I had two clients moved within an hour of ICE learning we were looking for them and advising us there was not plan to move them.

A family of four moved 36 hours after a court order forbidding them from being moved.

3 other clients moved within a day of court-ordered injunctions.

20/

See ICE wants these cases in Texas, where Trump-infected courts are more tolerant of their antics, more biased against non-citizens, more willing to let DHS fill up concentration camps.

(Not all Texas judges, for sure. Plenty are bravely faithful to the rule of law. ICE is playing the numbers)

17/

Meanwhile, DHS shows its contempt for the judiciary in a different way. In dozens, likely now thousands, of cases, DHS openly defies court orders.

Minnesota courts enter orders forbidding ICE from moving noncitizens who’ve filed habeas petitions out of Minnesota. They move them anyway.

16/

Legal status doesn’t matter: if you exceed ICE’s melanin threshold, you get snatched. It is ethnic cleansing. There is no other word for it.

The news has shown you video of these often violent detentions. What you don’t see is what happens to these individuals after.

I’ve had a front row seat.

7/

Delighted that I immediately recognize (and wholeheartedly agree with!) the two books in the summary

When you say "powerful"

Thank you!

Apparently the majority of the American public draws this line at genocide. This is heartening. Obvious caveats (wish it were a greater majority, wish it had happened sooner), but still heartening.

Thank you :) I did in fact initially write "a Latino" but it's very intentional that it was a Latino who speaks only Spanish, openly wants Puerto Rican independence, etc so I changed it to Bad Bunny and forgot to remove the a 🫣

That would be a delightful crew!

for resistance, rather than a way the ruling class is co-opting and commodifying resistance. To quote Lena Khalaf Tuffaha:

"Every empire denies the iceberg
it crashes into, hires a chorus, funds the arts.
Every empire sings itself a lullaby."

"He might be playing them" in particular is simply not how that works. They made the conscious intentional choice to hire him while knowing his beliefs, and of course he's going to use that platform to express his beliefs. Again, very classic. The danger comes when people mistake this as a victory

I also trust that you already understand the difference between an individual's personal beliefs and a system's ability to co-opt them -- if not, that's also pretty easy to research. Again, all of this is very classic, so it's very easy to learn about if you're interested in learning :)

Yes, exactly. Many Black celebrities didn't support Nixon, but they still operated within a system that oppressed the Black masses while uplifting a few Black celebrities. That's a great example of what I'm talking about.

Oof.

Yes, exactly my point: commodifying resistance. Bad Bunny represents resistance.

Research the history of how empire takes prominent anti-empire celebrities and elevates them in order to appease / diffuse resistance movements. It's all very classic.

Omg I promise I know his name is “Bad Bunny” not “a Bad Bunny,” my kingdom for an edit button!

(Notice as well how specific and strategic they are about who to highlight and who to erase — there’s also a reason the man who waved Palestinian and Sudanese flags during Kendrick’s show was arrested and banned for life.)

This isn’t unusual. South Africa had Black models and stars during the worst of apartheid. India‘s most famous actors are largely Muslim despite the nation’s increasing violence against Muslims. They want to contain our anger through public ritual, and also they want to make money off of it.