7 years older than Barack Obama.

The past isn’t past.

by my count, this makes seven confirmed no true bills from grand juries, plus three other felony cases dismissed (two gun cases, one assault of a federal officer), plus two cases downgraded from felony assault on federal officers to misdemeanor

“Mr. Rubio did not answer a reporter’s question on Wednesday about whether the Trump administration had a legal basis for the boat strike. The Trump administration has not put forth a legal rationale.”

RAND PAUL IS RIGHT