McKenzie Funk
@mckenziefunk.com
12K followers 210 following 44 posts
Reporter @propublica.org, author of The Hank Show and Windfall | Signal: mckenziefunk.01 | Other secure contacts: http://keybase.io/mckenziefunk
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Reposted by McKenzie Funk
tilleckert.com
I recently reported on an ICE officer who was publicly reprimanded and “relieved of his duties” after shoving a woman to the ground in an NYC immigration court. Well, he’s back.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

Original story: www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

Photos: Carol Guzy
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
tilleckert.com
1/ DEVELOPING: A journalist was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital following another incident with an ICE agent at 26 Federal Plaza, an immigration court in NYC. The last I heard, he was getting X-rays for his lower back.
mckenziefunk.com
Trump texts OR governor Kotek on Sunday: "They attacked our ICE Patriots last night... I won’t let that happen in America!"

Staffer texts Kotek after talking to police: "There was one misdemeanor arrest. Also a report of a laser pointer at a helicopter and that’s it.”

www.opb.org/article/2025...
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and President Donald Trump trade testy texts over troop deployment
Gov. Tina Kotek and an assistant to President Donald Trump exchanged tense texts throughout the weekend as it became clear the President planned to deploy 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to p...
www.opb.org
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
tilleckert.com
8/ If you have tips about new ICE enforcement tactics in courts, my colleagues and I want to hear from you. Reach out to me on Signal (tilleckert.90) or via
propublica.org/tips.
How to Contact ProPublica or Send a Tip Securely — ProPublica
Our job is to hold people and institutions accountable. To do that, we need evidence.
propublica.org
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
timshorrock.bsky.social
For those folks posting about South Korea's angry response to Trump's ICE raid on Korean companies in Georgia, this interview & post from me helps explain why: in part, national PTSD from 40 years of military dictatorship. I've covered Korea since 1980. 🌺
timshorrock.substack.com/p/my-intervi...
My interview with BBC about Trump's ICE raid on the Hyundai/LG plant in Georgia
I spoke to the Beeb's Business Report this morning about the South Korean response to the raid and the anger ICE has generated. They wanted to emphasize what the Koreans did wrong, but I persevered.
timshorrock.substack.com
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
annaleighclark.bsky.social
The Midwest newsroom at @propublica.org is amazing.

Fantastically talented, hard-working, good-hearted people who do this work for all the right reasons. And so much fun to be around. I love being part of it.

Come join us!

This is a **solid-gold journalism job opportunity.**
Reporter, Midwest
Regions
job-boards.greenhouse.io
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
propublicaguild.org
We ❤️ @ire.org! @propublica.org employees wore buttons & flyered at the IRE gala to rally support for our fight for a fair contract.

The future of investigative journalism depends on protecting the workers who make it possible.

You can help by signing our petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...
People wearing union shirts stand outside a red carpet at the entrance of an event as people walk in. People wearing union shirts and stickers smile and hand out ProPublica Guild buttons. Five people sit at a table for an event wearing stickers and buttons supporting the ProPublica Guild. Two people walking into an event wear stickers in support of the ProPublica Guild.
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
evaholland.bsky.social
Something good: a new, nonprofit newsroom run by some wonderful, experienced folks (core crew from Outside mag's glory days) dedicated to journalism about American public lands! Looks like the plan is to collaborate a fair bit with other outlets.
RE:PUBLIC
INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM FOR PUBLIC LANDS.
www.republic.land
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
umwallacehouse.bsky.social
Next Week!

We can't wait to welcome @npr.org’s Andrea Hsu to deliver the 38th Graham Hovey Lecture. The event is named in honor of the late Graham Hovey, director of the fellowship program from 1980 to 1986 and NYT journalist.

RSVP: https://loom.ly/xX4qF08
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
marthabellisle.bsky.social
Lawyers for one of the wildland firefighters arrested by Border Patrol are demanding he be released, saying his detention was illegal and that he was on track for a special visa that was still being processed. apnews.com/article/immi...
Lawyers demand Border Patrol release firefighter arrested while battling Washington wildfire
Lawyers are demanding the release of a longtime Oregon resident arrested by Border Patrol while fighting a Washington state wildfire.
apnews.com
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
propublica.org
📽️ WATCH: Student Kenneth Santizo captured ICE and FBI officers stopping a family on their way to church in the Boston suburbs.

