Love in a Time of Absurdity ICE tears an Atlanta father from his family

I went to Stewart Detention Center to speak with an Atlanta father torn from his wife and children for the second time in 8 years. Part 1 of 2 here: open.substack.com/pub/teabuoy/...

Tax Day a good day to remind everyone that undocumented immigrants can and do pay taxes. Billions every year. Now up to $479 billion less in the next decade bc of fears that IRS will share their data with ICE.

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

The next administration must take the lesson of this one; every single immigration judge hired under Trump 2.0 must be fired on day one.

Writers, for the love of art and artists please never use AI for your book cover. Signed, an artist who will never use AI to help her write.

Correction on my earlier post: The 15th death in ICE detention this year is the 2nd at one facility. System-wide, one detained immigrant is dying every six days. 46 people have died in federal immigration custody during the current Trump administration.

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New DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin is says he's considering pulling customs officers from airports in so called "sanctuary cities" in an effort to punish jurisdictions that don't want to play ball with Trump's mass deportation plans. 🧵

Congo to receive third-country deportees from the US under new deal Congo will receive some deportees from the U.S. as part of a new deal under the Trump administration’s third-country program.

According to this, the ICE flight to DRC last month wasn't a third-country removal -- just a "regular" deportation of migrants into a humanitarian crisis via private jet -- but third-country removals will begin soon. I'll be watching air traffic closely. apnews.com/article/cong...

This Shiny Line is what we're looking for.

A positive story for your Monday about one disciplined, strategic planner and enterprising businessman, creating pathways for formerly incarcerated people to succeed after reentry.

Child immigrant suffered alleged sexual abuse in federal custody, family says An immigrant family is grappling with the ordeal suffered by a 3-year-old girl who endured alleged sexual abuse while her father fought for five months for her release from federal custody

Unfortunately this is the norm for children and youth who are incarcerated anywhere. abcnews.com/US/wireStory... - people accept it as part of incarceration.

New Jersey Becomes the 10th State with a Law Barring Local ICE Contracts An attorney general had already imposed restrictions on how sheriffs and police can assist ICE, but advocates wanted those codified into law. Mikie Sherrill signed the bill this week.

New Jersey joins nine other states in banning local participation in ICE’s 287(g) program, and it is the fourth state to do so this year. Is your state among them? Learn more:

voters elected decadent money man to make them rich, what they've gotten is warmongering fanatic who wants to cut their health care to pay for more bombs

Nurul Amin Shah Alam's death was a homicide County medical examiners announced the ruling on Wednesday. New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating.

The death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Blind Rohingya refugee who was left on the freezing streets of Buffalo by Border Patrol officers, was ruled a homicide. New from me at @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Map of countries which have birthright citizenship. Virtually the entire Western Hemisphere has complete birthright citizenship.

Kavanaugh twice says that he thinks their arguments about other countries adopting different rules is a good argument as a policy matter (ugh).

Sauer falsely claims "almost every other country" doesn't have birthright citizenship, which is wildly wrong.

Idaho governor signs law making transgender bathroom use a felony Gov. Brad Little signed the measure on Transgender Day of Visibility as advocates rallied outside the statehouse.

And in horrifying news, Idaho's governor has signed the felony bathroom ban, with 5 year penalties for second offense bathroom usage, into law.

This is the most significant criminalization of trans people to date.

On trans day of visibility no less.

It will require a new "Do not travel" warning.

Restoring Our Original True Selves The ROOTS program at San Quentin State Prison

Visited the new Learning Center at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center yesterday to share some of my writing and learn about restorative justice.

California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington all have bans on participation in ICE's 287(g) program. Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia all have Democratic trifectas, and at least one state or local agency that is enrolled in the 287(g) program.

With New Jersey’s new ban on local partnerships with ICE, there are only four states governed by Democrats that still have local or state agencies with 287(g) contracts.

boltsmag.org/new-jer...

