Alex Burness

Sometimes you have to say it out loud to appreciate how dire t all is:

The president just openly declared his plans to steal the midterm elections — in an interview with the former number two person at the FBI.

This story is a Kafkaesque nightmare.

One of several examples: the government does not give you the option to identify yourself correctly in the paperwork, and then shows up to arrest you for failing to identify yourself correctly in the paperwork.

Maddening, and well worth the read.

Mamdani names reformer Stanley Richards to steer chaotic Rikers complex Exactly one month into his term, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed a formerly incarcerated person to manage the facility.

Mayor Mamdani names criminal justice reformer Stanley Richards as NYC’s new Department of Correction commissioner

Richards is the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the city’s jails system

@gothamist.com @wnyc.org

gothamist.com/news/mamdani...

“Democrats hold the narrowest of majorities in Maine and Pennsylvania’s state Houses. They now need to defend vacant seats to retain their edge in each through the end of the year.”

That and a bunch more in @taniel.bsky.social’s What’s on the Ballot guide for February:

The amount of money the US government spent on troops in DC in 2025 ($223m) would have been enough to give the city's ~5,100 homeless residents each $43,000. Instead, federal troops destroyed their meager encampments.

Send Us Your Questions on Local and State Responses to ICE - Bolts The killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and other scenes of violence by ICE and Border Patrol agents this month are startling reminders of the turmoil that... Read More

The @boltsmag.org team wants to hear from you: Do you have questions about how local leaders, state officials and activists on the ground are responding to ICE?

Let us know and we will do our best to answer them.

boltsmag.org/send-us-your...

I’ve interviewed many politicians who are nervous to publicly oppose felony disenfranchisement. Average voters, I’ve found, are much less timid.

We can learn something here from Virginia: Lawmakers proposed expanding re-enfranchisement and, whaddya know, the “yes” side is polling *34* points ahead.

West Virginia House just passed a bill to change its definition of human trafficking “to include transporting, isolating and harboring an ‘illegal alien’ to avoid law enforcement.”

The bill calls for a 3-year minimum prison sentence for anyone who “traffics” an undocumented person.

In Criminal Justice Elections This Year, ICE Contracts Are on the Hot Seat - Bolts With roughly 2,400 elections for prosecutor and sheriff this year, Bolts reviews the map and early hotspots that will shape criminal punishment and law enforcement practices.

NEW: There are 2,400+ elections for DA & sheriff this year.

These matter hugely to criminal justice & policing—including: *these are often officials who decide ICE collaboration.*

So I took a dive into these 2,400+ races to identify early hotspots and battlegrounds.

Read, & check out our maps:

A few other quick shots from the protest:

Yeah this story blew my mind bsky.app/profile/burn...

This proposal follows many years of the D-controlled legislature enhancing immigrant protections in Colorado. So the amendment, if passed, would be quite a course reversal, but that’s a big “if” — for one thing, constitutional amendments in Colorado need at least 55% voter approval to pass.

Would Initiative 95 require police in Colorado to work with ICE? Yes. If passed, Proposition 95 would require police to alert immigration authorities after some arrests, if a person's immigration status is unknown.

Colorado voters will be deciding this year on a conservative-backed constitutional amendment to require collaboration with ICE.

The SOS just announced that this proposal qualified for the ballot, background on it here from @coloradosun.com: coloradosun.com/2025/12/22/w...

Massachusetts Could Be the Next State to Give Abuse Survivors a Pathway Out of Prison - Bolts The Massachusetts Survivors Act emulates recent resentencing reforms across the country that allow for reduced sentences for people with convictions related to their abuse.

My latest for @boltsmag.org examines efforts to pass the MA Survivors Act, allowing abuse survivors to petition for resentencing (& release) or avoid lengthy/life prison sentences: boltsmag.org/massachusett...

Today, I spoke w/ @boltsmag.org's @burness.bsky.social. Alex covered how Alaska is punishing American Samoans for voting in local elections. He details how America's colonial legacy gave Am Samoans passports, social security numbers but no right to vote

open.spotify.com/episode/2YVa...

