acab

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/62836

In the early morning hours of June 29, federal agents from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security conducted a raid on home in Midlothian, Texas, in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area.

The raid, which saw federal agents deploying flash-bang grenades and using armored vehicles, was authorized by a federal search warrant related to an ongoing federal investigation into an alleged bomb plot at a June 14 Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House. The Justice Department characterized the case as an assassination plot against high-ranking officials using of explosive drones and sniper rifles.

The search warrant in Midlothian was issued as part of federal agents’ search for evidence of several potential charges, including conspiracy to commit murder, according to documents viewed by The Intercept.

“They are stress-testing the limits of NSPM-7.”

The subject of the raid in Texas claimed that, in the days after the raid, federal agents returned to her home and offered her up to $200,000 to act as an informant for federal law enforcement. The resident, “Doberman,” who asked only to be identified only by her social media handle because of ongoing threats to her safety, has not been indicted on any charges. Doberman also said she was visited by agents from the FBI and Secret Service weeks before the raid.

The raid was part of a sweeping effort by the federal government and far-right media figures to spin up a vast far-left conspiracy casting antifascist activists as well-organized extremists who pose a threat to public safety.

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President Donald Trump has made attacks on antifascist activists a centerpiece of his domestic crackdown on the left, designating antifa a terrorist organization and issuing directives like the National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 to focus resources on going after left-wing activists.

The crackdown recently helped spur centuries’ worth of combined prison sentences for a clutch of left-wing activists who launched a protest at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Prairieland Detention Facility, just a 20-minutes drive from Midlothian.

First Amendment advocates said the Midlothian raid fit into the widespread pattern of aggressive policing tactics being used against the left, including other attempts to flip activists.

“They are stress-testing the limits of NSPM-7, both by trying to cast various groups or voluntary associations that are protected by the First Amendment as being antifa, or as falling within the ambit of this sort of very broad definition of terrorism,” said Moira Meltzer-Cohen, a New York-based attorney who represents defendants in federal cases but is not working on the Midlothian raid. “We see that with this thing in North Texas, we saw that in Prairieland, and we’re seeing that in Minneapolis” — a reference to the recent indictments of 15 anti-ICE activists in Minnesota.

Doberman is a well-known activist in north Texas left-wing circles. She has been filmed armed at protests and is a member of a group known as the Community Liberation Brigade.

In the days before the raid, a Dallas Express op-ed by a local right-wing activist identified Doberman as a leader of the Community Liberation Brigade. The article suggested that Doberman had ties to the Pairieland defendants — a case that saw the government’s first successful prosecution under Trump’s directives against antifa. It’s unclear what role, if any, the Dallas Express op-ed played in the raid.

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Doberman, who told The Intercept she doesn’t have any ties to the Prairieland defendants, said she was questioned about the case during the raid. Authorities also asked Doberman about people named in recent federal indictments surrounding the UFC plot, where the most serious charges included conspiracy to commit murder — the same charge that appeared on the search warrant for Doberman’s home.

Because of the ongoing investigation, the Secret Service directed questions about Doberman’s case to the Justice Department. The Department of Homeland Security referred questions to the FBI. Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI immediately responded to requests for comment.

“Rifles Trained Directly at Me”

Two weeks before the Midlothian raid, federal agents tried to question Doberman about the alleged plot to attack the UFC 250 event, an extravagant mixed martial arts performance hosted by the White House as part of its celebrations of 250 years of American independence.

Two men who identified themselves as federal agents from the FBI and Secret Service arrived at Doberman’s door, according to video footage of the encounter obtained by The Intercept.

In the footage, one of the agents assures Doberman that she is “not in trouble” and asks her if she knows anything about an impending attack. Doberman replies that she doesn’t know anything about any plot. When asked if she plans to travel to Washington, she says she is “broke as fuck.” Shortly after, Doberman declined to answer further questions and instructs the agents to come back with a warrant.

[

Read our complete coverage

Chilling Dissent ----------------](https://theintercept.com/collections/chilling-dissent/)

Two weeks later — just days after the Dallas Express piece published — federal agents arrived during the early morning hours in Bearcat armored vehicles. They broke down Doberman’s door in a “no-knock” raid, a controversial tactic that has led to the deaths of innocent people.

“I was woken up by a loud crack, a loud bang,” Doberman told The Intercept in her first media interview since the raid. “I shot up and looked directly to my door, where I was then briefly blinded by a very fucking bright flash of light. After I got my vision back, I saw three rifles trained directly at me.”

Officers placed Doberman in handcuffs, she said, and led her to a local police cruiser parked nearby. Doberman, who is transgender, was denied the opportunity to put on clothes, even after being detained and handcuffed by agents. She was then forced outside in her underwear.

“I’m a trans woman — so, trans woman in a very red state, in a very red city, in feminine underwear. Not the best look,” she said.

According to a seizure receipt viewed by the The Intercept, Doberman’s cellphone was the only item taken during the raid.

In the days after the raid, another FBI agent, whom Doberman said did not give their name, returned her cellphone.

“We know that you’re struggling financially. We know that the people you hold dear are struggling financially.”

During the exchange, Doberman said, the agent offered her hundreds of thousands of dollars to become a confidential informant.

“He said, ‘Hey, we know that you’re struggling financially. We know that the people you hold dear are struggling financially. We are willing to offer monetary gain if you can give us any information on bad actors,’” she recalled.

“The agent said $100,000 to $200,000, which is a life-changing amount,” Doberman said.

Doberman said she told the agent that she would think about the offer. In an interview with The Intercept, however, she said she had no intention of accepting.

Shortly after the offer was made, Doberman spoke to Xavier de Janon, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who confirmed the account to The Intercept. De Janon says that proposals like the one received by Doberman could be indicative of the larger network of resources being poured into federal investigations under Trump’s NSPM-7 directive.

“Getting money in exchange for information isn’t new for this government. It’s actually pretty old. I think what is a bit surprising is the amount,” he said. “These cash payouts are really large and probably reflect the very large budgets that these federal agencies have under Trump.”

De Janon said large financial offers to potential collaborators raise questions about the validity of information provided by informants.

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“Even without cash payments, federal informants and state-level informants, too, are pressured so much to give out information that they start behaving in ways that creates criminal situations and questionable moments that wouldn’t have happened to begin with,” he said.

Informant programs have been riddled with issues and allegations that the government targets and takes advantage of vulnerable people, and alleged criminal plots are frequently conceived and proposed by the informants themselves.

For her part, Doberman was rattled by the raid. Though she was not accused of any crimes, the violent raid left her in a persistent state of anxiety. “I’ve been working on my PTSD for years,” she said. “It’s gotten so much worse. And every night now, constant nightmares.”

The post FBI Raided Texas Activist’s House — Then Offered Her $200,000 to Become Antifa Informant appeared first on The Intercept.

From The Intercept via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/62869

The Texas Civil Rights Project demanded an independent investigation after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement fatally shot a Mexican immigrant in Houston on Tuesday morning.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes the agency, said on social media that just before 7:00 am CT, "ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien. The driver of the vehicle, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo—an illegal alien from Mexico—attempted to evade arrest."

"From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer, resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense," DHS said. "The driver was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted. The driver was transported to the hospital, where he passed away from his injuries," the department added.

The Houston Fire Department said that Araujo suffered a gunshot wound to his stomach area and CPR was performed while he was transported to Ben Taub Hospital, where he was declared dead , according to a local NBC affiliate. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now leading the probe.

"We condemn this violent use of force and hold deep concern for the victim and his family," Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) president Rochelle Garza said in a statement. "Immigration enforcement should never lead to violence in our neighborhoods or harm our community members. This raises urgent questions about how enforcement operations are being conducted, what safeguards exist to prevent harm, and how to ensure accountability when people are killed."

"After ICE raids in Minnesota when immigration enforcement officers shot and killed two people, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, DHS repeatedly gave false statements about self-defense in an attempt to justify the murders, eroding community trust," she highlighted. "And in March 2026, only through a public information request did we learn of Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old US citizen that was killed by ICE in South Padre Island, Texas."

Garza added that "we demand full transparency, an independent investigation into the shooting and any use of racial profiling that led to it, and accountability for the use of deadly force. Our neighborhoods are not battlegrounds. TCRP will continue seeking justice and standing alongside all of our neighbors across Texas."

The shooting—far from the first by the agency during President Donald Trump's mass detention and deportation campaign—occurred in the district of Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, who similarly said that "ICE has released an initial account, but the facts must be independently and thoroughly investigated, including the circumstances that led to the use of deadly force."

