Today, the Hennepin County Attorney made history by announcing the first-ever criminal charge against an ICE agent for their actions during Operation Metro Surge.

hah, well if they're saying it as an (attempted) kudos, apparently it is real!

Acknowledgement: We credit sociology Professor Michelle Phelps for developing the concept of "mass probation," which informs much of our thinking about how these systems interrelate.

And aww, what a lovely surprise to see this note at the end. For much more on probation from me than anyone asked for, see:
www.michellesphelps.com/research/mas...

By our count, 1 in 61 people nationwide are under some form of correctional control. In fact, if the number of people on probation & parole alone were its own state, it would be roughly the size of Connecticut.

...So much for the land of the free.

yes *and* there are more people in prison today who were on probation/parole at the time of arrest than the entire prison pop in 1974. The problem is not only technical violations but how easy it is to get a new charge while on supervision. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/....

I am once again reminding you that more people are on probation than in prison. Check out this excellent new report from (you guessed it) the Prison Policy Initiative. 😂

It's another artifact the US press's normalization of Trump, where his deranged posture during this war, the whipsawing between murdering his counterparties and leaking news of "productive talks," is all sidelined in favor of serious-business furrowed-brow reporting about diplomatic breakthroughs

If a student asked how we got here and what's the way out, I think that's where I end up. I don't always think leaders, or Trump, change the course of history. But here, we are at the mercy of Trump and his team of yespeople in a war that may harm millions globally. That's why I'm scared. 13/

This & the cancellation of Title VI/FLAS funding for foreign language & area studies pose existential threats to the social sciences at every R1 university in the country. And it's been ~total 🦗🦗 from our university presidents/chancellors & a total lack of public collective action.

As US society and the pop under criminal-legal control ages, these questions about aging and healthcare become more and more critical. And it opens up a series of normative questions about why we have 50+ adults still on supervision and continually failed by meager and punitive support systems.

"Forty-some years I’ve been on paper”: Navigating probation in later adulthood. Abstract: Older adults are a rapidly growing population within the criminal legal system, prompting new scholarship about the consequences of a “graying” prison population. Less studied, however, has been the impact of an aging population for the larger share of adults under community supervision. Drawing on interviews conducted in 2019 with 44 adults aged 50 years or older on probation in Minnesota, we explore how aging shapes the experiences and meaning of supervision. Our findings show that older adults on probation experienced chronic instability, significant health concerns, and often lengthy criminal legal entanglements. Building on the framework of hypermarginality, we argue that aging is an under-appreciated axis of vulnerability for people with criminal legal system involvement. By studying older adults’ distinct experiences, scholars can better locate the role of probation in contemporary poverty governance.

New paper alert! Together with PhD candidate Hannah Schwendeman (UMN), we show the consequences of a "graying" probation population. The paper finds unique pains of supervision among older adults, especially related to chronic health conditions. doi.org/10.1177/1462...

Also remarkable how many detentions were happening in TX while all eyes were on MN.

There it is -- "The ICE data show, however, that less than one-quarter of those arrested during the operation had been convicted of a “crime” — the agency’s definition of a crime includes misdemeanors, such as unauthorized entry into the country or traffic violations." Appalling.

Really enjoyed this conversation on policing/punishment & democracy, focused on lessons from Minneapolis + filmed during the ICE Surge.

ha, it's a small side project, so probably neither life-changing or marriage-ending 😉

After 17 years (!) together, my academic spouse and I are finally doing the one thing we promised never to do: collaborate on a research project together. Pls keep us in your thoughts & prayers. 😂

I interrupt your doom scrolling with flowers courtesy of Philly. 💜

The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America by Michelle S. Phelps

Michelle S. Phelps

Congrats to @michellesphelps.bsky.social, whose book The Minneapolis Reckoning won the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Outstanding Book Award. This urgent work describes how Minneapolis arrived at the brink of police abolition and why reform is so difficult.

Get your copy: hubs.ly/Q0453BKz0

This morning, more arrests of activists were made as the federal government unsealed the full superseding indictment from a grand jury that charges 39 people who were allegedly involved in a January protest at Cities Church in St. Paul where an ICE field director is also a pastor.

Minneapolis united when federal immigration operations surged – reflecting a long tradition of mutual aid Minnesotans from all walks of life, including suburban moms, veterans and protest novices, have bucked  their ‘nice’ stereotype to speak out.

Throughout the Twin Cities, residents are carrying on the state’s long-standing tradition of solidarity. You can read my latest piece on mutual aid and 'Minnesota nice' in The Conversation. theconversation.com/minneapolis-...

in 2020, voters for the winner (Biden) outnumbered eligible people who didn't vote for the first time in about a century.

In 2024, even though Trump got a *slight* majority of those who voted, people whose decision was "nah, not going to do this" outnumbered people who voted for Trump.

This has nothing to do with fraud.

The agents Trump allegedly sent to investigate fraud are shooting protesters and arresting children. His DOJ is gutting the U.S. Attorney’s Office and crippling their ability to prosecute fraud. And every week Trump pardons another fraudster.

Chart showing that the 213 forms filed by the govt are overwhelmingly for people with no criminal conviction

We sued for I213 forms, records the govt uses to prove that a person is in the country illegally. The forms detail a person's criminal history.

We got 8 months of records and only 23% of people had a criminal conviction

Really appreciate this data reporting from the @startribune.com, which comes with the appropriate cautions about the crowd-sourced data. Looks like the ICE/DHS surge in MN is down significantly, but (a) was HUGE compared to other cities, (b) impacted the suburbs A LOT, and (c) is still happening.

IV. CONCLUSION An anonymous government is no government at all. It cannot be held accountable. A masked agent freely uses force without justifying his actions, and the public cannot name him to challenge his conduct. A regime of secret policing has no place in our society. Here, the Government’s power is derived by the People, and the People must be able to identify the Government when it acts to infringe on their liberty. Masks obscure government action and deprive the public of its Fourth Amendment protections.

An anonymous government is no government at all.

It cannot be held accountable.

...A regime of secret policing has no place in our society.

Here, the Government’s power is derived by the People, and the People must be able to identify the Government when it acts to infringe on their liberty.

Huh, well apparently electeds are being told the number is 500 and still dropping: bsky.app/profile/star...

At the stage of exhaustion where my husband had to convince me we should order pizza instead of having cereal for family dinner. That's partnership. 😂

Screenshot of a graph reads Figure 1. Projected total excess rent debt since the beginning of Operation Metro Surge given different scenarios about the proportion of immigrant households behind on rent in January and February 2026.

New study from @curaumn.bsky.social: "We estimate that 30–50% of immigrant renters may be at least one month behind on rent by February 2026."

Researchers estimate that excess statewide rent debt linked to ICE's occupation reached between $27.4 million to $51.3 million by February 2026.

Graph showing estimated ICE deportees at MSP Nov 10 - Feb 20; sporadic activity of around 40 people per flight some days is shown before Jan 5, followed by a large crescendo to 250 people per day that lasts several days, before decreasing, with no flight on Feb 13, and a handful of people shown each day for the last few days.

7 detainees were loaded onto today's ICE Air flight at MSP.

The number of detainees leaving MN is down, but demand for rent/food assistance remains high.

📊 Data: ottergoose.net/ice-flights-msp/msp-ice-flights.numbers
💵 Help: standwithminnesota.com
🚗 Airport Parking: mn50501.org/donate

Observed ICE flights out of MSP is one possible metric. It's harder to track abduction sightings outside the cities bc there's less organized ICE watch.
bsky.app/profile/otte...