On His Way Out, New Jersey Governor Vetoes Legislation to Bar Local Assistance to ICE - Bolts Phil Murphy killed a bill that'd have codified in law restrictions on how sheriffs and police can partner with ICE. Some restrictions remain in place, for now, via an attorney general directive.

In one of his final moves before leaving office today, NJ Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed bills aimed at protecting immigrants out of fear it would invite legal challenges from the Trump admin.

Immigrant advocates decried the decision: "ICE is already here, kidnapping people."
boltsmag.org/new-jersey-g...

1. State supreme courts are really important and it’s wild how overlooked they usually are

2. Sooooo many offices all over the country go uncontested, including in very winnable/swingy locations

Here, in what sure looks like a blue wave year, two NV conservative justices go totally unchallenged:

I chatted with @andrewgrayak.bsky.social about Alaska’s prosecution of American Samoans on the East Anchorage Book Club podcast. Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/2YvV...

That’s literally what I said in the post you’re responding to

Many Virginia counties have *local* 287(g) ICE partnerships, and Spanberger cannot end those—except in the sense that the legislature could pass a 287(g) ban, which she could sign. But what she can do (and may yet do) is pull Virginia out of *state-level* ICE contracts.

bsky.app/profile/chri...

Abigail Spanberger did not end Virginia’s 287(g) partnership with ICE yesterday, despite reports to the contrary.

What Spanberger did do is rescind Glenn Youngkin’s order that required the state police + DOC to sign ICE contracts. She terminated the requirement, but not the contracts themselves.

The Past and Present of Prison Labor: Your Questions Answered - Bolts A historian answers Bolts readers’ questions on the deep roots of forced labor in U.S. prisons, how it operates today, and efforts to challenge it.

“Minimum wage laws do not apply to those convicted of a crime. The average daily wage is 86 cents, which represents a decline from 91 cents in 2001.”

boltsmag.org/the-past-and...

Pay for prison labor—labor that is in many cases mandatory or coerced, hence the popular argument that this is modern slavery—are so incredibly low that they’d be illegal in any other setting.

Read @prisonjournalism.bsky.social on Tennessee’s 1st tiny (literal pennies) prison wage hike in 33 years:

Also you should read this fascinating & upsetting piece from @burness.bsky.social for @boltsmag.org about how an American Samoan family is caught in the Trump administration’s hunt for noncitizen voter fraud.
boltsmag.org/prosecuted-f...

Here's Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell explaining, moments ago on the Senate floor, why Democrats today moved to ask voters to allow temporary gerrymandering of Virginia in response to GOP gerrymandering elsewhere: "All of us should be disturbed by the necessity of what we're doing."

The Virginians Who Can’t Vote Because of Glenn Youngkin - Bolts George Hawkins had a long to-do list when he left the Greensville Correctional Center on May 3, a free man for the first time in his adult life: stay out... Read More

Virginia's felony disenfranchisement rules were designed specifically to uphold white supremacy, and, 124 years later, thanks in part to Glenn Youngkin, they're still at work. 10% of Black Virginians couldn't vote in 2024.

As Youngkin leaves office tomorrow, remember this part of his legacy:

Virginia Lawmakers Ask Voters to Repeal a Jim Crow-Era Lifetime Ban on Voting - Bolts Voters will decide this year whether to end Virginia’s uniquely harsh felony disenfranchisement rules. They'll also vote on abortion, gay marriage, and redistricting.

New in @boltsmag.org: Virginia voters will decide this year whether to repeal the state's exceptionally harsh Jim Crow-era policy of banning anyone with any felony from voting for life. This will be the country's first statewide vote on felony disenfranchisement since 2020.

Thanks for saying so and sharing it!

This is an outstanding and infuriating story, very well done, and well worth a read even with all else that’s going on.

Yes, though 1. There is/was potential to do ICE’s bidding even in those limited settings 2. I was interested to hear folks in Bucks discuss how often people mix up different law enforcement agencies, to the point that the sheriff/ICE partnership really increased fear of local police generally