"All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation," Garcia continued. "The victim's family, my constituents, and the entire community deserve a complete and transparent accounting of what happened."

Alejandra Salinas, a member of the Houston City Council, called the shooting "deeply concerning" and said that "the use of deadly force demands full scrutiny and transparency."

"I am calling for a thorough and impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting, including the prompt release of all available video and investigative findings," Salinas said. "The public deserves a timely account of what happened, clear answers, and accountability. My office has reached out to the appropriate city departments to determine what additional information is available and whether any city personnel or resources were involved in the incident."

Another homicide by Trump's secret police. Keep in mind they are training always to claim that they were struck by another car. So far this claims have proven uniformly false. An ICE agent shot and killed a Mexican citizen in Houston Tuesday morning after he allegedly drove into an ICE vehicle, an

[image or embed]
— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) July 7, 2026 at 5:08 PM

Jason Chavez, who represents Minneapolis' 9th Ward on the City Council, said on social media: "Rest in peace, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican resident murdered by ICE in Houston, Texas this morning. Unfortunately, the federal government is using the same talking points they used against Renee Good in this case. It's disgusting."

"Lorenzo deserves answers and justice. Renee still deserves answers and justice. Every family torn apart by this agency deserves justice," Chavez declared. "Abolish ICE!!!"

The deadly ICE encounter in Texas came less than a week after a federal agent fired at a vehicle in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania after unsuccessfully trying to arrest the driver, identified by the agency as Clemente Lara-Hernandez of Mexico.

In Pennsylvania, ICE similarly said the driver had "weaponized his car and rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle," then "dangerously drove on the wrong direction on a one-way street."

Meahwhile, Justin Douglas, one of the commissioners in Dauphin County, which includes Harrisburg, called for a "thorough, independent, and transparent investigation," noting that ICE actions caught on camera appeared to run afoul of the US Department of Justice's policy for using deadly force.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/61165

Federal agents took three people into custody at immigration courts in New York City over the last week in what lawyers said appears to be the first grave violations of two orders by federal judges barring such arrests.

On Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested an Ecuadorian man at a court at 26 Federal Plaza and a man from the Dominican Republic at another court at 290 Broadway, both in Lower Manhattan. The arrests continued on Monday, when ICE agents detained a third man, originally from Guatemala, at 290 Broadway.

In legal filings challenging the detentions of the men taken Thursday, advocates with the nonprofit Make the Road New York accused ICE of not only violating their clients’ right to due process, but also of brazenly flouting a federal court order.

The judge’s order barred ICE from making arrests at Manhattan immigration courts in all but a narrow handful of exceptions, while a similar ruling issued on June 23 from a federal court in California applies nationwide.

By detaining the men at court on Thursday, ICE appears to be directly contravening the New York order without yet providing a justification, according to Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.

“ICE continues to flagrantly violate the law by arresting immigrants who are attending their mandatory court hearings, despite a court order mandating an end to courthouse arrests,” Goldman said in a statement to The Intercept, adding that his office was working to get the men released.

ICE appears to be acting outside the law, according to Murad Awawdeh, the head of the advocacy group New York Immigration Coalition.

“We’re witnessing ICE, yet again, operate in a lawless and rogue fashion and not following court orders.”

“We’re witnessing ICE, yet again, operate in a lawless and rogue fashion and not following court orders,” Awawdeh said. “We’re supposedly a nation under the rule of law, and our judicial branch has said that this agency must stop engaging in this lawless behavior, and they continue to do so.”

In its habeas corpus filings, lawyers from Make the Road demanded that the two men arrested Thursday be released and allowed to continue navigating the immigration process.

In a statement to The Intercept, a spokesperson for ICE denied that the agency had violated any court order. The spokesperson did not explain how the arrests fit into the exceptions to the ban on courthouse arrests put in place by the federal judge.

No Exceptions

From May 18 until last week, just two arrests had taken place at Manhattan immigration courts; in both cases, the detainees were swiftly released after lawyers and immigrant rights groups mobilized to invoke the federal judge’s order.

That has not been the case for the men arrested on Thursday and Monday. All three men have since been transferred to detention centers, according to ICE records.

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The Dominican man arrested Thursday is currently being held at ICE’s Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, while the Ecuadorian man arrested the same day is being held at the D. Ray James ICE Processing Center in Folkston, Georgia. The Guatemalan man arrested on Monday is being held at the Orange County Detention Facility in upstate New York. (The Intercept is withholding the detained men’s names because of the sensitive nature of their cases.)

The arrests appeared to end a brief period of calm at Manhattan immigration courts in the wake of the May 18 ruling by Judge Kevin Castel requiring ICE to revert to a policy put in place in 2021. The Biden-era policy allowed for courthouse arrests with prior authorization in only a handful of instances, including when a person might pose a threat to national security or to public safety — narrowly defined as cases in which agents are in direct pursuit of a subject or if it would not be possible to make the arrest in another location.

In their statement, the ICE spokesperson pointed to a conviction for trespassing on the part of the Dominican man and a 2025 conviction for disorderly conduct on the part of the Ecuadorian man.

One immigration lawyer said the courthouse arrests were part of a growing pattern of increased ICE detentions.

“For whatever reason, that order is essentially being disregarded, and we’ve seen a pretty significant uptick in detentions,” said Benjamin Remy, senior coordinating attorney at the immigration protection unit of the New York Legal Assistance Group.

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In the year and a half since President Trump returned to office and unleashed the agency as part of his mass deportation agenda, ICE has repeatedly been found in violation of orders around the detention of immigrants. The alleged violations have been ramping up in recent months, according to advocates and court records.

“We’ve seen ICE have a fairly flexible and adaptive relationship when it comes to the truth and the facts,” Remy said, “and to complying with court orders and frankly to rule of law as a fundamental concept.”

An Impossible Bind

Beginning in May 2025 and continuing for almost exactly a year, ICE arrests at 26 Federal Plaza, 290 Broadway, and another immigration court at 201 Varick Street were commonplace, with hundreds of people swept up by masked ICE agents when they showed up for scheduled hearings. According to an analysis published last August by The City Reporter, a local news site, more than half of courthouse arrests nationwide were taking place in New York.

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Like the overwhelming majority of people arrested in immigration courts over the past year, the men arrested over the past week were following demands made of them by the immigration system.

Both men arrested last week had fled home due to persecution, entered the U.S., and been detained before obtaining release as their cases proceeded, according to petitions filed on their behalf by Make the Road New York. When summoned to court, both showed up as instructed.

ICE has repeatedly defended the arrests as legitimate. Immigration advocates, however, have warned that it puts immigrants in an impossible bind, forcing them to decide between risking arrest by following the law and showing up to court, or losing any chance of lawfully remaining in the country by skipping a hearing.

“It is not uncommon for me to encounter folks walking into court in the morning already just sobbing,” Remy told The Intercept. “These arrests are discouraging the legal process. It’s discouraging people’s fundamental constitutional right to due process and to be able to have their day in court.”

The post ICE Flouting Federal Judge’s Order to Stop Arresting Immigrants at New York Courts appeared first on The Intercept.

From The Intercept via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/60837

This article was originally published by Truthout on June 29, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.

My husband, Martin Soto, was abducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this February when he left our home at night to buy diapers for our 11-month-old son.

Martin — who is a loving father, husband, son, church member, worker, and neighbor in the town of Kearny, New Jersey, where we live — was then jailed for four months at Delaney Hall, the ICE jail in Newark, New Jersey. Privately run by GEO Group, a for-profit prison company, Delaney Hall has quickly developed a reputation for medical neglect, rotten food, and abusive staff.

Then, in apparent retaliation for his participation in the hunger strike at Delaney Hall, and for my decision to speak out publicly about what he has experienced, he was transferred this May to Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he continues to be jailed.

When my husband arrived at Delaney Hall in February, he weighed 168 pounds. Now he weighs 117 pounds.

During the almost five months that Martin has wasted away in ICE custody, he has missed our daughter’s fourth birthday, our son’s first birthday, our wedding anniversary, his own 30th birthday, my birthday, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. ICE’s cruel decision has left me — pregnant with our third child on the way — suddenly forced to fend for our two young children and myself alone.

Martin has committed no harm. He is married to me, a U.S. citizen, and he has an asylum case pending for 2028. ICE has the power to release my husband right now via “discretionary release” and let him continue his immigration process outside of prison, caring for his children. But instead, ICE has continued to tear our family apart.

