Amelia Frank-Vitale

Thanks so much to @jasondeleon.bsky.social for writing the foreword and for @laurenheidbrink.bsky.social and @abregoleisy.bsky.social for writing such generous endorsements.

Still two weeks out from the official release date, but just saw my book on a shelf in a bookstore for the first time!

It's still available for preorder with a 30% discount from @ucpress.bsky.social by using code "UCPSAVE30" - www.ucpress.edu/books/leave-...

Amid Mass ICE Arrests, Trump Pardon Recipient Juan Orlando Hernández Given Special Treatment After the former Honduran president was pardoned, ICE dropped its detainer on him, and he was whisked away to a luxury hotel in New York City.

NEW: Rather than turn former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández over to immigration officials when he was released from prison less than four years into a 45-year sentence, the Trump administration paid to transport him 350 miles to a posh NYC hotel.

By @keribla.bsky.social

Tracking the Historic Rise of Habeas Cases Filed by Detained Immigrants ProPublica is tracking the historic rise in challenges filed by immigrants claiming their detention is illegal.

ICYMI: We @propublica.org set up a tracker for immigration-related habeas cases, which means it tracks the number of suits filed by immigrants claiming they are detained illegally. The number has hit historic highs. We'll update it regularly with new data. projects.propublica.org/habeas-track...

We worked with a great group of students this past summer to pilot the project - we're expanding to more courts and more campuses this semester. Get in touch if you'd like to incorporate immigration court watching into your teaching/research labs.

Journal for the Anthropology of North America | Wiley Online Library This article investigates the operations of United States immigration courts ethnographically, examining how law, politics, and bureaucracy converge in the everyday production of immigration adjudica...

With Lauren Heidbrink and Luis Guaman, our article "Empty Justice: Ethnographic Court-Witnessing in Authoritarian Times" is out now with preliminary reflections from our ongoing immigration court watching ethnographic research project. anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

ICE Lawyers Are Hiding Their Names in Immigration Court ICE attorneys fighting to deport immigrants are able to obscure their identities — no masks required.

Lawyers for ICE are increasingly hiding their identities in court. This is completely unprecedented.

“We’re not really doing names publicly,” said Judge ShaSha Xu — after stating her own name and those of the immigrants and their lawyers.

theintercept.com/2025/07/15/i...

Please reach out if you want to use it in a class (I'd be happy to zoom in and chat with students) or have me come talk about the book.

And to remind us that even when the violence of the anti-immigration agenda has not been as visible as it is in our streets right now, it still destroys lives.

At a moment when the anti-immigration agenda is increasingly violent, I hope this books helps to show that migration is not criminal, pathological, or aberrant.

Leave If You Can by Amelia Frank-Vitale - Paper Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

My first book - on Honduras, migration, and the extended violence of borders - is coming out in March. Preorders are available now through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org or directly through @ucpress.bsky.social — with a 30% off discount code "UCPSAVE30."

www.ucpress.edu/books/leave-...

Debunking the Myth of the ‘Migrant Crime Wave’ Data does not support claims that the United States is experiencing a surge in crime caused by immigrants.

Politicians & some media outlets have latched onto a narrative that recent immigrants, especially undocumented, are causing spikes in crime.

Research does not support the view. In fact, immigrants might have less law enforcement contact compared to native-born Americans.

You’ve Heard About Who ICE Is Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof. What happens when you do minimal screening before hiring agents, arming them, and sending them into the streets? We're all finding out.

ICE hired a journalist without a background check, drug test, or anything else. They gave her a six minute interview and then listed her on their website as having joined ICE.

This journalist was/is my friend @laurajedeed.bsky.social

youtu.be/x9H7Li9NShA

“Saving lives is not a crime.”

