David Arias
@davidaarias.bsky.social
I analyze U.S. immigration, human rights, climate, and race, centering Indigenous voices from Central America to examine systems of power. Science writer @ UC Davis | Dual citizen: Guatemala and U.S. | Bilingual newsletter: torchline.substack.com
Indigenous Central Americans are erased in the immigration debate. They get lumped in with Latino stories, face language barriers here, and if deported, return to Guatemala to be stigmatized and discriminated against. Their invisibility isn’t accidental.
In @eltimpano.bsky.social's first Weekly Dispatch of 2026, we bring you the story of an Indigenous Maya family deported last year to Guatemala. Their story has been erased by deportation data.
And, reflections on Venezuela + Renee Nicole Good.
www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/e...
And, reflections on Venezuela + Renee Nicole Good.
www.eltimpano.org/newsletter/e...
Erased by deportation data
The Weekly Dispatch Community-powered immigration news from the Bay Area. Welcome back to El Tímpano’s Weekly Dispatch. I’m Erica Hellerstein, senior immigration, labor, and economics reporter. After ...
www.eltimpano.org
January 23, 2026 at 1:45 AM
Indigenous Central Americans are erased in the immigration debate. They get lumped in with Latino stories, face language barriers here, and if deported, return to Guatemala to be stigmatized and discriminated against. Their invisibility isn’t accidental.
Reposted by David Arias
Opinion | ICE ignores hard lessons LAPD learned after Rodney King beating
Federal immigration agents are forgoing the basics that LA police espouse after their years of ignominy: de-escalation, accountability and protecting and serving.
Federal immigration agents are forgoing the basics that LA police espouse after their years of ignominy: de-escalation, accountability and protecting and serving.
Opinion | ICE ignores hard lessons LAPD learned after Rodney King beating
Federal immigration agents are forgoing the basics that LA police espouse after their years of ignominy: de-escalation, accountability and protecting and serving.
bit.ly
January 22, 2026 at 9:30 PM
Opinion | ICE ignores hard lessons LAPD learned after Rodney King beating
Federal immigration agents are forgoing the basics that LA police espouse after their years of ignominy: de-escalation, accountability and protecting and serving.
Federal immigration agents are forgoing the basics that LA police espouse after their years of ignominy: de-escalation, accountability and protecting and serving.
AI is repeating the fast-food playbook. Just as fast food externalized health and environmental harm for convenience and profit, AI infrastructure is externalizing climate and resource costs, which will fuel mass displacement. torchline.substack.com/p/ai-is-repeating-the-fast-food-playbook
January 22, 2026 at 11:57 PM
AI is repeating the fast-food playbook. Just as fast food externalized health and environmental harm for convenience and profit, AI infrastructure is externalizing climate and resource costs, which will fuel mass displacement. torchline.substack.com/p/ai-is-repeating-the-fast-food-playbook
Reposted by David Arias
We need statements from professional orgs outlining the evidence on how family separation, violence, and trauma impact pregnancy outcomes and child development.
#tweetiatrician #pediatrics #childhealth #publichealth #MedSky #MCH 🧪🩺🛟
minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/20/m...
#tweetiatrician #pediatrics #childhealth #publichealth #MedSky #MCH 🧪🩺🛟
minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/20/m...
Minnesota doctors say immigration crackdown is forcing patients to hide, endangering lives • Minnesota Reformer
Minnesota doctors say the immigration crackdown is forcing patients to hide, endangering lives. Diabetics rationing insulin. Jaundiced babies missing appointments. Appendicitis festering untreated fo...
minnesotareformer.com
January 22, 2026 at 6:29 PM
We need statements from professional orgs outlining the evidence on how family separation, violence, and trauma impact pregnancy outcomes and child development.
#tweetiatrician #pediatrics #childhealth #publichealth #MedSky #MCH 🧪🩺🛟
minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/20/m...
#tweetiatrician #pediatrics #childhealth #publichealth #MedSky #MCH 🧪🩺🛟
minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/20/m...
Reposted by David Arias
In the age of Trump, are U.S. scientists ‘bringing white papers to a gunfight’? | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪
In the age of Trump, are U.S. scientists ‘bringing white papers to a gunfight’?
