More than a dozen immigration judge were just fired. Such firings have been common on Friday evenings and often involve newer judges still on probation. But today's firings include a Sacramento IJ who's been on the bench close to 20 years.

"The judge version of Jimmy Kimmel," one source told me.

“This is a story about who gets sacrificed along the way in that [AI] arms race.”

Our ED, @stevenrenderos.bsky.social joins our new staff + @nodesertdatacenter.com member, Vivek Bharathan, in @techpolicypress.bsky.social's podcast on the real story behind #BigTech's data center expansion.

So excited to see a byline from @aurabogado.bsky.social.

And wow what a story. A hotel turned ICE detention center. And unsurprisingly tech plays a role in the end. Great read please check it out!

The most overhyped tech? How should our government step in during this moment?

@politico.com asked our ED, @stevenrenderos.bsky.social‬, 5 pressing questions about our current tech reality and what it will take to reclaim our tech future:
www.politico.com/newsletters/...

Aura is among the best investigative reporters so this news excites me. We desperately need to understand what is happening to immigrants, to better understand the political moment we all are in.

Today’s Sunday news shows featured a bunch of people talking about Salvadoreans. Yet, not one of them was Salvy. It’s not for a lack of experts, only a lack of trying. Here are a few names in case you were wondering.

Wait, I thought this was satire

And @stevenrenderos.bsky.social, Executive Director of @mediajustice.bsky.social, shared how the choices of the current presidential administration are wrecking protections around tech infrastructure: www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/14/1...

Van Hollen and Bukele couldn’t be more different, but both get to author the story they want to tell. Abrego, meanwhile, is seen but not heard.

A visit is nice. Coming home is better.

Chele is a common nickname in El Salvador and one that has nothing to do with gang affiliation. Using that as evidence is like claiming every guy who goes by Tony is in the Mob.

The most enduring image of Salvadoreans is as prop for Kristi Noem propaganda. To be Salvadorean in the US means to be hypervisible yet voiceless. I created this starter pack as a way to remind everyone that we’re real people and that we exist. If you’re Salvadorean reach out so I can add you. 🇸🇻

What alarms me is the level of negligence with which technology is being built and adopted right now. It’s an approach Silicon Valley has grown famous on. “Move fast and break things.”

That might work when you’re building a subpar social media platform but not to build tech for govt.

Govt tech is not flashy, it helps make government more accessible. Some positive examples include:
💰 IRS Direct File System
✒️ SSA’s integration of e-signature

Each of these involved a clear challenge, time to get it right, and a constant feedback loop. All things currently being abandoned by DOGE.

When we think of government and tech, we might jump to the debacle that was the rollout of Healthcare.gov.

You might not know is that the precursor to DOGE (US Digital Service) was born out of this failure. Since then federal techies have worked to make using tech to access govt services easy.

New from me in @mittechreviewbr.bsky.social: DOGE’s “tech bro” approach to building tech for government isn’t just inefficient, it’s dangerous.

www-technologyreview-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.tech...

In less than an hour we’ll be going live with the next webinar in our political education series, WTF: The Rise of the Tech Broligarchy.

I’ll be hosting a conversation alongside some amazing groups talking about what we’re seeing at the intersection of tech and immigration.

Y'all, you are CRUSHING IT! HUGE energy today, and we're already 40% to our US goal for the March 29 #teslatakedown GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION! Reminder—you can use this map to see where there are locations that still need a host to step up! (This map updates 2x daily) www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...

Check out the latest episode of @citationspod.bsky.social. Who knew talking about tech dystopia could be so fun!

In all seriousness, grateful to Citations Needed for helping us make sense of the current moment we're living in. We talk about the grift of AI and the real harms it enables.

I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of the others they've fired.

It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the process is fascinating. 🧵

TOMORROW (Friday) I’ll be talking with ALVARO BEDOYA about Trump's (attempted) firing of him and his FTC Commissioner colleague Rebecca Slaughter.

We’ll be going live on MediaJustice’s Instagram page at 4p ET/1p PT.

instagram.com/mediajustice?i…

Hope to see you there!

Not surprising the FTC was targeted. They proactively held unchecked corporate power, particularly in tech, accountable.

Of note, FTC does more than work on tech. They’ve gone after grocery stores that price gouge. Kept medicines low. This will hurt everyday people, including Trump’s core base.

This action should be seen as part of broader efforts at expanding executive power. Trump is doing this by testing the boundaries of what he can get away with.

The FTC is an independent agency. He doesn’t “hire” commissioners and therefore can’t “fire” them either. But he will try.

Sharing Rebecca Slaughter’s statement here.

Two commissioners from the Federal Trade Commission were fired by Trump today.

Alvaro Bedoya ( @bedoyaftc.bsky.social) and Rebecca Slaughter have long been champions for everyday people. They also held corporate power accountable. Sharing Bedoya’s statement here: