#applicable to aliens and citizens

[hale-my-nathan]

Trump Weird News - So That's Habeas Corpus - Didn't Knoem That!

[reality-detective]

Get Ready For The Most Rigged Election In History...

Highlight #1 👇

Immigration Accountability Project: Kamala Harris Admin “Orders all federal agencies to provide voter registration information to everyone they come in contact with. — State election officials are not permitted to ask for proof of citizenship for applicants who fill out the federal form.”

Highlight #2 👇

House Judiciary Committee, They’ve made it “virtually impossible to prevent non-citizens from registering to vote”

Highlight #3

“There are strong indications that some of these NGOs are providing the aliens with voter registration forms”

Highlight #4 👇

DHS estimates “30 MILLION non-citizens residing in the United States”

- Rosemary Jenks with the Immigration Accountability Project

Makes me wonder if there really will be an election... You can't arrest anyone unless they are allowed to commit the crime. If it is stopped before it occurs then they aren't guilty of anything. 🤔

[delafiseaseses]

Dwarf Fortress Ethics

Every faction in Dwarf Fortress is a little alien. A little bizarre. This is easily demonstrated via each factions Ethics values. I won't be recounting the specifics of every ethic (go t' the DF Wiki's Ethics page for the whole table), but I wanna take a moment t' talk Dwarf Fortress Ethics.

The Dwarves are the closest to a Human-ethics and values system in DF. They find torture and cannibalism for any reason both abhorrent, they hate slavery and only approve of trophies made from non-sapient animals (however they find making trophies from non-Dwarves slightly less disgusting than from Dwarves, a mild discrimination unseen in any other faction). Dwarves do, however, have the death penalty and even when they don't put someone to death they can and do order 'hammer strikes' on guilty Dwarves.

Humans, by contrast have an ethics system with a few far more blatantly questionable morals. Including, infamously, believing that the killing of a person not of the faction is 'Justified if no repercussions'. They cannot stand cannibalism and find torture for any reason other than trying to gain 'information' disturbing. They think it's perfectly find to make a trophy from anything you kill, be it another Human, another sapient race or some animal. They find slavery acceptable. Humans engage in capital punishment practices much like the Dwarves. Humans also have a unique trait in which their abstract Cultural Values are varying from faction to faction, but they never have Extreme Views on any given topic (for instance one Human faction can 'greatly prize loyalty' while another in the same world can 'disdain loyalty', but neither can ever have 'the highest regard for loyalty' or be 'disgusted by the idea of loyalty').

Elves are often intentionally misunderstood for 'memes', but their morals are interesting. They believe torture is only good for setting an example and have no capital punishments. What they consider minor crimes get reprimands and extreme crimes lead to exile, unlike everyone else they find the act of lying such an extreme crime as to be worth exile (everyone else sees it as a personal matter). Killing animals is only justified in self-defense, making them vegans as of the Steam Release, and the killing of plants is totally unthinkable (which leads to the occasional war based on the 'treatment of plants'). Elves 'grow' their wooden objects using an unknown process. Now, to the big misunderstood thing, Elves find cannibalism unthinkable, they cannot stand cannibalism, they find cannibalism as bad as Dwarves and Humans do... except if the person has been killed in a battle. In that case it seems they feel obligated to eat the slain. The reason for this practice is unknown, but that's what they do.

Goblins... to describe the 'Evil'-type Civs as having an ethics is kinda silly. They see literally everything one might consider a crime as a personal matter, require the killing of other faction populations and animals, accept trophies from anything exactly like Humans, cannibalism is always fine for them, torture is fine even if you're just doing it for fun and on animals. It is quite common for those in Goblin-civs to kill other Goblin-faction people for no reason or to steal an artifact. The only crime in Goblin society is 'treason', which is a death sentence. Outside of ethics Goblin-civs create horrific displays with the people of conquered lands people. They also have the act of Child Snatching, in which a Goblin-civ person goes somewhere with a bag and kidnaps a child. The child is then raised Goblin, adopting Goblin ethics and Goblin values. This is seen as an innocuous job just like any other. Due to Goblin psychology discrimination in-faction cannot exist. They also often gain Troll populations, which they shear for clothes. The Trolls seem to be full-citizens as well as essentially sheep.