Martin’s Immigration Story

Martin came to this country in January 2024 with a purpose. He came here to raise his children. He came here to make a life with me, his long-time fiancée. We met when I was 19 years old back in our home country, Peru — I had traveled there for a family occasion. We started dating during that trip, but as a U.S. citizen I couldn’t just drop my life in the U.S. to go live in Peru. Nonetheless, I stayed several months in Peru in order to maintain a relationship with Martin. After a few months I had to return home, but we maintained a long-distance relationship, and every so often I would travel to Peru to be with him.

One time, after spending months in Peru with Martin, when I had to go back home to the U.S. I found out I was pregnant. I didn’t want to ruin Martin’s dreams, so at first, I kept it a secret. I went through my pregnancy alone when what I really wanted was to be with my partner. It was going to take a long time for Martin to succeed in coming, as we had so many obstacles along the way.

Months passed, and I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who now is 4 years old. Martin soon found out the truth and wanted to come here for her first birthday, but it was not possible. He missed her first birthday, first steps, first words, first day of day care, and much more. Closer to the end of the year, I suggested to Martin that we come live in Peru to be together as a family, but Peru had become quite dangerous, which meant this wasn’t the best idea for our family.

So, in order to be with me and our daughter, Martin made the hardest decision of his life: He decided to cross the border, leaving his extended family and everything he knew. He walked hours and hours through a desert, and when he crossed into the U.S., he turned himself in to immigration officials.

He spent four months in detention and was moved to seven different immigration jails throughout the time. I wasn’t always available to go every weekend to his visiting hours but I definitely tried and went to all seven different locations. Each one of those “detention centers” seemed to be getting worse and worse.

When Martin was released and given a chance to process his asylum hearing with his family by his side, we were extremely happy. A month later, we got married. Soon after we found out we were expecting another baby, this time a baby boy. Our children are both U.S. citizens. Together we attended a church in Newark. We both had jobs, and together we did everything for our families. Then, one night, everything changed.

ICE Tears Our Family Apart

On February 1, 2026, after Martin stepped out to get diapers for our 11-month-old son, I suddenly got a phone call from a number listed as “prison/jail.” My heart dropped. When I answered, I was terrified about what had happened. As soon as the call ended, I raced over to Delaney Hall to get some answers. A guard there told me Martin was in “good hands” and once he was processed, he would be able to see me during visiting hours. I was relieved to hear he was safe, but when I started hearing about the conditions inside Delaney — rotten food, medical neglect, and more — I began to doubt the guard’s words.

ICE has the power to release my husband right now via “discretionary release” and let him continue his immigration process outside of prison, caring for his children. But instead, ICE has continued to tear our family apart.

I learned about the abuses firsthand. Martin told me that in May, all detainees in Unit 2 were fed food infested with worms, and when they refused to eat the worm-ridden food, the guards told them either eat or you will starve until the next day. There was no privacy in the units. Martin and the other men detained there were forced to shower in an open space with other people. Meanwhile, when Martin got sick, he would go three or four weeks without getting seen, much less treated.

Martin Faces Retaliation After I Organize a Rally

On May 22, 2026, I organized a rally outside Delaney Hall to demand freedom for everyone in immigration detention.

Two hours after the rally ended, Martin began to be targeted in apparent retaliation for my activism. Martin later told me that GEO Group staff and ICE agents called him down to the management office that day. Their first question was: “If we release you right now, will you tell your wife to stop the protest outside?” They asked: “Did you know your wife was organizing a protest outside?” They asked: “Did you start the strike inside?” To all of these questions, Martin told me he answered: “No comment,” and asked to go back to his cell. He told me they locked him in his cell for hours.

On May 23, 2026, when I tried to visit Martin during visitation hours, I was confronted by the staff. They brought every detainee with visitors downstairs for visitation — except for Martin. Not seeing my husband, I asked the guard why my husband wasn’t brought downstairs with the others. The guard replied that they wanted to speak with me first. I asked what they wanted to talk about. The guards claimed that I was spreading lies about GEO Group and attacked me for telling the press that they are feeding worms to people detained at Delaney.

In other words, because I had used my constitutionally protected freedom of speech to bring attention to the conditions inside Delaney, my husband was experiencing retaliation from the guards.

On May 24, 2026, around 3:30 pm (a half hour before visitation) I received a call from my husband. A few minutes into a normal conversation between the two of us on a recorded and monitored line, a guard said: “Release Martin Soto.” Martin was relieved, but I was confused. I knew there was something behind this because of the events of the previous two days. I found it suspicious and told people outside to keep an eye on any vans that might come out while I went inside Delaney with another volunteer. The volunteer and I went inside for visitation.

As I was standing outside the visitation chapel ramp, I witnessed with my own eyes the forced kidnapping and shackling of my husband by two GEO Group staff members. Those two GEO Group staff members were walking down the ramp with Martin when, suddenly, they glanced at each other and grabbed him by his ankles and wrists and threw him inside the van.

At that moment I tried to leave the facility, but GEO Group staff did not let me leave, refusing to unlock the revolving doors. I had to wait over 20 minutes before they let me leave the facility. As I, who was pregnant at the time, ran toward the front, multiple GEO Group staff members saw me crying, screaming, and running. They laughed at me. When I reached the front, where the van was stopped, I desperately pleaded for help to release my husband. Everyone was frantically calling their members of Congress, senators, the mayor of Newark, and anyone we could get on the line to demand that Martin be released, as promised. (They had made this promise on a recorded and monitored line.)

I believe this was all in retaliation for my decision to speak out and exercise my freedom of speech about what has been going on inside Delaney Hall.

Later that day, when Rep. Rob Menendez came by Delaney Hall, he stayed over 18 hours, trying to get inside to see Martin. ICE agents and GEO Group staff denied him entry. While Representative Menendez was waiting, ICE successfully plotted to get Martin out of Delaney — to transfer him. At 2:00 am, while everyone was distracted, ICE created a diversion with three ICE vehicles. They let them get searched and as protesters were closing the barricades, a vehicle — the last one in that group — stormed out. Martin was being held hostage in that vehicle.

The vehicle that transported Martin Soto at 2:00 am appeared to be an ICE agent’s personal vehicle: Martin later told me he could see that it had a baby seat in the back.

Since that day, May 25, 2026, Martin has been held at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. His transfer appears to have been a retaliation for his participation in the Delaney Hall hunger strike, his demand to free them all, and his relation to me — a loved one who has been speaking out publicly.

I have been trying to get answers from ICE and GEO Group about my husband. For this op-ed, we asked them both about his treatment and his transfer. We have not gotten any responses.

Bring Martin Home!

Martin made the difficult decision to risk his life to cross a dangerous desert just to be reunited with his family. He faced horrific obstacles only to be taken into custody one evening for walking the streets in a country where it’s supposed to be safe for a father to buy diapers for his son.

Before ICE abducted him, Martin was living with his family by his side, working in a restaurant kitchen, going to church, caring for his children, being a good neighbor, and helping people whenever he could.

Martin and I believe he was detained that night because the ICE officer he encountered got frustrated with his language barrier, even after Martin mentioned he has an asylum case pending for 2028 while speaking slowly in English.

Like all the other immigrants who come to the U.S. in search of a better future, Martin traveled here with the hope of raising his daughter and son in a safe country and in a safe environment where their lives are not in jeopardy. He had experience in construction and landscaping and food preparation. Before ICE abducted him, Martin was living with his family by his side, working in a restaurant kitchen, going to church, caring for his children, being a good neighbor, and helping people whenever he could.

ICE could release Martin Soto now via discretionary release. I hope that everyone who reads this will join mein demanding that ICE release him immediately.

ICE could let Martin continue his immigration process outside a prison and without any conditions (no ankle monitor, bond, etc.), returning him to me and our children. He does not have to be in detention! He is a father, a role model, a church member, and a good neighbor, and he deserves freedom.

From The Real News Network via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/60506

Jeffrey Collins
Associated Press

The Florida Everglades immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” has served its purpose, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday, closing the makeshift facility heralded by the Trump administration and denounced as inhumane by civil rights groups.

DeSantis said the center, which opened in July 2025, was always meant to be only temporary until more permanent detention centers could be secured and federal officials now have that capacity.

“We stepped up because there was a gap, but my hope is that they’ll be able to handle that,” the Republican governor said at a news conference at the facility.

Officials announced a temporary closure of the facility earlier in June and sent all of the detainees to other facilities, saying hurricane season made it unsafe to keep them in the Everglades.

