Gillian Brockell
@gbrockell.bsky.social
11K followers 990 following 3.7K posts
I track ICE flights, and I write about the history of American slavery. Sounds like two different things, but they're not really. Former WaPo. Signal: gbrockell.44 https://hardghistory.ghost.io/ PFP: Angelina Grimké
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gbrockell.bsky.social
NEW: Air Force jets are doing ICE flights to Africa with transponders turned off, making them nearly un-trackable.

This includes the third-country removal to Ghana and another secret flight. We figured out where it landed.

From me for @rollingstone.com:

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
ICE Is Deporting People to Africa on Nearly Un-Trackable Military Flights
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is deporting people to African countries like Ghana on military flights that are nearly un-trackable.
www.rollingstone.com
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
clancyny.bsky.social
CDC staff in Africa right now, including those helping to manage the current Ebola outbreak, are laid off/fired.
crampell.bsky.social
Lots of Epidemic Intelligence Service officers ("disease detectives") gone.
In-country staff in Africa (including those helping to manage the current Ebola outbreak) are fired.
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
jlalibs.com
What an absolute treasure Diane Keaton was. Her wit never tired, nor did her style.
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
swampfoot.bsky.social
Black women these days, and for literally centuries:
gbrockell.bsky.social
Yeah, generally only worth bothering when other people who might be persuaded are around.
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
mikecoonomics.bsky.social
When will people realize that immigration enforcement and mass deportations are actually a for-profit industry completely unrelated to public safety?
gbrockell.bsky.social
NEW: The private jet that flew 10 shackled migrants to an Eswatini prison last weekend is owned by Israeli-American billionaires with close ties to Trump.

It’s oligarchs all the way down.

My first for @zeteo.com:

zeteo.com/p/this-famil...
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
zeteo.com
“The disparity between the luxurious aircraft and its shackled, vilified passengers must have been quite a sight…”

@gbrockell.bsky.social reports how an Israeli-American billionaire family flew 10 migrants out of the US, as part of ICE deportations.

Read the full article: zeteo.com/p/this-famil...
gbrockell.bsky.social
It's actually so much worse than that! I've tracked 36 ICE flights on private jets this year, and the few whose passenger numbers we know about had only 5-7 (plus ICE guards). Some could have had fewer. The first Eswatini removal was part-private jet, part-USAF C-17 ($27,000/hour) for FIVE PEOPLE.
gbrockell.bsky.social
Journey gets paid by ICE contractor CSI Aviation. Their rates are not public, but another subcontractor like Journey charges $9,000/hour + expenses. Because of the complexity of lease agreements between private jet owners and charter companies, it’s really hard to know how much the billionaire got.
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
prisonculture.bsky.social
One of the only welcome things about this current period in the U.S. is that the "this is not who WE are" stuff might finally be over.
gbrockell.bsky.social
Yes, they drove them to the border and dropped them off.
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
once again encouraging you all to support independent, worker owned, billionaire free News media when and how you are able
kattenbarge.bsky.social
Installing someone like Bari Weiss as the head of a major news organization isn’t even about profit or longevity. In effect it’s about continuing to shrink the traditional news industry smaller and smaller and weaker and weaker and less and less journalism based until it ceases to exist
gbrockell.bsky.social
Hard to find a more obvious example of the journalism adage “If someone says it’s raining outside and someone else says it isn’t, your job is not to quote them both, your job is to go outside.”
davidcorn.bsky.social
A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
davidcorn.bsky.social
A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
67sound.bsky.social
War Dogs (2025)
gbrockell.bsky.social
NEW: The private jet that flew 10 shackled migrants to an Eswatini prison last weekend is owned by Israeli-American billionaires with close ties to Trump.

It’s oligarchs all the way down.

My first for @zeteo.com:

zeteo.com/p/this-famil...
gbrockell.bsky.social
I will note, their inclusion on one of the ICE flights to Guatemala is odd, considering there were two ICE flights to Honduras the same day. Why not put them one of those? Suggests to me these three may have had court orders prohibiting their removal to Honduras, and this is how ICE went around it.
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
iceflightmonitor.bsky.social
An ICE Air flight (OAE3674) left Phoenix, Arizona late Wednesday evening and made deportation stops over 30+ hours—in Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan—with people on board inhumanly shackled for excruciating long hours.
gbrockell.bsky.social
When W won in 2000, I called my mom from my study abroad in Melbourne and asked if her I shouldn't come back. She said no, we endured Reagan, we could endure this.

Mom, you were wrong. Shoulda overstayed my visa.
wired.com
WIRED @wired.com · 12h
The country’s grid operator says shifting from coal to clean power is not only possible but inevitable. The work there could provide a road map for other countries.
Australia’s March Toward 100 Percent Clean Energy
The country’s grid operator says shifting from coal to clean power is not only possible but inevitable. The work there could provide a road map for other countries.
wrd.cm
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
carlygoodman.bsky.social
I know I’m typing this into computer phone but it feels like the path forward is print-based
gbrockell.bsky.social
Yes! There wasn't a way to put this in the story, but Michael Dezer owns close to 2,000 cars and "donated" a thousand of them to a car museum inside his own theme park in Orlando. That's who is getting a tax break for lending out the family plane for ICE flights.
practicalnecromancy.com
If any folks in Orlando are looking for a place to speak out about this, the Dezers own a weird indoor theme park / private car collection attraction… Dezerland.
A cartoonish map of Dezerland - a monument to grotesque wealth and opulence.
gbrockell.bsky.social
When I started on the history beat at WaPo, I told editors I wasn't going to "both sides" slavery or the Civil War. I got full support on that. I doubt I would get that now.

(My editor and I left in 2023.)
billypilgrim65.bsky.social
The 2010’s feels like the era when elite pundits, academics, public intellectuals undid the taboo on evil ideas. Fascism- worthy of debate. White supremacy-it’s just economic insecurity. Slavery? What about the good one! Topics considered , rightly, beyond the pale were given legitimacy once again
gbrockell.bsky.social
This is my version of a response I heard from Rev. Paul Carter at the Harriet Tubman house in Auburn, NY. His version was something like, "Yes, like family who enslaved other family!"
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
hope-post.bsky.social
It’s all just beyond grotesque
gbrockell.bsky.social
NEW: The private jet that flew 10 shackled migrants to an Eswatini prison last weekend is owned by Israeli-American billionaires with close ties to Trump.

It’s oligarchs all the way down.

My first for @zeteo.com:

zeteo.com/p/this-famil...