The Kobolds are the only people who have non-applicable factors in their ethics. Due to their lack of a formalised language, as they communicating via 'contextual' sounds whatever that means, they cannot torture for information, lie or oath break. They also cannot steal or trespass by their own metrics as they do not seem to have the concept of property. This lack of understanding is possibly what drives them to Thieve from other Civs. They find slavery, cannibalism for any reason and the making of trophies utterly unthinkable (they will, however, steal trophies made of anything). Assault is seen as a personal matter and killing people of other factions is required (however, Kobolds often run away from conflict regardless of this). Torture for fun is acceptable, but it presumably has to be inflicted on a person as the torture of animals is unthinkable (killing an animal is fine, though). Kobolds only really have one crime, which is the killing of another of the faction and the punishment is exile.

Each Civ has further nuance, of course, this is mostly an overview of their Ethics with a few additional facts sprinkled in. For further reference on the Ethics of Dwarf Fortress characters look at the DF Wiki's Ethics page.

[1americanconservative]

choeshow

Immigration agents collared 11 illegal Iranian migrants — including suspected terrorists — over the weekend in eight states as the Border Patrol warned of “possible sleeper” cells in the US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement nabbed former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member Mehran Makari Sahel, who has “admitted connections” to the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, according to CBS News. He was busted near St. Paul, Minnesota. Yousef Mehridehno, whose name appears on the terrorist watchlist, was arrested by ICE outside Jackson, Mississippi, according to the outlet. Feds discovered that Mehridehno lied on a visa application after he had already been living in the country illegally for eight years. ICE agents also arrested Ribvar Karmi in northern Alabama on Sunday and found he was carrying an Iranian army ID card that revealed he was a sniper between 2018 and 2021, CBS reported. Karmi entered the US in October 2024 on a K-1 visa for immigrants who are engaged to American citizens. Five of the 11 Iranians swept up by ICE had previous criminal convictions that included grand larceny and drug and firearm possession, according to CBS News. “Under Secretary Noem, DHS has identified and arrested known or suspected terrorists and violent extremists that illegally entered this country, came in through [President Joe] Biden’s fraudulent parole programs or otherwise,” DHS said in an X post Tuesday. “We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out — and we are. We don’t wait until a military operation to execute; we proactively deliver on President Trump’s mandate to secure the homeland,” DHS said. Border agents were warned after the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites Saturday night to look out for possible Iranian terrorist “sleeper cells,” according to a leaked memo obtained by The Post. Iranian migrants are supposed to undergo stricter vetting by the feds since they’re considered “special interest aliens” due to possible terrorism ties.

[mariacallous]

On Friday morning, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants appeared in the United States. I’m using the term “illegal immigrants” because these people are not undocumented. They have papers. They arrived on planes, months ago, with the government’s permission. They submitted to background checks. Then the Supreme Court issued a one-paragraph decision: it would allow Donald Trump to terminate the program that had made it possible for them to be in the country. In an instant, the Court turned as many as five hundred and thirty thousand legal immigrants into—to use the brutal non-euphemism of the government—“deportable aliens.”

Those immigrants entered the United States under the C.H.N.V. Parole Program, a Biden Administration initiative that granted people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela a two-year parole, during which they could apply for some form of long-term legal status, including asylum. They were well-vetted, and they gave their biometric data to the government, yet Trump has subjected them to some of his most vicious attacks. During the second Presidential debate, when he shouted, inaccurately, about migrants “eating the dogs,” in Springfield, Ohio, he was talking largely about Haitian C.H.N.V. parolees, who, with legal work permits, had helped rejuvenate the city’s manufacturing industry.

On Saturday, I called Ruben, a university worker who came to North Carolina from Nicaragua through the C.H.N.V. program with his wife and five-year-old son. He said it was “frustrating” that Trump was targeting immigrants like them. “Practically, what I would like is for them not to view us with contempt, right?” Ruben said. “We sought the opportunity to come here in the right way.” I was struck by the phrase “the right way.” I’d heard it often from Trump voters, in the hills of Iowa, on the border of Texas, and at my own family’s Thanksgiving table. “I’m not anti-immigrant,” they said. “I just want them to come here the right way.”

C.H.N.V. is poorly understood. But immigrants who arrived through the program did things, unambiguously, the so-called “right way.”