‘The Everglades is our home’: Native leaders, activists pushback on ‘Alligator Alactraz’

Immigration advocates said the center’s tents were never safe or humane for holding people. Detainees at the facility have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers and described poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that didn’t flush, floors flooded with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere.

They described large white tents with rows of and rows of bunk beds surrounded by chain-link cages. The air conditioning could shut off abruptly in the sweltering Florida heat. Detainees could go days without showering or getting prescription medicine.

Advocates for immigrants said the closure of “Alligator Alcatraz” does nothing to stop the harm to people who spend months in custody as their families suffer. The Florida Immigrant Coalition said the only winners were corporations and contractors who profited millions of dollars as Republicans pushed an immigration emergency that does not exist.

The detention center of tents and trailers was built by DeSantis’ administration in a matter of days. The governor and President Donald Trump said the center was critical to Republican efforts to return people in the country illegally back to their home countries.

“There is no question this mission has made the state of Florida safer,” said DeSantis, noting that 21,000 people were deported through the facility.

Even with the closure of the facility, Florida continues to play a key role with other detention centers and an increased role in helping with immigration enforcement, White House border czar Tom Homan said at Thursday’s news conference.

“Gov. DeSantis did a good job, and he’s going to continue doing what he’s doing to help us make this country safe again,” Homan said. “This isn’t the end of relationship. This is a continuation.”

Lawyers for the immigrants at the facility said their clients suddenly started leaving for other facilities in South Florida, California, Arizona, Louisiana and Texas earlier this month, disappearing for about a week before their attorneys and families were told where they were sent.

DeSantis said the Everglades airstrip the facility was built around will continue to be used.

Environmental groups sued over the detention center, saying Florida officials never got the proper permits or did required reviews on its impact.

The state and federal governments built the site with no oversight and closed it with no input, but they will still be held responsible even with the site is closed, said Paul J. Schwiep, an attorney for Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.

“The administration believes it can quietly walk away and leave its mess for others to clean up. The law will not allow them to escape accountability. We will ask the courts to ensure that the environmental damage is fully addressed,” Schwiep said in a statement Thursday.

The post Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration detention center has closed, governor says appeared first on ICT.

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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/59840

While welcoming Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' confirmation on Thursday that the immigrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" has closed, rights advocates also renewed criticism of how immigrants are being treated across the country as President Donald Trump continues his deadly push for mass detention and deportations.

The facility in the Everglades opened last summer despite concerns about both human rights and the environmental impact. DeSantis said Thursday that "Florida led the way in increasing much-needed detention capacity and working with our federal partners to streamline deportations, removing thousands of the most dangerous criminal aliens from our country."

Despite claims from the president and his allies, federal data have shown that most immigrants detained during his second term lack criminal convictions. In addition to flooding US streets with agents from Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump has repeatedly demanded that Congress give CBP and ICE more funding.

"Our detention operations support has led to nearly 30,000 additional deportations, and Florida accounts for more than 40% of all state/local immigration arrests nationwide," DeSantis added Thursday. "Alligator Alcatraz has fulfilled this mission. Detainees who are still awaiting deportation have been transferred to other federal facilities, and demobilization efforts are underway."

Responding to the governor on social media, Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigrant Coalition said: "You wasted more than $1 billion of Florida's emergency response fund on a failed PR stunt that hurt people and destroyed families. You should never be anywhere near public office again."

As The Associated Press noted Thursday:

Immigration advocates said the center’s tents were never safe or humane for holding people. Detainees at the facility have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers and described poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that didn't flush, floors flooded with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere.

They described large white tents with rows of and rows of bunk beds surrounded by chain-link cages. The air conditioning could shut off abruptly in the sweltering Florida heat. Detainees could go days without showering or getting prescription medicine.

The state and national ACLU as well as Americans for Immigrant Justice (AIJ) had sued over the facility last year.

"The fact that this site ever existed is a travesty, given the cruelty behind it, horrific conditions, and blatant violations of due process. We challenged the Trump administration and the state of Florida over the facility, and now celebrate its closure," Carmen Iguina González, deputy director for immigration detention with the ACLU's National Prison Project, said Thursday.

Keisha Mulfort, deputy executive director and strategy officer of the ACLU of Florida, declared that "with its official closure, 'Alligator Alcatraz' seals its reputation as a ruinous venture. This detention center stands as a monument to what happens when a state government abandons its conscience in service of a federal cruelty agenda."

"The DeSantis administration deliberately built a detention facility in the middle of the Everglades—not despite the harsh conditions, but because of them—and spent over $1 billion of Florida taxpayers' money to do it," she pointed out. "That is not governance; that is cruelty dressed up as policy, and complicity dressed up as leadership. In spite of this, hundreds of thousands of Floridians protested, organized, called their legislators, and refused to look away. They made this moment possible, and we should name that clearly: This is what accountability looks like when the government won't hold itself accountable."

Mulfort also stressed that "as people are transferred to other facilities, the abuses do not disappear—they relocate." She and Iguina González pledged that the state and national ACLU will not stop tracking abuses of immigrants across the country.

"The nightmarish scene found at 'Alligator Alcatraz' is not wholly unique and reflects systemic patterns of abuse at other ICE detention facilities nationwide," Iguina González said. "We remain very concerned that people may be transferred to other sites with sordid and dangerous conditions, and we will continue to monitor this situation."

Paul Chavez, director of litigation and advocacy at AIJ, also emphasized that "closing this facility is an important step, but the government's obligation to respect due process does not end at the facility gates. Constitutional rights must follow every person wherever they are detained."

"We remain deeply concerned that people transferred out of this facility will continue to face mistreatment and civil rights violations in other detention centers," he said. "Americans for Immigrant Justice will continue to defend due process, offer free legal representation to low-income immigrants, and stand strong with our immigrant neighbors, friends, and their families."

After using $1 billion to brutalize immigrants, the concentration camp known as "Alligator Alcatraz" has been emptied. Its victims still need justice.truthout.org/articles/flo...

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— UAINE (@mahtowin1.bsky.social) June 22, 2026 at 10:36 PM

As for the environmental impact, The New York Times reported that after the Trump administration announced that detainees had been relocated, Paul J. Schwiep, an attorney for groups suing over Alligator Alcatraz, promised last week to continue the lawsuit against what he called the "secret gulag in the Everglades."

"They hope that they can slink away in the middle of the night without explaining to anyone what they did, why they did it, or how they proposed to clean up the mess that they've made," said Schwiep. "And we don't intend to let them get away with it."

Ripping the facility as an "internment camp," Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) similarly asserted on Thursday that "the fight isn't over. We need accountability for the billions of taxpayer dollars wasted, the abuse and harm inflicted on detainees, and the damage done to one of Florida's most sacred ecosystems."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/59763

Minneapolis, MN – On July 24, pro-Palestine and police accountability advocates as well as local media gathered in the Minneapolis City Hall rotunda around a banner that read, “Drones out of MPLS. Drones out of Palestine. Say no to Skydio.” The Twin Cities-based Free Palestine Coalition (FPC) proceeded to hold a press conference calling on Minneapolis City Council to reject a proposal that would enact a trial program of so-called “drones as first responders” supplied by U.S. drone manufacturer Skydio.

Organizers explained that Skydio was complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza for supplying cutting-edge, AI-powered drones that autonomously surveil urban areas and identify potential targets.

In 2024, the FPC successfully mobilized Minneapolis residents to pass a city council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and supporting an end to tax dollars contributing to Israel’s attacks. A campaign against a city contract with Israeli surveillance company ZenCity followed in 2025.

Speakers at the press conference argued that rejecting the Skydio proposal was a logical next step for the local boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

“Minneapolis should not be a customer for genocide-linked technology,” said Maamoun Slayhi with American Muslims for Palestine – Minnesota. “Israel is an apartheid state. It is committing genocide in Gaza. It has used surveillance, drones, artificial intelligence and military technology to control and destroy Palestinian life. We should be cutting ties with that system, not creating new ones.”

Wyatt Miller of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee explained how Skydio’s current business model relies on drone sales to Israel. “Before October 2023, Skydio was a small company and its drones were primarily sold to individual civilian consumers,” Miller said, noting that the Gaza genocide allowed the company to pivot to scaled-up contracts with militaries and police departments. “Within hours of beginning its genocidal campaign in Gaza, the Israeli military had reached out to Skydio for expedited orders of autonomous surveillance drones. Hundreds were shipped within weeks.”