After a seven-year legal ordeal, a court on the Greek island of Lesbos has acquitted all 24 defendants who had been baselessly charged with felonies for saving lives at sea.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4pMoOdR

A Push to Expand the Rights of Immigrants in Defiance of Trump An effort by New Jersey Democrats is seen as a provocative statement of principle in a state with the country’s second largest percentage of immigrants, after California.

Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are poised to expand migrant rights, an effort seen as a defiant statement of principle in a state with the second largest percentage of U.S. immigrants after California.

Editorial assistant job going with @freemovement.bsky.social ⤵️

I feel like I haven’t even been properly lied to about the purposes of this war

Exclusive: CIA carried out drone strike on port facility on Venezuelan coast | CNN Politics The CIA carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, marking the first known US attack on a target inside that...

So the President did disclose a CIA drone strike inside Venezuela.

And this does cross a red line of violating the UN Charter -- where the boat strikes on high seas had not.

www.cnn.com/2025/12/29/p...

VIDEO: Vagón se descarrila en Nogales; choca muro fronterizo Un vagón de carga de Ferromex desacoplado a una maquina locomotora y sin control, se desplazó sobre la vía férrea de Nogales, Sonora, hasta impactarse.

VIDEO ¬ Vagón de Ferromex se descarrila en Nogales y choca contra el muro fronterizo

www.sinembargo.mx/4743968/vide...

Trump’s Immigration Nightmare: It Is Happening Here With astonishing speed, the administration has toppled the most cherished pillars of a free society. And the experts agree: It’s all going to get much, much worse.

"With astonishing speed, the administration has toppled the most cherished pillars of a free society." A must-read from @radleybalko.bsky.social , even if you've been following Trump's use of immigration enforcement to terrorize communities. newrepublic.com/article/2042...

Finally had a chance to read this Incredible piece by @gregsargent.bsky.social that documents Miller’s attempt to undo and reverse the 1965 immigration settlement and reveals how central this effort is to the administration’s reactionary aim to take down the New Deal and civil rights orders.

Can someone please respond to Stephen Miller with this message from Frank Sinatra?

Trump’s Immigration Nightmare: It Is Happening Here With astonishing speed, the administration has toppled the most cherished pillars of a free society. And the experts agree: It’s all going to get much, much worse.

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR.

I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol.

They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

Dec. 24, 1865 | Confederate Veterans Establish the Ku Klux Klan Learn more about our history of racial injustice.

On this day in 1865, Confederate veterans established the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee. Devoted to white supremacy, the Klan became America’s most prominent terrorist group.

An excerpt from The Washington Post's interview with photographer Christopher Anderson: Question: "Were there moments that you missed? Anything that happened that’s on the cutting room floor?" Anderson: "I don’t think there’s anything I missed that I wish I’d gotten. I’ll give you a little anecdote: Stephen Miller was perhaps the most concerned about the portrait session. He asked me, 'Should I smile or not smile?' and I said, 'How would you want to be portrayed?' We agreed that we would do a bit of both. And then when we were finished, he comes up to me to shake my hand and say goodbye. And he says to me, 'You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people.' And I looked at him and I said, 'You know, you do, too.'"

Photographer Christopher Anderson on the Vanity Fair photoshoot

In the article below, I review some of the history of denaturalization and how this effort fits within a broader agenda, along with the birthright citizenship executive order, to redefine American citizenship and who belongs in our political community.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The government is very deliberately NOT trying to deport Mr. Abrego Garcia. Since August, he has been asking them to deport him to Costa Rica, yet the Trump admin keeps refusing to do it (and lying about why) because they want to send him to Africa to punish him. Here's how Judge Xinis summed it up.

Tracking Every US Strike on Boats in the Caribbean and Pacific The Trump administration is committing illegal strike after illegal strike. Don’t look away, and don’t lose track.

Tracking Every US Strike on Boats in the Caribbean and Pacific

The Trump administration is committing illegal strike after illegal strike. Don’t look away, and don’t lose track, writes @premthakker.bsky.social.

Read now: zeteo.com/p/trump-us-b...