Agents broke the window, forced Daniel Flores-Martinez to his knees and slammed him to the ground while his children and his wife, a U.S. citizen, sobbed in the car.
mckenziefunk.com
ProPublica asked the administration detailed questions about each incident in our story. In reply, a White House spokesperson called us “a left-wing rag” and asserted that “ICE Officers are heroically getting these violent illegal aliens off of American streets with the utmost professionalism.” 11/
An article screenshot reads: "When we asked the White House detailed questions about the tactic and specific incidents, it stood by officers’ conduct. “ProPublica is a left-wing rag that is shamelessly doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens,” deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “ICE Officers are heroically getting these violent illegal aliens off of American streets with the utmost professionalism.”

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also defended the tactic in response to questions about Border Patrol. Officers “may break vehicle windows” if occupants don’t follow their commands, she said. In June, an ICE spokesperson told ProPublica, “Our officers follow their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve situations in a manner that ensures the success of the operation and prioritizes safety.”

Other agencies whose officers were involved in incidents we documented — FBI; DEA; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — did not respond or declined to comment on specific cases."
mckenziefunk.com
It looks like masked men following a green-card applicant to a suburban preschool in Oregon, waiting until his toddler is out of the car, then smashing his window and arresting him as parents and teachers look on.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFjz...
10/
Dashcam shows father being detained by masked ICE agents in Beaverton
YouTube video by The Oregonian
www.youtube.com
mckenziefunk.com
It looks like officers stopping a Massachusetts family as they drive home from church on Mother’s Day, shattering their window, and letting the kids in the back of the car watch as their dad is forced to kneel, then slammed chest-first to the ground. 9/
mckenziefunk.com
By breaking so many windows, ICE and CBP may or may not be breaking the law. But they are certainly shattering norms. @nicolefoy.bsky.social and I spent months tracking down original videos and interviewing bystanders so that people would be able to witness what that looks like. 8/
mckenziefunk.com
High-ranking immigration officials have embraced the tactic. An ICE leader in Maryland was promoted to headquarters after TV cameras captured his threat to one driver—“We'll smash the fucking window out and drag him out"—and then showed his agents breaking the glass.
youtu.be/8Kcvlu3KBBw?...
7/
Maryland counties face possible federal litigation as ICE ramps up enforcement under Trump
YouTube video by WBFF FOX45 Baltimore
youtu.be
mckenziefunk.com
Former ICE insiders and federal law enforcement instructors agree: Breaking windows was never part of any formal policy or training. Nor was it outright against the rules. It was just so aggressive that it was rare. But now there are arrest quotas, and officers are racing to hit their numbers. 6/
mckenziefunk.com
So “Is this legal?” may be the wrong question. “Is this normal?” was the better one. We did eventually find 8 instances of ICE and Border Patrol smashing car windows in the decade before Trump’s second presidency. But we’ve found nearly 50 instances in the six+ months since. 5/
An article screenshot reads: "YOUR CAR is a constitutional gray zone. It doesn’t have the same Fourth Amendment protections as homes. You can refuse to open the door of your home if officers don’t have a judicial warrant; you can’t refuse to step out of your car.

The Constitution still limits when officers can use force and how much they can use. But there are no firm rules. Should they shatter windows just minutes or seconds after making a vehicle stop? Should they drag someone through broken glass when they could wait to make the arrest another day?

“Use of force has to be objectively reasonable,” says Bruce-Alan Barnard, a retired Fourth Amendment instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, where ICE officers train. The problem with “objectively reasonable,” Barnard says, is that “it’s an oxymoron. What’s reasonable to you might not be reasonable to me.”

Immigration officers are given little guidance on whether or how they should breach car windows, former federal law enforcement..."
mckenziefunk.com
As we collected videos, we called around to legal experts. Your home may be your castle under the Constitution—you don't have to open your door if there’s no warrant—but your car, we learned, is not. How much force officers can use to get you out hangs on the “totality of the circumstances.” 4/
An article screenshot reads: "YOUR CAR is a constitutional gray zone. It doesn’t have the same Fourth Amendment protections as homes. You can refuse to open the door of your home if officers don’t have a judicial warrant; you can’t refuse to step out of your car.

The Constitution still limits when officers can use force and how much they can use. But there are no firm rules. Should they shatter windows just minutes or seconds after making a vehicle stop? Should they drag someone through broken glass when they could wait to make the arrest another day?

“Use of force has to be objectively reasonable,” says Bruce-Alan Barnard, a retired Fourth Amendment instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, where ICE officers train. The problem with “objectively reasonable,” Barnard says, is that “it’s an oxymoron. What’s reasonable to you might not be reasonable to me.”

Immigration officers are given little guidance on whether or how they should breach car windows, former federal law enforcement..."