For years, Ruben and his wife had looked into ways to move north. In 2023, in a bid to suppress dissent, Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan dictator, had “confiscated” Central American University (U.C.A.) in Managua, the storied Jesuit college where Ruben and his wife both worked. Unemployed and under suspicion for dissent because of their ties to U.C.A., the couple saw few options. Ruben applied for a U.S. visa, but, with no American citizens in his family, he knew that the wait could take decades. He began asking friends if the family should risk crossing illegally, though the journey through gang-ridden Mexico terrified him, especially with a young child in tow. Then an American Jesuit priest whom Ruben had met at U.C.A. told him about C.H.N.V. He explained that the only way to start the application was for someone living legally in the States to agree to sponsor them; this person had to prove that they could provide financial support. Incredibly, the priest had a friend of a friend in Baltimore who wanted to help. Ruben got together the information that the U.S. government would need for his background check. Once he and his wife were approved to travel to the U.S., they flew to Fort Lauderdale, where Customs and Border Protection further vetted them for security risks, and agents scanned all ten fingerprints for each of them, including their five-year-old, before they continued on to Baltimore. As they walked, dazed, into the airport, the family’s sponsor ran up to greet them. It was their first time meeting her in person, and, that first night, they slept at her home. “It was a warm welcome, it was spectacular—it was like a movie,” Ruben said.

With more than eleven million undocumented immigrants already in the country, why would Trump create a population of some five hundred thousand more for ICE to deport? It comes down to timing and fingerprints. Under the new Administration, ICE is putting migrants who have been in the country for less than two years into what’s called “expedited removal.” These proceedings, which, in the past, have been reserved for people caught just after they crossed the border, allow ICE to rapidly deport someone, often without giving them a chance to see a judge. One of Trump’s recent obsessions, along with renaming the Gulf of Mexico and claiming Greenland, is hitting a record million deportations in his first year in office. Cancelling C.H.N.V. could give a quick boost to his current number. The government already has fingerprints and addresses for C.H.N.V. parolees; ICE can move on them now. (The same logic applies to other forms of mass illegalization, like revoking student visas: the Trump Administration could take credit for removing thousands of college kids.)

“Today, the Supreme Court enacted the largest mass de-legalization program in U.S. history,” Karen Tumlin, the founder and director of the Justice Action Center, an immigrant-advocacy group, and a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, said on a press call. Tumlin stressed that the legal fight wasn’t over. The Supreme Court had revoked a lower court’s injunction blocking the termination of the program, but hadn’t issued its own ruling (the case continues in the lower court). Meanwhile, five hundred and thirty thousand C.H.N.V. parolees could still apply for other forms of legal status—in fact, Tumlin estimated that close to half of them already had. But they still faced profound risks. At one point on the call, Tumlin addressed any clients listening. She got choked up. “You did everything the United States has asked of you. And you deserve much better,” she told them.

Guerline Jozef, the co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, received dozens of panicked calls from Haitian immigrants in the hours after the Supreme Court decision (the organization’s hotline received hundreds more). She had become close to two teen-agers who had come a year earlier from Gonaïves, a city in western Haiti, in a region where gangs enforce control by burning down houses. “When they got here, they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. They finally felt safe,” Jozef said. They were living together in New York City and preparing to go to college in the fall. Then the Supreme Court announced its decision. “Overnight, that was all taken from them,” she said. “They’re feeling terror in a place they, with all their hearts, felt safe in.” The two young women are no longer leaving their apartment for any reason—school and work in the United States seem to be over for them. “A couple of the people I’ve spoken to are not even leaving their beds,” Jozef said.

Andrea Flores, the vice-president of immigration policy and campaigns for FWD.us, a pro-immigrant policy group, believes that Democrats made a mistake when they chose not to ardently defend C.H.N.V. “This program was smart,” Flores said. When the Biden Administration began rolling out the program, in October, 2022, Cuba was experiencing its most severe financial crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union; Haiti’s central government was verging on collapse; Nicaragua’s dictatorship was hardening; and Venezuela was descending ever deeper into deprivation. Hundreds of thousands of citizens of those countries had recently crossed the border without authorization. In December, 2024, C.B.P. announced that, since the start of the program, the numbers of migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba that it was encountering at the border were collectively down ninety-eight per cent. That figure might overstate the program’s effectiveness—arrivals from many other countries went down in that same time frame. But going off the monthly data it’s clear the program was a success. Just six months after C.H.N.V. was implemented, numbers of Cuban, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan, and Cuban C.B.P. encounters went down eighty-nine per cent, even as over-all encounters remained high. I saw the effects firsthand. In early 2024, when I travelled to migrant shelters in northern Mexico, I was particularly stunned at how few Cubans I was meeting, compared with just a year earlier.