Before You Die, Dammit | Thi Bui | Substack Writing and art for fighting and living. Click to read Before You Die, Dammit, by Thi Bui, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

Just got back from a reading and discussion I did at the ROOTS program at San Quentin State Prison, probably my favorite reading ever. Stay tuned for an essay very soon at teabuoy.substack.com

The table showing ICE data for Oct. 2022 through early March 2026. From the Deportation Data Project.

Huge news.

The good people @deportationdata.org obtained updated ICE case records through a FOIA lawsuit.

The dataset goes from October 2022 through *early March 2026.* deportationdata.org/data/ice.html

Revolution and Repair We badly need both.

Our systems for addressing harm are all wrong. They are all built around vengeance and fear, both of which are reactions and not needs. We need love and safety. These are the original needs and the end goals.

So are the headlines saying the Democrats won this round, or nah?

Cause they did. Funding for TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, no funding for ICE. That’s the deal Dems have been offering over & over. Republicans caved.

Do Not Forget Our Winter of ICE Writer and community activist Bao Phi on the occupation of Minnesota

To offset the particularly high level of manufactured chaos related to ICE funding at this time, I want to slow things down. and take us back to the human experience of living through one of Trump’s city sieges. We have to remember WHY we are trying to defund DHS and why we have to abolish ICE.

Seriously at the least don’t be bootlicking chumps.

How State and Local Leaders Are Responding to ICE: Your Questions Answered How are states restricting ICE activity? Can local prosecutors charge federal officers? How can local leaders prepare for ICE deployments? We provide answers about local responses to the immigration crackdown.

You asked and we answered. In our latest edition of “Ask Bolts,” our team tackles reader questions about how state and local officials are responding, and could respond, to federal immigration enforcement.

ICE flights have landed in Liberia five times since Nov. 6 and as recently as March 16, and I remain deeply suspicious that some or all of these may have been third-country removals. This is a big reason why:

Một Trăm Phần Trăm One hundred percent

“As a cultural worker who belongs to an oppressed people my job is to make revolution irresistible.” –Toni Cade Bambara

Royer Perez-Jimenez was 19 years old. He died by suicide at 3am on March 16 at Glades County Detention Center in Florida. He is the 2nd person to die in ICE custody this week, the 13th this year, and the 42nd under Trump. 🧵

Margaret Thatcher once declared that “there is no such thing” as society. She always insisted that what she meant was that “society was not an abstraction, separate from the men and women who composed it, but a living structure of individuals, families, neighbours and voluntary associations.“ Trump, however, and the Trumpified Republican Party, might actually subscribe to the way her critics understood her point—that society doesn’t exist, and that therefore none of us has any responsibilities or obligations to anyone else, other than the ones we choose to have. Life is more complicated than that, especially when you’re trying to make war on a state that can close a strategic waterway that is crucial to the world economy. The Trump administration seems to have neither anticipated nor planned properly for the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s oil is transported. Iran has begun firing at ships in the strait, dissuading commercial traffic from transiting it. Energy prices are almost certain to rise, but so are prices on other products—you need energy to transport goods to meet global market demand. The possibility that the war might destabilize the world economy either was not part of the Trump administration’s plans for this capricious, ill-advised, and arguably unconstitutional military venture, or was not taken seriously. American war planners seem to have not factored in that, despite being adversaries, the U.S. and Iran are interconnected in vital ways that waging war on Iran would disrupt.

Wrote about how MAGA is a rebellion against the reality of interdependence, and how that led the Trump administration to completely ignore the potential fallout of going to war with Iran. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Get Shit Done Some practical suggestions for working with others.

I wrote the whole essay this morning with no coffee so you get it hot off the press two days early, and if that’s not testament to the energizing power of being around smart people who are also fighting for a better world, I don’t know what is.

The Lonesome Death of Daphy Michel Watch now | Haitian Woman, 31, Dies Alone at Pittsburgh Bus Stop Days After ICE Released Her Far From Home to Die.

Haitian woman, 31, dies alone at Pittsburgh bus stop days after ICE released her to the streets far from home to perish. Rest in power, Daphy Michel: migrantinsider.com/p/the-loneso...

I am done proving my humanity to racists. Let them prove their humanity to me.

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