An unprecedented assault has forced researchers to rethink their advocacy tactics
www.science.org
January 22, 2026 at 7:05 PM
In the age of Trump, are U.S. scientists ‘bringing white papers to a gunfight’? | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪
Reposted by David Arias
take a second to really wrap your head around this.
January 13, 2026 at 10:38 PM
take a second to really wrap your head around this.
ICE as “patriots”? Only if you ignore the pattern: brown people get targeted, white Americans don’t unless they protest. “Border security” isn’t about safety, it’s a signal for a white audience to reassert and normalize xenophobia. That’s the story polls are showing.
A string of recent polls found most believe the ICE shooting of a woman in Minneapolis was unjustified.
Trump Demands Deportees Be Publicly Identified To Reverse Negative ICE Views
A string of recent polls found most believe the ICE shooting of a woman in Minneapolis was unjustified.
www.forbes.com
January 21, 2026 at 9:34 PM
ICE as “patriots”? Only if you ignore the pattern: brown people get targeted, white Americans don’t unless they protest. “Border security” isn’t about safety, it’s a signal for a white audience to reassert and normalize xenophobia. That’s the story polls are showing.
Reposted by David Arias
@noaa.gov has finalized a rule to expedite the permit process for deep sea mining, including applications for exploration and extraction beyond U.S. jurisdictional boundaries. 🧪
eos.org/research-and...
eos.org/research-and...
Trump Administration to Speed Up Permitting for Deep Sea Mining, Even Beyond U.S. Boundaries - Eos
NOAA has finalized a rule that will expedite the permit and license application process for deep seabed mining and allow companies to mine beyond U.S. jurisdictional boundaries.
eos.org
January 21, 2026 at 6:18 PM
@noaa.gov has finalized a rule to expedite the permit process for deep sea mining, including applications for exploration and extraction beyond U.S. jurisdictional boundaries. 🧪
eos.org/research-and...
eos.org/research-and...
Reposted by David Arias
New from 404 Media: ICE's facial recognition app, which the agency is using to decide who to detain and deport, misidentified a woman. Twice.
ICE says results of the app are definitive and override a birth certificate; obviously this case shows the app is inaccurate
www.404media.co/ices-facial-...
ICE says results of the app are definitive and override a birth certificate; obviously this case shows the app is inaccurate
www.404media.co/ices-facial-...
ICE’s Facial Recognition App Misidentified a Woman. Twice
In testimony from a CBP official obtained by 404 Media, the official described how Mobile Fortify returned two different names after scanning a woman's face during an immigration raid. ICE has said th...
www.404media.co
January 19, 2026 at 2:31 PM
New from 404 Media: ICE's facial recognition app, which the agency is using to decide who to detain and deport, misidentified a woman. Twice.
ICE says results of the app are definitive and override a birth certificate; obviously this case shows the app is inaccurate
www.404media.co/ices-facial-...
ICE says results of the app are definitive and override a birth certificate; obviously this case shows the app is inaccurate
www.404media.co/ices-facial-...
As a major Atlantic current weakens, some of the world’s rainiest regions, home to millions, could lose nearly half their rainfall. Scientists warn this could devastate ecosystems in the Amazon, threaten livelihoods across the tropics, and push the climate closer to a tipping point.
Rainy Tropics Could Face Unprecedented Droughts as an Atlantic Current Slows
New research warns that global rainfall patterns could shift dramatically as a result of climate change
www.ucdavis.edu
January 20, 2026 at 11:24 PM
As a major Atlantic current weakens, some of the world’s rainiest regions, home to millions, could lose nearly half their rainfall. Scientists warn this could devastate ecosystems in the Amazon, threaten livelihoods across the tropics, and push the climate closer to a tipping point.
Indigenous peoples have adapted to climate change for centuries through close observation of weather, water, soil, and land. As climate pressures intensify, practices like terrace agriculture offer lessons in risk and long-term stewardship.
How mountain terraces have helped Indigenous peoples live with climate uncertainty
phys.org/news/2026-01...
phys.org/news/2026-01...