Organizers highlighted that the Skydio proposal would also be a dangerous new tool in the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). If enacted, the “drones as first responders” trial program would be run out of Minneapolis’s 4th Precinct in the city’s Northside, a heavily Black community with a history of repression at the hands of the police. In 2015, the 4th Precinct was the site of major Black lives matter protests after the murder of Jamar Clark by MPD officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze.

Jae Yates is an organizer with the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, a group founded in the immediate aftermath of Clark’s murder. “As a Black-led organization, we understand this drone technology would be used on our already overpoliced and heavily surveilled communities,” said Yates. “We cannot trust a police department with a pattern and practice of racist policing to responsibly implement a drone program.”

Yates continued, “If this contract goes through, these drones will be another tool for an unaccountable, racist, and violent police force to increase surveillance and repression on Black, brown, indigenous and immigrant communities.”

Marvina Haynes is the founder of Minnesota Wrongful Conviction Reform, and the sister of Marvin Haynes, a Black Northside resident who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit before his sentence was vacated in 2023. “We are being told these drones are intended for emergency response. But communities across this country have seen surveillance technologies expand beyond their original purpose. Once these systems are in place, residents often have little control over how they evolve, what data is collected, how long information is stored, or how the technology is used in the future,” wrote Haynes in a letter read at the press conference. “I am especially concerned that North Minneapolis could become the testing ground for a program that many residents neither requested nor had a meaningful role in shaping.”

Speakers from FPC member groups Minnesota BDS Community, Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America Abolition and Decarceration Working Group, and Women Against Military Madness also spoke at the press conference.

The FPC urged community members to speak out at a public hearing on July 8 at 1:30 p.m., when the Minneapolis City Council’s Public Health, Safety & Equity Committee of will hold a preliminary vote on the Skydio “drones as first responders” proposal.

At the conclusion of his remarks, Miller asked rhetorically, “Do we really need a new technology that only became available at scale after being developed to facilitate a genocide? Is this proposal the solution to a real problem that we face, or is it a hammer in search of a nail?”

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #InJusticeSystem #Drones

From Fight Back! News via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/58598

Cancer patients, pregnant women and people with life-threatening chronic conditions were all denied adequate medical care, according to medical records and court documents reviewed by The City Reporter.

From MR Online via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/57994

Human Rights Watch on Thursday published a scathing report detailing how President Donald Trump "caused a human rights crisis" in Minnesota by ordering the deadly federal invasion of the Twin Cities in service of the administration's mass deportation agenda.

HRW called Operation Metro Surge, launched by Trump last December, "an unprecedented deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents and officers to the state of Minnesota," including members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

"The Trump administration claimed that Operation Metro Surge was designed to keep Americans safe and often stated that it was targeting noncitizens with violent criminal histories," the report states. "But the operation itself caused significant harm, and nearly two out of three immigrants arrested by ICE during Operation Metro Surge had no prior US criminal history whatsoever."

At least three people have been killed in connection with the operation. ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renée Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, in Minneapolis on January 7. A week later, 36-year-old Nicaraguan detainee Victor Manuel Díaz, who was arrested during the operation, became the third person to die at the notorious East Montana concentration camp in Texas. On January 24, CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez and Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa shot and killed nurse Alex Pretti, 37, also in Minneapolis.

"Federal agents shot a third Minneapolis resident and pulled guns on dozens more," the report continues. "Agents also violently smashed car windows without justification, physically threw people to the ground who were not resisting arrest, and deployed chemical irritants and flash-bang grenades on dozens of occasions, sometimes at close range and without warning, resulting in injuries, including to journalists."

Furthermore, federal agents "unlawfully arrested and detained hundreds; engaged in racial profiling, harassment, and surveillance; and terrorized Minnesotans, chilling their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, and impacting their rights to education and health, among others," HRW said, adding that "residents faced further abuses when they collectively acted to protest, prevent, and stop these violations of their rights."

The HRW report calls for an immediate end to abusive federal enforcement operations in Minnesota; independent investigations into alleged unlawful killings, racial profiling, arbitrary arrests, excessive force, and other rights violations; and full accountability for officials responsible.

“The federal government sent hordes of masked, armed agents to grab people off the street, whisk them away in shackles, and abuse those who sought to bear witness,” Reagan Williams, HRW's crisis and conflict researcher, said in a statement. “Minnesotans mobilized to protest, to document abuse, and to provide critical aid to one another. National-level action is needed to ensure accountability, end ongoing abuses, remedy the harm, and prevent another crisis of this scale.”

“Operation Metro Surge put the violent and abusive practices of these agencies on full display,” Williams added. “We have clear proof of how they operate when impunity prevails, and we need to urgently chart a new way forward through accountability and structural reforms that put an end to these abuses.”

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/57363

Federal prosecutors announced charges against 15 protesters in Minnesota on Tuesday, accusing them of “conspiring to interfere with law enforcement” during Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) surge in Minnesota earlier this year. On Tuesday morning, Homeland Security officials raided and arrested 12 of the 15 individuals. One was already in custody; two remain at large.

Source

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/48610427

https://nitter.net/jangelooff/status/2062625336882258016

https://apnews.com/article/delaney-hall-new-jersey-immigration-fd0ff7bfbae8585bba35c7b88bfe9eb0

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/53561

I and my two dear friends have been on the ground at Delaney Hall nearly every single night to support those on hunger and labor strike.

That first Sunday, May 24, GEO Group — who privately runs Delaney Hall — tried to move Martín Soto, a key organizer of both strikes, presumably to break the bonds of solidarity that facilitate such inspiring resistance. But when the van pulled out of the north gate to relocate him, something happened: protestors stopped it.

That same Sunday night a crowd grew in support of Gabriela Soto, Martín’s wife, as she stood up against the fence that surrounds Delaney Hall. We made so much noise with our demands that people stuck inside went up to the windows of their cages and flickered their lights on and off. As we witnessed their presence, we cheered in awe of the incredible struggle they sustain toward their own freedoms.

Following the strikers’ consistent demand to meet with Governor Mikie Sherill — who, four months ago, said ICE agents need to be held accountable for their illegal actions, and who, two months ago, made it illegal for ICE agents to wear masks only after pressure from the movement — we joined their call at the gates for her to show up and meet with them as they invoke their rights for medical care, nourishing food free of worms, and basic accountability for the innumerable human rights abuses inside.

Sherrill took four days to show up. She asked to go in. Staff apparently told her no. She got in front of cameras near the sidewalk to say she’d ask again (at some other time in an unspecified future). And then she left.

Monday night, after Martín was relocated to the Elizabeth Detention Center, more demonstrators arrived and visitation hours for families were closed, citing the demonstrations as a risk — not, of course, their coerced labor or their shameful provisions. (As of the time of this writing, visitation hours have still not been restored.)

Tuesday evening, after teaching all day, a coworker and I went straight to Delaney Hall and joined the line of people who locked arms opposite ICE agents, the majority of whom covered their faces with masks. We chanted and held a line at the south gate to keep vans from leaving with more people. That evening, we were chased across the street — away from Delaney Hall — and attacked. Some of us were singled out.

One person pinned against the concrete curb of Doremus Avenue by an agent who dug his knee into their spine, leaving them breathless before more agents joined in, dragging them into Delaney Hall. Another was chased north up the train tracks by agents who had to regroup in cars after being too slow for a foot chase, who then used their cars to close the distance to taser a man who fell face first into rocks, adding him to what has become a growing roster of resistors shoveled into the detention center.

That evening, I almost vomited from inhaling pepper spray sent at our line while we tried to keep a van from leaving. I had my eyes irrigated by kind and knowledgeable medics who knew how to handle the stinging that made my face bright pink. I irrigated other people’s eyes. Later, agents rushed across the street to swarm, tackle, and bring one of those medics inside Delaney Hall where nobody on the ground had the slightest clue of what awaited them, or if and when they might be released. (Fortunately, they and others were eventually let go.)

And we continued to hold the line. For a while, we kept ICE vehicles from leaving, forcing them to reverse back into their flanks. We drove counter protestors out in shame.

We all saw Wednesday night how the line prepared for ICE’s escalating violence. Normal, everyday people arrived with useful respirators, shatterproof goggles — even homemade shields — to better hold the line, insisting that not another van leave with anyone as the hunger and labor strikers heroically persisted.

And then ICE pushed one of us into an oncoming eighteen-wheeler, seriously maiming them.