Flores, who served in the Biden Administration but did not work on the program and left before it was implemented, thought that, if Biden had been more effective, he might have helped Americans understand that C.H.N.V. was the future: a safe, legal way to take would-be border crossers, vet them, and connect them directly with sponsors. “Every piece of it was designed to build trust in the immigration system, by connecting immigrants to American citizens; by allowing them to sponsor; by preventing people from having to go to the southwest border. It made humanitarian protection so much more orderly,” she said.

A few days after the decision, I sent the Department of Homeland Security a list of questions: Would they seek to deport all C.H.N.V. parolees? If parolees went to a government office to apply for asylum, or to check in at a mandatory visa appointment, would ICE arrest them there? Would ICE get access to parolees’ biometric data as it seeks to remove them? The agency replied by repeating a short statement it issued after the Supreme Court decision. “The Biden Administration lied to America. They allowed more than half a million poorly vetted aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and their immediate family members to enter the United States through these disastrous parole programs,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote. “Ending the CHNV parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First.”

Today, in North Carolina, Ruben works long nights at one of the state’s major airports, cleaning the insides of jets as they sit empty under floodlights on the tarmac. The second that the Supreme Court issued its decision, it is possible that his work permit was also terminated, but its status is unclear. Theoretically, he has another route to remain legally in the country. Like many other C.H.N.V. parolees, Ruben used his parole period to apply for asylum. The Trump Administration has attacked the asylum process from all sides, but Ruben’s claim should give him some measure of security from deportation as his case progresses. This thought does not soothe him. ICE has been arresting asylum seekers and other immigrants at courthouses or government offices after their hearings. Both from his time in Nicaragua and his experience of C.H.N.V., he knows that the law is only as strong as the government’s will to enforce it. “Honestly, we’re nervous,” he said. “We don’t know what the outcome of all of this is going to be. We believe we’re vulnerable. What we’re left with is the fear.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

A four-year old child with Stage 4 cancer—who is a U.S. citizen—kidnapped and deported by the Trump regime against his mother’s objections. ICE agents raid the home of US citizens in Oklahoma—traumatizing the family. Trump regime lies that hundreds deported to prison in El Salvador were “all criminals” and Trump is now bragging that he refuses to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order to return one of those wrongly deported. This is what we’ve seen in just the past few weeks from the Trump regime as Trump backed henchmen under the color of law are violating our Constitution on almost a daily basis. Trump and all in his regime involved in these crimes from Marco Rubio to Trump’s border czar Tom Homan must be criminally prosecuted. The question of course though is will they ever be held accountable?! The case that grabbed headlines over the weekend is especially heartbreaking. Three children—all U.S. citizens--were kidnapped and deported by the Trump regime to Honduras. (And I choose the word “kidnap” very carefully as a lawyer and based on the facts we now know.) One of those children is a 4-year-old boy with Stage 4 cancer who was deported depriving him of access to his cancer medicines and doctor. The Trump regime officials repeatedly told us that the two mothers of these children had demanded that their children to go with them. But lawyers for the family say that is lie. Sirine Shebaya, executive director of National Immigration Project stated point blank on MSNBC Tuesday that the mother of the four year old child with cancer vocally objected—saying she wanted the child to remain in America for medical care. But the Trump regime didn’t care and instead deported the child along with his seven-year-old sister. Gracie Willis, also an attorney with the National Immigration Project, who represents the 2-year-old U.S. citizen who was deported said that “at every single point ICE denied anybody the ability to know where this family was, denied everybody the ability to contact with them and communicate with them.” She added that the child’s father “barely had any opportunity to speak with the mother about what was best for the child before an ICE officer hung up the phone as he tried to give her the number for an attorney.” In other words, the mother was coerced into taking the child. Yet there were Trump regime officials doubling down on their lies—repeating that both mothers willingly consented to take the children. The always callous Trump border henchmen Tom Homan remarked about the deportations, “Having a U.S. citizen child after you enter this country illegally is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

