Thi Bui

Third Country Deportations, Part 2 Regular people trying to survive while the government pilot tests human trafficking

New reporting and further analysis of third country deportations, with a closer look at the individuals going through this dystopian nightmare.

I should do book promo—
*ICE murder several blocks from me*
*sheltering in place bc of racial profiling*
*mutual aid*
*mutual aid*
*a second ICE murder*
*mutual aid*
*Local kidnapped kids sent to Dilley*
*phone tree to Lawyers Guild for LO friend*
*more kidnappings*
*mutual aid*
*mutual aid*
*war*

The war on Iran & the war on immigrants aren’t different stories— wars justify investments in technologies of violence, create a foreign threat that manufactures consent for the abrogation of domestic rights.

See: “War on Terror” that killed millions & in whose shadow DHS was formed.

I was born in an Iranian prison. My parents were held in their jails. My uncles lie in their mass graves. Nothing you can tell me about the crimes of the Iranian regime that I haven't lived in blood and bone. That doesn't mean I want my people bombed, maimed, killed, their homes in ruins. If your vision of liberation comes only through the destruction of innocent lives, then it's not freedom you're after. Sahar Delijani, Iranian author

I am pro Iranian people. I stand with them against their own government’s repression AND against the imperial violence in the form of bombs dropped from the sky from Israel & the US who have already killed hundreds.

I support neither imperialism or dictatorship.

Sahar Delijani said it best:

Fractals of Light Tiny love letters to the parts of us that are good

It seems, some days, that the world is made up of the lies people tell themselves as they go to work for evil corporations and governments. Today James Baldwin’s words gave me some solace and courage. So did calling my mom.

There are whole organizations of people whose entire mission is to find people's bodies in the desert. I spoke to women who miscarried due to CBP's violence. Every year there are hundreds of Shah Alams, whose names we never learn, whose families never recover their bodies. 4/

CBP's killing of Nurul Amin Shah Alam - a refugee who likely waited years (avg is 17) for resettlement - is extraordinarily cruel, especially when we consider that selection for the program necessitates humanitarian need.

But his killing is NOT exceptional - it's what CBP is designed to do 1/

If the Trump administration needs help bringing them all back, I’ve got receipts. gillianbrockell.ghost.io/tracking-all...

Couldn’t watch it. I’m here for the recaps. Haikus are acceptable.

TFW your Vietnamese dad 1) reads your work and 2) texts you about it.

Translation:
Bố: Your essay was powerful. I’m kind of scared of what the motherfuckers might do / I’m kind of scared the motherfuckers might harm me.
Me: Thank you, Bố. I’m scared too but more angry than scared.

Third Country Deportations Mutherfuckers aren’t even sending people back to the right countries anymore.

I’ve been writing about ICE since Trump’s 1st term. But in his 2nd, new kinds of awful are happening that I never saw coming. Mutherfuckers aren’t even sending people back to the right countries anymore.

substack.com/@teabuoy/not...

Don’t Let the Democrats Co-opt the Movement Against ICE Again The movement for immigrant rights is at a crossroads. At its epicenter in Minneapolis, the Trump administration claims that Operation Metro Surge is

More and more people support the demand to abolish ICE. It's essential we don't allow the Democrats to co-opt our demands again.
www.counterpunch.org/2026/02/23/d...

DHS agent killed US citizen in March last year, records reveal Texas shooting appears to be ​the first known instance of US citizen being killed during Trump's immigration crackdown.

Texas shooting appears to be ​the first known instance of US citizen being killed during Trump's immigration crackdown.

‘No one deserves this’: Beaverton father dies after deportation to Mexico A Beaverton family is grieving after the father, who was detained and deported by ICE, has now died.

This 53 year old man who lived in my neighborhood w/no criminal record & who had been in the US for 30 years, was detained and thrown into a cold cell for days, caught pneumonia and COVID there and deported.

He finally died.

I am so angry.
www.kptv.com/2026/02/21/n...

🚨This plane landed in Portsmouth, NH, to refuel but sat there for 8 hours and is now headed back to Alexandria.

This is how the 75-hour shackling in Oct. and the 82-hour shackling in Dec. began, w false starts. Migrants will likely be shackled in a holding area near tarmac until they try again. 1/

bsky.app/profile/onof...

For a decades-old burglary conviction that the state of Georgia already pardoned in 2010.

Back to Work Working on something long for next week. Here are some drawings from NOWHERELAND in the meantime.

Back to work! Working on something long for next week. Here are some drawings from NOWHERELAND in the meantime.

substack.com/@teabuoy/not...

Ah thank you. I’m putting down roots in New Orleans but Oakland is in my heart!

He came here as a child but lost refugee status for a no-prison theft conviction. No arrests since 2005, couldn’t be deported bc country of origin refused to issue a travel document.

For decades. Then suddenly it did.

A frequent story right now for former SE Asian child refugees targeted by ICE.

Everywhere Else It's Just a Tuesday Can Mardi Gras be revolutionary? I'm not sure but revolutions can be more fun.

Can Mardi Gras be revolutionary? I’m not sure but revolutions can be more fun. New essay and photos of beautiful NOLA Asians building power while doing Mardi Gras things.
open.substack.com/pub/teabuoy/...

How Did We Get Here? ICE was bad even before Trump turned it into the Gestapo. Also, we owe deep gratitude to Black History.

Some history on ICE and how it impacts Southeast Asians. And a crucial intersection of Black History and Asian American history. With deep gratitude for the activists of the Civil Rights Movement, who paved the way for the struggle today.
open.substack.com/pub/teabuoy/...

This is one reason we put out a huge report in 2024 analyzing the actual costs of mass deportation! Everyone was talking in the abstract and we tried to make it real. www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/report/mass-...

ICE deportation flights are getting longer and crueler A private equity–owned airline profits off Trump’s migrant crackdown.

My Trump-supporting cousin-in-law just texted my husband to say he encountered this Mother Jones on social media, read it, realized I wrote it, and told him to tell me I’m doing good work and to keep going.

Things are changing, y’all.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

NYT "Headlines" podcast yesterday: "A Surge of Children in ICE Detention, and Meta’s Plans for Facial Recognition Plus, your Friday news quiz."

"A surge of children in ICE detention."

"Plus, your Friday news quiz."

That's… quite a journey.

Isolating ICE - The American Prospect Democrats offered a way out of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, but Republicans refused to play. What now?

Bob Kuttner has some news here: Democrats offered to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP, while negotiations continued on reforms. Republicans rejected that.
prospect.org/2026/02/13/i...

Mardi Gras photo essay on dopamine, the short hits and burnout, and the longterm, good dopamine that is the reward for hard work and discipline.

open.substack.com/pub/teabuoy/...

New essay up: What you won’t fight for could actually disappear. A warning against premature grief.

open.substack.com/pub/teabuoy/...

The Problem with Being the Center of the World An American delusion with disastrous impact

Trump has set the new cap for refugees accepted in FY 2026 at 7,500, a 94% reduction from 2025. Most of these spots for white Afrikaners from South Africa. Meanwhile, about the same number of children are being held in immigrant detention centers in the US.

open.substack.com/pub/teabuoy/...

Americans by Name, Punished for Believing It - Bolts In a small Alaska town, American Samoans face prosecution for voting in the only country they’ve ever known. They live in a limbo, created by colonial expansion, that now confuses even public official...

Alaska officials gave false info to American Samoans, telling them they can vote. (They can’t, due to having a unique status among anyone born in a US state or territory.)

Now the state is threatening them with years in prison, part of GOP’s voting fraud panic.

Months of reporting in this story: