Sharing my story published and nominated for a Pushcart Prize by the Emerald Coast Review.
I don’t know how much weight a nomination holds, but writing is such a vulnerable thing full of so many rejections that any and all acknowledgement feels nice.
open.substack.com/pub/peterdye...
It’s dispiriting to see how the U.S. is diverging from much of the developed world when it comes to noncitizen voting rights and many other areas downstream from a functioning, healthy democracy. But history is never settled and always evolving. Georgia is one of the few competitive states that has not taken an explicit stance on the future of noncitizen voting. Atlanta is the cradle of the Civil Rights movement. The best time to fight for our representation and a future we can not just imagine, but take part in, is right now.
How would @alexip718.com fix Atlanta?
Immigrants pay taxes, work hard, send their kids to public schools, and build better futures for their communities.
It's time to let them vote in local elections as well.
how-id-fix-atlanta.ghost.io/how-alex-ip-...
Man reading at podium
Emerald Coast Review Book Cover
Page from book: In the Banana Boat’s Wake by Peter Dye
I was proud to read from my story “In The Banana Boat’s Wake” published as the opening piece in the 2025 Emerald Coast Review.
It connects my grandfather’s work with United Fruit Co. and the life of my former student, an undocumented nursing major from Guatemala.
Digital version in bio
On Tuesday, President Trump said during a Cabinet meeting that it was "very important" for foreign students to study in the U.S.
Today, the administration published a rule that many in higher ed fear could deter those same students from coming to the U.S.
www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
A black and white photo of a Key West police car and an officer standing beside it, her back to the camera
An anti-ICE poster in Key West that reads "Key West is too hot for ICE"
“People were disappearing everywhere.”
—Zack Ford details the aftermath of the July 8 decision by the Key West City Commission to allow the local police force to assist with ICE arrests, revoking the city’s sanctuary status.
🔗: https://shorturl.at/4dmh0
Here's my piece on how U.S. higher education's economic argument for international students lost its oomph
www.chronicle.com/article/how-...
When you strip away humanity
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
Why another protest? What is it going to accomplish? Shouldn’t we be [insert alternate tactic] instead?
These are good-faith questions, and they stem from very reasonable concerns. So let’s take a step back and talk about the role of a peaceful mass mobilization like No Kings.
The best way to incentivize peaceful protesting is:
1) don’t arrest peaceful protestors
2) don’t shoot peaceful protestors
3) cover peaceful protestors
4) prioritize the demands of peaceful protestors instead of corporate interests
Babies can only have milk. They can’t even have water. Since Israel is banning all aid including baby formula, these babies will die. And since Israel is also starving everyone in Gaza, moms can’t nurse their babies either. They’re just watching their babies die as they die to.
We're about 3 lines deep into the "first they came for" poem. It's not a very long poem, folks
🎯
Immigrants are being abducted without due process, while private prisons get a massive payday. And our tax dollars are footing the bill.
The U.S. already operates the largest immigration detention system in the world. Now, the Trump administration is pushing to spend $45 billion in taxpayer dollars to expand it to an unprecedented scale. If funded, this plan would roll out a sweeping new system for incarcerating immigrants — one unlike anything we've seen in the history of the United States.
Who stands to benefit from this plan? Private prison executives. Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group — who already make millions from locking up immigrants — are poised to rake in even more profits. And they’re not hiding their excitement. One executive even called Trump’s mass deportation agenda “one of the most exciting periods in my career.”
Immigration detention centers are notorious for inhumane conditions. Increased enforcement actions are leading to even worse conditions, including inadequate medical care and insufficient access to toilets and water. To make matters worse, the Trump administration recently eliminated the oversight offices responsible for monitoring ICE detention and managing cases — removing one of the few checks on this abusive system. Pouring more money into immigrant detention will only lead to more harm.
The Trump administration wants to spend tens of billions of dollars to expand immigrant detention to levels never seen before in U.S. history.
We refuse to stand by.
Detaining immigrants for their political beliefs is designed to silence dissent and intimidate all of us from speaking out.
It's inhumane, unconstitutional, and a threat to our fundamental rights. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Today’s episode of The Ezra Klein Show.
The Emergency Is Here.
With @asharangappa.bsky.social.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/o...
Excited for all the new American banana and coffee factories.
ICE is transferring innocent people to torture prison in El Salvador.
www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
Also a State Department official said **300** visas of international students who protested against the war in Gaza have been revoked.
“They are betting that when you hear Mahmoud’s name, or the word “Palestinian,” the parts of you that make you a thinking and rational and caring person will switch off, and you will believe the worst about him, and you will turn a blind eye to these grave violations of his rights.”
Nothing justifies disappearing a person. History is riddled with those who thought their proximity to power protected them until it didn’t. Those justifying Khalil’s disappearance are traitors to our country. I don’t say this lightly, and I mean it sincerely.
A cover graphic with the title Know Your Rights: Expedited Removal Expansion and Conozca Sus Derechos: Ampliación de la Deportación Acelerada
*New English & Spanish #KYR*
DHS has expanded its use of the 'expedited removal' process. Undocumented community members are now at greater risk of being put in a rapid deportation process - without the right to appear in front of an immigration judge.
What changed & how people can prepare 🧵
“Democrats don’t need to overcomplicate this. They just need to throw a punch.
…we need to channel our anger into real leverage: organizing, persuading, forcing the political system to respond to us on our terms.”
“‘When someone wants to downplay a book being banned, they won’t call it a ban,’ Friedman said. ‘That’s why certain cases don’t make the news.’
…will often be referred to as an appropriate ‘removal’ or ‘withdrawal’ of material. This has a far less threatening ring to it than ‘censorship’.”
I went into this with extreme skepticism, but wow. They really pulled this one off.
www.the-independent.com/arts-enterta...
oxfordamerican.org/magazine/iss... I loved this story by @ohheyrebecca.bsky.social. I had my suspicions about where it was going and ended up being beautifully surprised. Great read.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
I’m going to use bluesky in 2025 to catalogue my fiction reads if nothing else. “The Leper” by Lee Chang Dong was a great read. Relevance to past, present, and future.
I appreciate that—trying to allow myself to still be surprised by how the story unravels
