Daniel Knowles
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dlknowles.bsky.social
Daniel Knowles
@dlknowles.bsky.social
Midwest correspondent at The Economist, in Chicago. Before that, in London, Mumbai, Nairobi and DC.

Buy my book: http://shorturl.at/BJOUV
Pinned
Just reposting this - my story this week is part of this week's cover package on Minneapolis and the rise of what we call "America's paramilitary peril."

www.economist.com/united-state...
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
I spoke with Aliya Rahman, the autistic woman with a TBI whom ICE dragged out of her car. But that video was just the beginning of her nightmare. To this day, she can’t lift her arms normally.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
I’m autistic and have a brain injury. ICE dragged me from my car anyway.
Exclusive Details: Aliya Rahman speaks to Eric Garcia about her ordeals — on the streets of Minneapolis, in a grim ICE detention center where she was mocked over her condition and through the public t...
www.independent.co.uk
February 5, 2026 at 6:34 PM
A jokey 2014 Brandeis University mathematics paper I just love found this: "trying hard to be different often ends up in hipsters consistently taking the same decision". Feel like it applies perfectly to "contrarian" writing
February 5, 2026 at 4:46 PM
My piece this week tying together the prosecution of Don Lemon and the ruination of the federal justice system:

www.economist.com/united-state...
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota are cracking down on dissent
But the pursuit of serious criminals has slackened off
www.economist.com
February 5, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
🚨HOLY CRAP. The Trump admin just took a SLEDGEHAMMER to due process, largely eliminating the Board of Immigration Appeals process and MANDATING DISMISSAL of ALL appeals (which cost $1,000 thanks to OBBBA) filed after tomorrow unless a majority of the BIA votes to hear the case.
February 5, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
I’m on the scene at Franklin and 1st. A convoy of about a couple dozen ICE/HSI agents broke the entryway into an apartment building at 6am. No warrant presented. Less than 24 hours ago, Tom Homan announced the end of large convoys in Minnesota… Bullshit.
February 5, 2026 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
After 6am this morning in Whittier, Minneapolis—FOUR BLOCKS from where Pretti was murdered.

18 agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) markings smashed an apartment window, ran in, and came out with one man.
February 5, 2026 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
Must-read from @emptywheel.bsky.social

"The problem here is not just that ICE is blowing off judicial orders ... there are so many orders because the detentions are illegal ... The crime is the unlawful detention of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people. They’re kidnapping people legally..."
The Minnesota Lawyer Backlog Arises from ICE Kidnappings - emptywheel
The reason -- at least one reason -- ICE is having such a difficult time following judicial instructions in Minnesota is because ICE is snatching so many people illegally.
emptywheel.net
February 5, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
* US Companies Announce Most Job Cuts for Any January Since 2009

@bloomberg.com
February 5, 2026 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
This NYT piece never mentions the most important detail of the hearing.

THESE PEOPLE ARE UNLAWFULLY being held--and many are unlawfully being snatched in the first place.

The reason there's such a caseload is bc ICE is kidnapping people illegally.
February 5, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Honestly going on r/Bitcoin to watch the cope is the only source of hope and joy I have from the internet
February 5, 2026 at 6:35 AM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
I just read the declaration that Kira Kelley asked J. Blackwell to consider.
This immigrant describes being
-unlawfully arrested
-taken from one overcrowded & filthy prison to another over 19 days
-held incommunicado
& ICE never telling him a court ordered his release

He describes an American gulag
February 5, 2026 at 5:52 AM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
Former speechwriter for Bush the Younger and Senior Editor at The Atlantic:
February 4, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
Weird and almost universal revisionism today. Even at the time, it was pretty clear that Mandelson wasn't appointed *despite* his dodgy links but *because* of them. Trump's Washington is a dirty swamp. Mandelson was deemed a man able to swim in it. This wasn't a secret. Everybody said it out loud.
February 4, 2026 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
I’ve been working on the Lawyers’ Committee Election Protection project for more than 20 years. This kind of threat happens in almost every cycle and almost never materializes. The threat - creating fear - IS the voter suppression tool. It costs nothing so any suppression it produces is a plus.
February 4, 2026 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
I cowrote a cover story!
Trump wants to control the country’s future by rewriting its past.

For the latest issue of our magazine, @dfriedman.bsky.social and @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social explain how the president is weaponizing history to wage his never-ending cultural and legal battles.

Read it here: tinyurl.com/32n7948b
February 4, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Novel of the moment
February 4, 2026 at 2:41 AM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
The tactics used by SRT and BORTAC vastly differ from those of local police or sheriffs. They use explosives to breach the doors of homes, and team members are equipped with full tactical gear, assault rifles, and heavy-duty crowd-control weapons.
The Paramilitary ICE and CBP Units at the Center of Minnesota's Killings
Two agents involved in the shooting deaths of US citizens in Minneapolis are reportedly part of highly militarized DHS units whose extreme tactics are generally reserved for war zones.
www.wired.com
February 3, 2026 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
According to FOX 9, a Minneapolis federal judge demanded to know why DOJ is missing deadlines & AUSA Julie Le said, "The system sucks, this job sucks" & asked to be held in contempt so she could sleep.

PACER shows she got assigned to defend the govt in 88+ cases since Operation Metro Surge started.
February 3, 2026 at 9:27 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
Chicago's Broadview conspiracy defendants give Judge April Perry an update on negotiations over an order governing evidence in their case:

They say the feds want "to summarily prohibit all Defendants and Defendants' counsel from using, discussing, or disseminating any and all" info from the case.
February 3, 2026 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
They just blindly shot through the fucking door.

"Additional photographs show damage consistent with a bullet fragment lodged in a bedroom wall down the hallway — suggesting it traveled between a mattress and a portable crib in a room where several small children sleep."
"Photographic evidence from the shooting scene of a Venezuelan man by federal agents last month in Minneapolis supports the account of witnesses there – and appears to undercut the narrative provided by federal officials." www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...
Live: Judge orders release of suspects in alleged shovel attack on agent
Department of Homeland Security says agent fired in self-defense after being attacked with a snow shovel and broom.
www.startribune.com
February 3, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
Beyond confirming that DOJ attorney Julie Le said, "I wish you would just hold me in contempt of court so I can get 24 hours of sleep," the reporter adds now that she is an ICE attorney who volunteered to help with the habeas cases, but "We have no guidance or direction on what we need to do."
February 3, 2026 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
The Post describes how DHS is now using 'administrative subpoenas' as a form of domestic surveillance, apparently to intimidate those engaged in lawful activity & speech. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
February 3, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
“One cop we talked to—he appeared to be a lieutenant or commander—about babies being gassed said in response ‘that's too bad.’”
New — I spoke to eight people who were present at the ICE protest on Saturday in Portland, Oregon when federal agents deployed tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd of families, children, elderly and disabled people, and their pets.

These are their stories:
What it's like to see ICE tear gas kids
Attendees at a Portland, OR protest describe a vicious, unprovoked and sudden attack
www.thehandbasket.co
February 3, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Daniel Knowles
Judge Reyes starts with a comparison: George Washington versus Kristi Noem.
February 3, 2026 at 12:49 AM