How mountain terraces have helped Indigenous peoples live with climate uncertainty
Indigenous communities have lived with changes to the climate for centuries. Their adaptations over those many years are based on their close observation of weather, water, soils and seasonal change, ...
phys.org
January 20, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Indigenous peoples have adapted to climate change for centuries through close observation of weather, water, soil, and land. As climate pressures intensify, practices like terrace agriculture offer lessons in risk and long-term stewardship.
What does it actually take to disrupt state violence, when even this wasn’t enough?
torchline.substack.com/p/what-will-...
torchline.substack.com/p/what-will-...
January 20, 2026 at 8:14 PM
What does it actually take to disrupt state violence, when even this wasn’t enough?
torchline.substack.com/p/what-will-...
torchline.substack.com/p/what-will-...
Reposted by David Arias
As Homeland Security’s siege on Minneapolis enters its third week, locals are volunteering for patrol shifts, protesting in the streets, and keeping one another up to date in group texts.
Read more from @scottmeslow.bsky.social in Minneapolis:
Read more from @scottmeslow.bsky.social in Minneapolis:
It’s worse than it looks in Minneapolis
But locals are organizing to keep each other safe from ICE agents.
www.theverge.com
January 20, 2026 at 2:01 PM
As Homeland Security’s siege on Minneapolis enters its third week, locals are volunteering for patrol shifts, protesting in the streets, and keeping one another up to date in group texts.
Read more from @scottmeslow.bsky.social in Minneapolis:
Read more from @scottmeslow.bsky.social in Minneapolis:
For millennials and Gen Z, the consequences of inaction will play out in our lifetime. Poverty and violence are not the only forces driving people from their homes. Climate change is increasingly displacing millions from the very regions where the U.S. is imposing the harshest immigration policies.
January 20, 2026 at 6:54 PM
For millennials and Gen Z, the consequences of inaction will play out in our lifetime. Poverty and violence are not the only forces driving people from their homes. Climate change is increasingly displacing millions from the very regions where the U.S. is imposing the harshest immigration policies.
Reposted by David Arias
The detainee was an immigrant from Nicaragua who was being held in an immigration detention facility in El Paso, which the ACLU calls a “human and civil rights disaster.”
Man Detained In Minnesota Dies In ICE Custody—Gov. Walz Demands Probe
The detainee was an immigrant from Nicaragua who was being held in an immigration detention facility in El Paso, which the ACLU calls a “human and civil rights disaster.”
www.forbes.com
January 19, 2026 at 10:25 AM
The detainee was an immigrant from Nicaragua who was being held in an immigration detention facility in El Paso, which the ACLU calls a “human and civil rights disaster.”
The media spotlighted ICE violence when it took the life of a white person in a way it does not when local police shoot white people, despite the fact that police shootings are far more frequent and ICE killings disproportionately affect migrants of color.
Full piece here.
Full piece here.
The media will spotlight ICE violence when it targets whiteness, but racialize police violence
The editorial logic of outrage
torchline.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 2:44 AM
The media spotlighted ICE violence when it took the life of a white person in a way it does not when local police shoot white people, despite the fact that police shootings are far more frequent and ICE killings disproportionately affect migrants of color.
Full piece here.
Full piece here.
Reposted by David Arias
Climate migration is a form of adaptation. We can build new pathways for safe and regular migration, writes Rachael Mellor of @betterworld.info.
What Can We Do for the 250 Million and Counting Displaced by the Environmental Crisis?
We must demand a new comprehensive legal framework for climate refugees to safeguard vulnerable populations and protect those who may be at risk in the future.
www.commondreams.org
January 17, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Climate migration is a form of adaptation. We can build new pathways for safe and regular migration, writes Rachael Mellor of @betterworld.info.
Reposted by David Arias
Trump thought immigration was his superpower. Instead, it’s fueling a leftward cultural shift—and a full-blown backlash he can’t control.
Trump Backlash Is Fueling A Leftward Culture Shift
Trump's disastrous immigration crackdown will go down as a self-own for the ages
thinkbigpicture.substack.com
January 19, 2026 at 1:10 PM
Trump thought immigration was his superpower. Instead, it’s fueling a leftward cultural shift—and a full-blown backlash he can’t control.