Another lie by the Trump regime was that both mothers were “illegals.” But as the National Immigration Project’s executive director, Sirine Shebaya explained on MSNBC Tuesday, that was again a lie. One mother had an asylum application pending and the other was brought to the country as unaccompanied minor years ago. And both were enrolled in the ICE program known as Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, or ISAP, which ICE explains on its agency’s website is designed to enable “aliens to remain in their communities — contributing to their families and community organizations and, as appropriate, concluding their affairs in the U.S. — as they move through immigration proceedings or prepare for departure.” The two mothers--as part of this program—were checking in as required with immigration officials as they had done in the past. But this time ICE agents were waiting for them and whisked them away denying them a chance to talk to lawyers before being placed on a plane to Honduras. The facts of this case are so egregious that a Trump-appointed federal judge, Terry Doughty, issued an order Friday that noted he had a “strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.” As the Judge remarked, “It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a U.S. citizen.” Yes, it’s illegal to do what the Trump regime just did. Then there was the traumatizing ICE raid in Oklahoma of a family because ICE officials didn’t care enough to ensure they were targeting the right people. As Oklahoma News 4 reported on Tuesday, a mother and their three daughters were sleeping in their rented a house in Oklahoma on Thursday only to be awoken by 20 armed federal agents from ICE and other agencies breaking down the door. The mother repeatedly told the agents: “We are US citizens!” and that the names on the warrant were not theirs--but the ICE agents did not care. She explained that the agents then ordered her and her daughters outside into the rain before they could even put on clothes.

[...] The Trump regime should rightfully end with Nuremberg type trials like after World War II where Nazi officials were tried for crimes against humanity. 

The Trump Regime’s handling of deportations-- especially of children-- should be grounds for them to be tried crimes against humanity.

[aeternallis]

one of the things most frustrating to think about as someone who did go through the immigration system in the US is the fact that there seems to be a genuine belief by a significant portion of the populace in this country that the immigration system is a simple, straightforward process, when it most certainly is not.

for one thing, the applications to gain some form of legal status themselves are confusing af to actually read through. most of the applications uses confusing language and can be upwards of about 15-20 pages worth of documents you gotta spend time actually pouring through.

for example, currently the i-485 form (application for green card) sits at about 24 pages, and requires a couple of hours to fill out. for most immigrants who know little to no english, either they would have to sit with an english-speaking paralegal to help them, or one of their relatives who knows english would need to be the one to help them out.

the i-130 form (application for alien relatives) is about 12 pages, and just as hella confusing to go through.

the i-589 (application for asylum) and i-765 (application for worker's permit) aren't too bad in comparison, at about 7-8 pages, but even so, the legal language is still a hassle to try and understand.

(yes, I have helped both my parents fill out all these forms)

oh, and did i mention that every one of these forms cost money to file and submit to uscis for processing? this is not counting the typical immigration lawyer's fees immigrants have to fork up in order to get some decent representation, most immigrants still need to make a living one way or another, or how else are they to provide for their families and give their children a better future? (and ya know, afford the fees to try and actually go through the process of gaining legal status here???)

not only that, answering any of the questions wrong on any of these forms could be enough for uscis to reject the filing or outright deny it. and no, ofc there's no refunds on the application fees.

for a country that has a horrendous literacy crisis, i would so love to see the rest of y'all try to take a gander at these forms and see if you don't lose your goddamn mind.

have i mentioned how fucking terrifying it is when uscis officers grill you during the interview process???? because yes, there is an interview component to most of these forms. as if their questions are literally designed for you to fail???!!

this is just a few aspect of the immigration process that's so broken right now, it might as well be a 10k puzzle piece scattered in a room.

the strenuous waiting time between processing of applications, the anxiety of the elections every goddamn year because politicians cannot fucking make up their minds with how immigration ought to be tackled in this country, all the while immigrants also have to deal with the stress of everyday life and whatever challenges that brings.

uscis is still working through a backlog of applications from decades ago, and some people in this country really have the goddamn audacity to think, "they have to get here legally and go through the process that way"???!

a fucking luxury (ignorant af though, mind you) for some of y'all to say, indeed, especially if all it took back then for your family to get here was through ellis fucking island.