Thursday night, after teaching again all day, I returned and had to navigate a blockade set up by state police. We were sprayed again. I yanked an elderly man off the ground and rushed him to a medic while he stumbled, shaken and soaked in an orange liquid that has made grown adults weep like children. I watched the infamous agent mentioned above grab a man, pull his respirator down to spray him point blank in the eyes with mace while two other agents beat his body and legs with batons. He stood stock still with his hands up, palms open the entire time. A medic helped him refresh, and he joined the line again.

I watched more people shoved to the asphalt of Doremus Avenue, dragged, and zip-tied while they were swallowed by a ballooning line of masked agents, some of whom brandished their tasers in our direction. On the line, there was talk of recent flights into Newark Airport that might transfer people to different detention centers where they may never be seen again. Flood lights were set up to make it harder for us to see their line, to record their actions, and to disorient us. It was an ongoing push-and-pull that one organizer called a “meatgrinder.”

Friday night, after Governor Sherill’s press conference insisted on a peaceful protest zone, state police declared an unlawful assembly and gave everyone almost no time to clear out.

Everyone was taken off guard, and a formation of state riot police, backed by cavalry, shot tear gas at the crowd as they retreated up Doremus Avenue, leaving the protestors once again in front of the line of ICE agents at the south gate. This time, those agents pointed their weapons at protestors and swiftly moved in to take the barricade from the peaceful protest zone.

As of halfway through Saturday afternoon, while I write this, medic tents are being reestablished. Conservative counter protestors come in and out of Doremus Avenue, screaming about Black Lives Matter. State troopers huddle for strategy, and ICE agents still hold their line.

We hold our line.

And Mikie Sherill’s phone number is still not taking phone calls.

But here’s the bigger point: it is actually extremely possible to continue to support those on strike inside Delaney Hall. As I have mentioned, I am a public school teacher. What’s more, my partner and I have an infant at home.

As do many of those detained inside.

And so do the families whose breadwinners, or even their own children, were kidnapped and now forced to work for a dollar a day, if that. We are no more entitled to our bodies, our relationships, or our freedoms than they are.

And it is possible to resist this systemic violence without simply waiting on the very same local institutions that block our road access, gas us, and arrest us. It is possible to resist what is happening in our neighborhoods by depending on one another.

If you go to Delaney Hall, you will witness something powerful. On the top floor of a privately-run detention center on a street called the “Chemical Corridor” of an over-polluted neighborhood, a dark window pane will light up in response to your solidarity. In it, you will see a human being. You will see that person — someone criminalized for daring to survive in a land separated from their own by the invisible lines we call borders — in a stark, black silhouette made from the dismal lighting of their paltry cell. You may see that silhouette come and go.

And the crowd, standing before the ranks making up one of the largest armed forces on this planet, will all cheer for them. And from the crowd on the dark streets of the third largest port in the nation, you will see that person, more bravely than anyone you now know, raise their fist in solidarity from inside their cage because they know we are there.

The post Dispatches from Delaney Hall: Confronting ICE and State Police appeared first on Left Voice.

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A second ICE agent is now under arrest in connection with Operation Metro Surge, escalating a controversy that has already drawn national attention. Texas Rangers arrested ICE Agent Cristian Castro in Harlingen, Texas, on felony charges stemming from a January incident in Minneapolis involving a Venezuelan national during an immigration enforcement operation.

According to prosecutors, the case centers on allegations that federal agents provided false information following a shooting that injured Julio Sosa Celis. Authorities claim video evidence contradicts initial accounts provided by ICE personnel, leading to dismissed charges against the alleged victim and new criminal charges against federal agents involved.

The arrest raises major questions about federal law enforcement accountability, state versus federal jurisdiction, extradition proceedings, and whether the case could ultimately be moved to federal court. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says state law would still govern the prosecution, while DHS is calling the charges politically motivated and arguing the matter belongs in federal hands.

This is also not the first ICE agent facing criminal allegations connected to Operation Metro Surge. Another agent, Gregory Morgan Jr., is already facing felony assault charges in a separate case involving an alleged roadway confrontation.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/53346

A group of legal advocacy groups on Friday sued US Immigration and Customs Enforcement over "inhumane" conditions at the country's largest concentration camp for immigrants detained during the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project, Human Rights Watch, and the law firm Farella Braun + Martel LLP filed suit against ICE, the US Department of Defense, and associated officials in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in El Paso on behalf of four people seeking to represent a class action for all others held at Camp East Montana.

The 60-acre facility is located in the Chihuahuan Desert on the grounds of Fort Bliss, an Army base and the site of one of the concentration camps where Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals were imprisoned during World War II. Approximately 2,500 immigrants are being detained there.

Citing “a Civil Rights catastrophe,” a group of legal and civil rights organizations in Texas sued the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday over conditions at Camp East Montana in El Paso, the country’s largest immigration detention facility.More: substack.com/@shero/note/...

[image or embed]
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule.bsky.social) May 30, 2026 at 10:03 AM

The lawsuit documents accounts of what the ACLU called "horrific rights violations" at the facility, including:

• Severe medical neglect and disease outbreaks, including a months-long measles outbreak that infected at least 14 people;
• Violent uses of force by officers against detained immigrants and coercive threats of deportation;
• Excessive and arbitrary use of solitary confinement to punish people for requesting basic needs like medical care or hygiene;
• Inadequate and rancid food that have caused detained people to lose extreme amounts of weight;
• Exposure to dust storms through openings in tent walls that subjects people to respiratory disease; and
• Dangerous and unsanitary living conditions in the tent camp, among other rights violations.

“These conditions are longstanding, pervasive, and well-documented, and defendants’ continued inaction in the face of known risks shows their deliberate indifference—not mere negligence—to detainees’ constitutional rights,” the lawsuit states.

At least three detainees have died at Camp East Montana, including Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban who, according to witnesses, died after being handcuffed and placed in a chokehold by guards. The El Paso County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Lunas Campos' death a homicide by asphyxia.

Detained immigrants have reported beatings and sexual abuse, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of access to attorneys at the facility.

“The conditions here in this ICE tent camp in a desert are inhumane and cruel. No human being should ever have to go through this," case plaintiff Gerald Akari Angye said in a statement Friday.

I have already experienced torture in my home country of Cameroon and I never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America," he continued. "I have been beaten here and even today, I still have a brace on my hands and wrist. I am in pain and I am scared to be here."

"No one deserves such cruel treatment," Akari Angye added. "We are all humans and deserve to be treated like it.”

Kyle Virgien, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, called Camp East Montana "nothing short of a civil rights catastrophe."

“Since the day it opened, the facility has repeatedly made headlines for horrific rights violations and even the deaths of three detained people, yet ICE has still evaded accountability for its conduct," Virgien added. "We’re suing to ensure that no other human being has to endure the inhumane treatment that the Trump administration has inflicted on our clients.”

Another case plaintiff, named in the suit as Navdeep, said, "It feels like we are just political pawns taken from our jobs and families and forced into a temporary tent that is not designed for human life."

“We could die here, and it feels like no one here would care," they continued. "With everything happening behind closed doors, I worry the people running this place might cover up the truth about a death or the other injustices that happen here."

"It’s important for people to know the truth of what is happening here," Navdeep added. "Being part of this lawsuit is important to me because many people are vulnerable or they become weak because of the conditions here. Even though we come from many different places, we are all human. I want to be a voice for everyone here.”

After receiving "numerous credible reports of torture, killing, and inhumane treatment" of detainees, 35 Democratic Texas state lawmakers earlier this year demand a probe into alleged abuses at Camp East Montana.

Democratic members of US Congress have also sounded the alarm over conditions at Camp East Montana. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) has also called out profiteering by the private contractors running the camp.

Amentum Services Inc. took over operations from Acquisition Logistics LLC earlier this year. The latter was never registered to operate in Texas and the former "has a history of health, safety, and other violations of federal law," according to the consumer advocacy watchdog Public Citizen.

The Trump administration is currently moving forward with a plan to convert industrial warehouses into more ICE concentration camps. The agency has already purchased or contracted for at least 11 warehouses in eight states as part of the $38 billion plan.

While some critics take exception to the concentration camp description, the ICE facilities fit the dictionary definition of the term. The US has a long history of operating concentration camps, with imprisoned peoples ranging from Indigenous tribes during the Trail of Tears and Long Walk to escaped and freed slaves—officially called "contraband" in the Civil War—to Filipinos, Okinawans, and Vietnamese during three different 20th century wars, to Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals during World War II.