If the killing of Renee Good fails to generate sustained opposition to ICE, then whiteness does not function as a shield against state violence, but as a permission structure, determining when violence is treated as aberrant or absorbed as acceptable cost.
open.substack.com/pub/torchlin...
open.substack.com/pub/torchlin...
What will it take to disrupt white permission for state violence?
ICE killed a white woman. The system absorbed the shock.
open.substack.com
January 19, 2026 at 6:46 PM
If the killing of Renee Good fails to generate sustained opposition to ICE, then whiteness does not function as a shield against state violence, but as a permission structure, determining when violence is treated as aberrant or absorbed as acceptable cost.
open.substack.com/pub/torchlin...
open.substack.com/pub/torchlin...
Reposted by David Arias
What ICE is doing on US streets looks terrifying, but don’t forget: it could happen anywhere | Nesrine Malik
What ICE is doing on US streets looks terrifying, but don’t forget: it could happen anywhere | Nesrine Malik
This shocking moment is the outcome of a political, institutional and media environment that is not far off Britain’s, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
www.theguardian.com
January 19, 2026 at 7:26 AM
What ICE is doing on US streets looks terrifying, but don’t forget: it could happen anywhere | Nesrine Malik
Millions will face displacement and danger as a result of climate change if we don't adapt our immigration policy. In the coming decades, middle-income groups will migrate while the most vulnerable become trapped in harm's way.
sustainability.stanford.edu/news/4-key-f...
sustainability.stanford.edu/news/4-key-f...
4 key facts about climate change and human migration
How does climate change affect human migration and what does it mean for border policies? Learn about the complex relationship between weather and cross-border migration across different demographic g...
sustainability.stanford.edu
January 19, 2026 at 7:33 AM
Millions will face displacement and danger as a result of climate change if we don't adapt our immigration policy. In the coming decades, middle-income groups will migrate while the most vulnerable become trapped in harm's way.
sustainability.stanford.edu/news/4-key-f...
sustainability.stanford.edu/news/4-key-f...
Reposted by David Arias
The documentary "Yanuni" profiles Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia, who has survived six assassination attempts while defending her land from illegal gold miners and deforestation.
“Yanuni”: Film Follows Brazilian Indigenous Leader Juma Xipaia’s Fight for the Amazon
The documentary Yanuni profiles Indigenous chief and activist Juma Xipaia, who has survived six assassination attempts while defending her people’s land from illegal gold miners and deforestation. The...
www.democracynow.org
January 18, 2026 at 12:16 AM
The documentary "Yanuni" profiles Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia, who has survived six assassination attempts while defending her land from illegal gold miners and deforestation.
Recent coverage of ICE and police violence reveals an asymmetry: ICE violence is amplified when it involves white victims, while police violence is racialized and localized. This framing shapes public consent, accountability, and coalition-building.
Full piece here: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Full piece here: substack.com/home/post/p-...
The media will spotlight ICE violence when it targets whiteness, but racialize police violence
The editorial logic of outrage
substack.com
January 18, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Recent coverage of ICE and police violence reveals an asymmetry: ICE violence is amplified when it involves white victims, while police violence is racialized and localized. This framing shapes public consent, accountability, and coalition-building.
Full piece here: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Full piece here: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Reposted by David Arias
In a new interview, Colombia’s President, Gustavo Petro, discusses the political situation in Venezuela, his relationship with Donald Trump, and the climate crisis. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/AUA5vG
January 16, 2026 at 2:00 AM
In a new interview, Colombia’s President, Gustavo Petro, discusses the political situation in Venezuela, his relationship with Donald Trump, and the climate crisis. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/AUA5vG
I passed the courthouse in Oakland where someone had written "Death to ICE." Days earlier, ICE had shot a white woman. The graffiti was wiped, but the system didn't move.
Full piece here:
open.substack.com/pub/torchlin...
Full piece here:
open.substack.com/pub/torchlin...
What will it take to disrupt white permission for state violence?
ICE killed a white woman. The system absorbed the shock.
open.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 2:03 AM
I passed the courthouse in Oakland where someone had written "Death to ICE." Days earlier, ICE had shot a white woman. The graffiti was wiped, but the system didn't move.
Full piece here:
open.substack.com/pub/torchlin...
Full piece here:
open.substack.com/pub/torchlin...