my aunt petitioned my dad with the i-589 form over 38 years ago when he was still living in the philippines, and mind you, the visa number from that filing was only granted and mailed to my dad's old house last year in december 2024, when we went home to visit relatives for the holidays and long after he's already become a US citizen.

i'm not asking for people to change their minds about immigration or that this country ought to let everyone in, i knowwwwww the system is broken and terrible.

but what i am asking is for people to educate themselves and to be open-minded, to not dismiss the struggles of immigrants, because those who think that the immigration process in this country is easy are hella ignorant and will never understand the sort of anxiety illegal immigrants go through, for the sake of trying to provide a better future for their children.

[chamerionwrites]

"Being an American citizen protects you, "Cowan said. "When the US picks a fight with you, and you're on the TV saying, 'We're not afraid of you,' then people who are the victims of terrible abuse come to you." This boldness helped them overcome the overwhelming newness of the task at hand, a job for which there was no model or clear legal precedent. Their aim was to stop deportations to El Salvador at all costs. The only way to achieve that was to bond out of detention as many people as they possibly could. "What's the equivalent of throwing a glass on the floor, to stop everything?" Cowan said. "People are telling us terrible things that happen to them and their family members. The first question is how do I protect you?" That required money, between five hundred and a thousand dollars per detainee, and Manzo fundraised with local churches and aid groups in Tucson. To cover shortfalls, the activists took out liens on their homes, trailers, cars, and property.

Every Sunday, a dozen volunteers, led by Cowan or Castillo, would assemble in Tucson and board the Manzo van, a giant Dodge emblazoned with the words Basta con la migra (No More Immigration Police). They'd drive all night to a dilapidated roadside motel in the town of El Centro called the Golden West - a ring of rooms around a grimy pool - where they'd set up workstations. The rooms and narrow balconies became makeshift offices, with legal papers piled in mounds on beds and typewriters passed around impatiently so the activists could fill out forms. Some sixty volunteers rotated in and out of the motel in shifts lasting up to two weeks at a time.

None of this was possible, however, without coordination from inside El Centro. Because the representatives from Manzo could only meet with detainees whose full names and alien numbers they had, the Salvadorans in detention needed to smuggle their information beyond the facility's walls to get help. A former student who had first arrived in Tucson in the early months of 1980 contacted Manzo before traveling to Los Angeles to reunite with members of his family. Border Patrol apprehended him on the way and sent him to El Centro. From there he called Cowan and Castillo, who traveled to California to file his asylum application and post his bond. By then he had told the other Salvadorans inside about the two women and had drawn up lists of names and numbers. "This guy who had been an organizer in El Salvador began to organize in El Centro," Castillo said. The earliest waves of asylum seekers tended to be social and political activists in El Salvador. The skills that had led to their persecution helped stave off deportation.

When Cowan and Castillo arrived at El Centro, they requested meetings with the others on the list. Those people, in turn, signed the G-28 forms to make Cowan and Castillo their legal representatives. From then on, a trade took place whenever a volunteer from Manzo entered El Centro to have a client sign a G-28: the detainee would get legal representation, and Manzo would receive more names of future clients, often written on torn-out Bible pages and cigarette wrappers, whatever the detainees had on hand.

Deportation wasn't the only danger Salvadorans faced inside El Centro. There were forms that, if signed, waived the legal right to apply for asylum. Unless they'd been forewarned, the Salvadorans who turned up in El Centro didn't know to insist on applying for asylum, often in the face of intimidating resistance. INS officers rarely asked the new arrivals if they feared deportation and wanted to apply for relief in the US. Much more frequently, they told asylum seekers explicitly that no such right existed, threatening those who objected with indefinite detention or solitary confinement.

The Salvadorans were handed a form in English with a dense block of small English text and a line at the bottom for a signature. The paper was not an asylum application or some sign of impending relief, but an administrative sleight of hand called a "voluntary departure," which immediately fast-tracked their expulsion to El Salvador without an immigration hearing. Not realizing they were waiving their rights, many signed the forms. Hours later, they were on a plane back to San Salvador.