“Germany’s concentration camps didn’t start as instruments of mass murder, and neither have ours; both started as facilities for people the government’s leader said were a problem," talk show host and author Thom Hartmann wrote earlier this year for Common Dreams. "And that’s exactly what ICE is building now. History isn’t whispering its warning: It’s shouting.”

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/53219

With the conviction of three anti-ICE protesters in Spokane, Washington on federal "conspiracy" charges Thursday, civil rights advocates and legal experts fear that the Trump administration may have just been handed a powerful tool to criminalize dissent.

Jac Archer, Justice Forral, and Bajun Mavalwalla II, nicknamed the "Spokane 3," were indicted last year for their actions at a protest in June 2025, where they attempted to physically obstruct ICE agents from transporting two Venezuelan immigrants to an ICE processing facility in Tacoma.

Both of the men reportedly entered the US legally under a humanitarian parole program that had been terminated by the Trump administration, leading advocates to protest their detention.

As Spokesman-Review, a Spokane newspaper, described:

Protesters that day eventually began linking arms around vans and in front of agents’ cars. The event grew chaotic. ICE agents entered a crowd of people standing outside the facility’s parking lot gate and began grabbing people by the necks and arms, pushing them to the ground. Protesters also slashed tires of vans meant to transport the detainees.

But where such activity would usually lead to charges against specific protesters for discrete illegal actions like trespassing, property damage, or other public order offenses, the Department of Justice (DOJ)—as part of a nationwide effort to crack down on protests against ICE—charged nine protesters with "conspiracy to impede or injure officers," even though no officers were actually injured during the protest.

Legal experts described it as a novel approach that wrapped many people involved in the protest into a single "conspiracy" regardless of whether they committed specific criminal acts.

“Usually if a protest gets out of hand and people are hurt or property is hurt, you see charges based on that,” Mary Fan, a former federal prosecutor and a University of Washington law professor, told The New York Times earlier this month. “They’re not going after people based on specific harm done. They’re stretching conspiracy charges to target protesters and people who organize protests.”

Facing pressure from the federal government to bring the case following a national memo sent from the DOJ to prioritize and publicize cases against ICE agents, then-acting US Attorney for Eastern Washington Richard Barker resigned last year rather than bring charges against the protesters.

He said at the time he was grateful he “never had to sign an indictment or file a brief that [he] didn’t believe in." His successor, Stephanie Van Marter, however, did sign the order.

Six of the defendants pleaded guilty to the charges to avoid federal prison time. But Archer, Forral, and Mavalwalla chose to fight them, believing the case was part of an unjust attempt to criminalize their right to protest.

After a trial that lasted seven days, a jury found the three defendants guilty of conspiracy. But the defense has argued that the trial was marred by problems that rendered the verdict faulty.

As the Guardian explained:

In February, a federal judge ordered the release of a Venezuelan migrant whose transportation for deportation the protesters sought to block, ruling his arrest violated the constitution.

But the jury, drawn from conservative eastern Washington state, did not hear those facts at trial, thanks to rulings by Judge [Rebecca] Pennell. Pennell, a former federal public defender and appointee of the Democratic president Joe Biden, also ruled the protesters on trial could not use the First Amendment as a defense, though they were allowed to state their reasons for demonstrating.

Instead, the jury watched hours of law enforcement body camera video and heard from a parade of ICE agents... Jeremy Burlingame, an ICE agent who testified, had authored social media posts that called Black politicians “lying ghetto garbage” and transgender people “mentally ill.” He boosted a post showing ICE arresting a pregnant woman at gunpoint that called her a “pregnant invader.”

Federal prosecutors deemed the posts troubling enough to recall Burlingame to impeach him, despite the fact that he was their witness...

But Burlingame’s online posts, the lack of injury to ICE officers, and the absence of evidence showing communication between the three defendants prior to the protest were not enough to sway the jury.

The defendants now face potential sentences of up to six years in prison and a $250,000 fine. However, they are expected to appeal the verdict and have filed a rarely used motion allowing their attorneys to argue that no rational juror could find their clients guilty.

"I question whether justice truly was served by today’s verdict,” Barker told the Spokesman-Review. "This was the first conspiracy prosecution in Eastern Washington history under... a Civil War-era law dusted off to punish members of the Spokane community who stood up for two young men who were unlawfully detained by ICE."

Video by KREM 2 News/Youtube

Looking beyond the details of the trial itself, many observers questioned the very premise of the DOJ's prosecution.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown said from the start of the trial she believed it was "politically motivated."

"It was meant to make an example out of people who disagreed with federal immigration policy," she said.

City council member Sarah Dixit, who said she took part in the protest, said: "Based on the evidence that was shown, I personally didn’t see evidence of what they were accused of. Conspiracy is a charge that feels complicated to prove, and I don’t believe that the government made a strong case for that.”

Others expressed fear for the precedent that had been set. La Rond Baker, the legal director of the Washington ACLU, said the Trump administration "has a demonstrable history of using the Department of Justice to silence and punish its critics."

The administration has pursued similar sweeping conspiracy charges against other groups of anti-ICE protesters around the country—including in Los Angeles, Broadview, Illinois, and North Texas.

“The verdict was painfully disappointing,” said Archer’s attorney, Carl Oreskovich. “I think it was an extraordinarily aggressive approach to prosecution of protests. And it certainly is going to chill people who want to utilize their First Amendment right to dissent against government actions that they don’t agree with."

In a comment to The Guardian, Robert Chang, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law and executive director of its Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, said the verdict was "frightening."

“By this logic, any protest could be a conspiracy,” he said. “The goal posts keep moving.”

Bajun Mavalwalla Sr., a retired US Army intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan, said his son—also a veteran of the same war—and the other two defendants were standing for "the freedoms that separate this country from the dictatorships.”

“People in Spokane and people in Eastern Washington need to understand that we were guinea pigs. That they brought the swamp of Washington, DC, into our area to stop American citizens from exercising our rights that are guaranteed,” the elder Mavalwalla said after his son was convicted.

“It was the whole point of the Constitution, the right to protest, the right to dissent, the right to assemble, all of those things are now in question because of this case," he said. "My son has taken the brunt of the entire weight of the United States government onto their shoulders.”

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Cross posted from https://lemmy.ml/post/47602337

Cross posted from https://lemmy.today/post/53212222

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/49158

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that former private prison executive David Venturella will lead US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in an acting capacity after the agency's current director departs at the end of the month.

Venturella has been a senior adviser to ICE since February 2025 and previously worked at the private prison giant GEO Group for more than a decade, most recently serving as the company's senior vice president of client relations until 2023. GEO Group is a major beneficiary of federal contracts, running immigration detention centers for ICE.

The Washington Post noted that GEO Group also "owns the only company with an ICE contract to track immigrants through GPS ankle monitors."

"A federal ethics rule generally bars government employees from working on contracts awarded to their former employers for one year, but the administration granted him a waiver from this rule," the Post observed.

GEO Group's PAC donated heavily to President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign and has seen a hefty return on its investment. The company reported $254 million in profits for fiscal year 2025—a 700% increase compared to the previous year—and boasted "record-setting new contract wins totaling up to $520 million."

As an ICE adviser, Venturella has advocated for the use of warehouses to detain immigrants, a practice that has drawn nationwide outrage. NBC News noted that "after he retired from GEO, Venturella was a consultant for the company, advising on new and existing contracts, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission."

The Trump administration's decision to elevate Venturella to the head of ICE comes as congressional Republicans are working to approve tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for the agency, even as deaths in detention rise and immigration officers unleashed by the president continue to face backlash for fatal abuses across the country.

The GOP's budget reconciliation proposal, according to an analysis by the American Immigration Council, includes over $38 billion for ICE to "expand and sustain enforcement operations by hiring and equipping personnel across its divisions, supporting detention and removal transportation, upgrading technology and facilities, and expanding 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement."

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a lead sponsor of legislation that would terminate all existing federal contracts for immigration detention, said Tuesday that Venturella's appointment as acting ICE chief "is to ensure Trump's corporate bosses continue profiting from our communities' pain."

"But Americans demand oversight and accountability," said Ramirez. "We must Melt ICE, end detention, and dismantle [the Department of Homeland Security]."

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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/48986

Kenyan police brutally repressed a protest in Nairobi on May 12 against the ongoing France-Africa Summit, which progressive groups from Kenya and the African continent have described as an imperialist maneuver aimed at reasserting French influence on the African continent. The France-Africa summit was presided over by French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President William Ruto.

Tuesday’s protest marked the culmination of a two-day counter-summit organized in opposition to the official “Africa Forward Summit”, bringing together activists, intellectuals, trade unionists, students, and anti-imperialist organizers from Kenya and internationally. Participants at the Pan-Africanism Summit Against Imperialism criticized the role of France in Africa, raising concerns around militarization, economic domination, debt dependency, resource extraction, and continued neo-colonial influence across the continent.

Read more: “The African masses reject Françafrique in all its forms”: Kenyan left mobilizes against France-Africa summit

According to preliminary reports, 13 people were arrested in the May 12 protest, including international delegates from Greece, South Korea, Britain, and France, as well as eight activists from Kenya. The peaceful procession was also attacked by police with tear gas and protesters were blocked from advancing to the Dedan Kimathi statue in the center of the capital. Notably, Dedan Kimathi is recognized as an anti-colonial hero in Kenya for his role leading the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau) to fight against British colonial rule. Kimathi was executed by the British colonial government in 1957, six years before Kenya won independence from Britain.

The arrests on May 12 followed an earlier incident on the previous day in which five members of the Revolutionary Student Commission, the student wing of the Communist Party Marxist – Kenya, were arrested while protesting against the Africa Forward Summit yesterday. The students spent the night at Central Police Station in Nairobi and have not been released yet.

Communist Party Marxist – Kenya condemns arrests

In a statement released following the arrests on May 12, the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party Marxist – Kenya condemned what it described as intimidation, harassment, and repression by the Kenyan state against anti-imperialist activists and international delegates attending the counter-summit.

The party accused the government of acting in defense of imperialist interests and criminalizing anti-imperialist solidarity, stating that the arrests reveal “the true character of the Ruto regime as a neocolonial and comprador administration acting in defense of imperialist interests against the democratic rights of the people.”

The statement further noted that among those arrested were international activists, intellectuals, and organizers who had traveled to Nairobi in solidarity with African struggles against imperialism and neocolonialism.

“Their only crime is standing with the oppressed. Their only crime is rejecting imperialist domination. Their only crime is declaring that Africa is not for sale,” the statement read.

The organization linked the arrests to a pattern of political repression in Kenya historically and contemporarily in what has become the norm.

The Communist Party Marxist – Kenya has demanded:

1. The immediate and unconditional release of all arrested comrades.
2. An end to police harassment, abductions and repression against activists, organizers and progressive movements.
3. The immediate halt to all imperialist military, political and economic agreements being imposed upon Kenya and Africa.
4. Respect for the democratic rights of all participants attending anti imperialist and Pan African gatherings.

Efforts continue to demand the release of the arrested protesters as the two-day summit comes to an end. The demonstrations and counter-summit have sent a clear message across Africa about the growing determination to reassert political agency, defend sovereignty, and challenge imperialism on the continent.

The post Police tear gas and arrest protesters at France-Africa counter summit in Nairobi appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/49041

A recently released FBI file shines new light on the days immediately leading up to the arrest of then-Columbia University student and Palestinian rights activist Mahmoud Khalil.

On March 6 of last year, two days before unidentified officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement abducted and arrested Khalil at his home, the FBI received an anonymous tip claiming that Khalil, listed incorrectly as a 22-year-old, had called for “violence on behalf of Hamas.”

According to the heavily redacted documents, as of March 19, 2025, the FBI had closed an investigation into the tip and determined that Khalil “does not warrant further FBI investigation.” But by then, ICE had already secretly taken Khalil, now 31, thousands of miles away to a detention center in Louisiana. Despite the FBI’s decision to close the tip, the Trump administration continued to paint Khalil as a “Hamas supporter” and a threat to national security.

It’s unclear if the FBI tip was directly related to Khalil’s ICE arrest, and the FBI did not respond to The Intercept’s question about whether the tip was shared with ICE. But Hamid Bendaas, a spokesperson at the Institute for Middle East Understanding, which has worked with Khalil since his arrest, said the timing reflects “a threat to us all.”

Though the FBI document says Khalil did not warrant further investigation, “that didn’t stop ICE from holding him in a detention center and separating him from his wife and newborn son for months,” Bendaas said.

The document comes to light as the Trump administration has fast-tracked Khalil’s deportation case, which Khalil’s legal team argues is a form of retaliation against his protected political speech in support of Palestine. Khalil’s team received the FBI document, which has not been previously reported, via a lawsuit over a public records request and shared it exclusively with The Intercept.

[

Related

Pro-Palestine International Students Have Won in Court. Why Hasn’t Mahmoud Khalil Won His Freedom?](https://theintercept.com/2026/02/26/mahmoud-khalil-deportation-case-free-speech/)

Khalil was the first of thousands of students the Trump administration targeted for deportation over First Amendment-protected speech in support of Palestine or criticizing Israel. The Trump administration exploited an obscure provision in immigration law to claim that Khalil and other students, including Mohsen Mahdawi and Rümeysa Öztürk, presented a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who ordered Khalil to be deported, has repeatedly claimed that he sympathized with terrorists, echoing claims from far-right doxing groups that had targeted Khalil in the months leading up to his arrest. Trump’s unprecedented crackdown came after years of similar attacks on pro-Palestine students that gained speed under former President Joe Biden.

“Under Trump’s rogue presidency being led by extremists and conspiracy theorists,” Bendaas said, “any of us can be kidnapped by federal agents in the middle of the night simply for speaking against U.S. support for Israel’s genocide, no matter what the facts or Constitution says.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights, part of Khalil’s legal team, submitted a request for public documents related to his arrest nearly a year ago, on May 29, 2025. After denials and delays, CCR filed a lawsuit on November 20 claiming that federal agencies, including the FBI, had improperly withheld the records. CCR said it has since received other documents from the Department of Justice and is expecting more from other agencies in the coming months.

“Despite the FBI closing its investigation with no findings to support the accusation, the Trump administration continued to label Mr. Khalil a supporter of Hamas in public comments,” said CCR staff attorney Samah Sisay. “This document further supports our argument that the Trump administration had no legitimate reason to target Mr. Khalil besides his free speech in support of Palestine.”

[

Related

How the FBI Sought a Warrant to Search Instagram of Columbia Student Protesters](https://theintercept.com/2025/06/04/fbi-columbia-gaza-warrant-instagram/)

In a statement to The Intercept, an FBI spokesperson said, “We let documents obtained through the FOIA process speak for themselves and decline to comment further.”

Khalil’s team also plans to appeal the Board of Immigration Appeals order rejecting Khalil’s appeal to terminate his deportation proceedings. He is still fighting a separate federal habeas corpus case and cannot be deported while the case proceeds.

The post FBI Tip Claimed Mahmoud Khalil Called for “Violence on Behalf of Hamas” Two Days Before ICE Arrest appeared first on The Intercept.

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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/48788

New York, NY – On Wednesday, May 6, the Movement of Rank and File Educators gathered for general assembly in Midtown Manhattan. More than 40 classroom teachers from across the city met to discuss the presence of NYPD in schools and the police’s role in oppressing the student body of New York and intimidating teachers and staff in schools. The group was joined by the Dignity in Schools organization, which is against scanners and police in schools.

The meeting began with a teach-in on the history of policing in schools in NYC, which first began in the 1970s after the United Federation of Teachers made a mistake by striking against Black and Puerto Rican parents who wanted to exercise control over their children’s schools, known as the Oceanhill – Brownesville strike. The UFT, led by Albert Shanker, made an historic mistake by pitting the rights of white teachers to a job against the rights of Black and brown parents to decide who taught their children, instead of uniting the struggles together against a common enemy.

The assembly moved on to discuss the way language in the UFT contract about students “disruptive behavior” has been used by teachers to have students removed from their classes. This practice disproportionately affects Black and brown students today.

They also talked about how the NYPD imposes expensive scanners for students onto certain schools, and obscures data about where these scanners are located in the city. It can be assumed that most scanners are placed in majority Black and brown schools. Some students in the NYC public school system are required to go through metal detectors and scanners operated by cops and are treated as possible suspects when they get to school.

The frequent delays at scanning make students late to school and makes it more difficult for teachers in the classroom to teach their lessons. The group discussed how the money that goes into expensive scanners could easily be used to give teachers better working conditions, and students better learning conditions, or funneled into job positions in the school that are staffed by unions.

The teachers then broke out into groups to talk about the situations in their schools, and, with the help of a campaign toolkit, some came up with plans to get rid of racist scanning and NYPD presence in their schools through rank-and-file mobilization and engagement of the broader school community.

#NewYorkNY #NYC #NY #MORE #UFT #Labor #PoliceAccountability #Teachers

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