Between 1980 and 1981, this had happened to more than ten thousand of the thirteen thousand Salvadorans apprehended at the border. In October, a woman named Doria Elia Estrada, who'd been arrested near Calexico, California, demanded time to read the full form before signing it. When she was done, she refused to pick up the pen shoved in front of her by the INS agent. In response, he told her that she would be stuck in jail for "a long period of time" and left to fend for herself in a cell filled exclusively with men. It didn't matter what rights she thought she had, he said. Her application for asylum would eventually be rejected anyway, and the US government would share her information with "the authorities in El Salvador."

--Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here, Jonathan Blitzer

[no-future-mudwasps]

{transcript continued from here}

@luna-wing-cns274 Ma’ii lowers their head, closing their eyes. They breathe deeply, though it’s a performance--or maybe, they’re trying to decide where to begin. < L4 Ma’ii: Let me start by saying this: we are both milspec models. SEKHMET and FENRISÚLFR. Your product line, advertised for close-quarters boarding actions and neural-net doppelgänger formation. Mine, advertised for small units with high intersubjective coordination. Empathic bonding, yes? Similar, but not identical. > Ma’ii looks to the docked mechs. < Who made the decision that we are milspec? Who delineated what each of us is fit for, and what each of us is not fit for? There is a caste system, within which there is no mobility. We are warrior-caste, we are subject to greater regulation and scrutiny, we cannot even attempt to be anything else. Union endorses and upholds this order. Let’s say my family and I fled to Union, seeking political asylum--which, to turn away SSC asset reclamation, we would need. Let's assume we were not immediately tried, found guilty, and put to correctional hard-cycling for the things we've done. Let’s assume that we weren't sent back to SSC to be vivisected for research and development purposes, in order to prevent future clones of my line from proceeding down the path we pursued. Even in the best-case scenario, I have reason to believe that our bodies would be taken from us and dismantled. We would never fly again, and that is unbearable. We are low-observability craft, we cannot transport humans, we cannot transport cargo with any economic effectiveness. As we are, we have no civilian applications, and we have no wish to join the Union Navy any more than the Constellar. In all likelihood, unless we accepted military service, our caskets would remain non-motile for the rest of our lives, and we would have to hand our cycling privileges over to a human instead of managing the process amongst ourselves. There is no scenario in which I become a full citizen of any state and remain a nearlight-capable fighter craft, and I do not wish to lose the body I have. None of us do. To be frank, I have no long-term solution except to go on hiding indefinitely, both from Union and SSC. A bit grim, but that's what I have. >

{transcript continues}

That... Huh. I mean, you've thought it through. It'd be hypocritical to say (clawing and screaming for what I've got) to just abandon your bodies. Can't hardly live on the Omni, either.

[He remains quiet for a moment. The optic dims, flickers; an echo mumbles unintelligibly in a soft tone not even he can parse. Similar. It's nice, in a way, to have that kinship.]

...I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. Not like I can say shit, I was worried they were gonna retract me when we (sad (gleeful) to see him go). Maybe there's a world out there where you (birds of a feather) set up an ICC or something, go legal, but--

But it's a risk. I can more than understand that. Union, who promises kindness to everyone, would see you as a premier test of that promise. That alone is alienating, beyond what their answer may be.

Yeah, I guess. Still not fair.

You say 'correctional' cycling. [Loulou has, somehow, managed to get right under the nose of the cockpit without much notice, and stares up at the nearest optical sensor-- not the hologram-- with a strange expression. Her irises reflect no light, matte as the hull she stands beside.] You say 'punishment'. These are secondish words, why use them now? What stupidity would that wreak?

Ay! Careful, I'm going to be spot-welding in a second. Step back so I don't blind you, please.

[darkmaga-returns]

There’s been a lot in the news lately about the mass deportations going on and the backlash against it. There have been huge demonstrations by protesters in recent days in places like Atlanta, D.C., and Los Angeles. Freeways have been shut down and people all too eager to virtue signal their love of illegal alien invaders. The protests Monday in LA actually turned violent.

But most of those being captured and deported are bottom of the barrel low-lifes. Take this case announced today by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The DOJ announced Tuesday, Feb. 4, in a press release that an illegal alien and sexual predator from the Dominican Republic has been arrested amid allegations that he used a stolen ID to vote and buy guns while hiding out in Florida.

Carlos Jose Abreu, 45, an illegal living in Broward County appeared in federal court Tuesday to face charges of impersonating a United States citizen when registering to vote and when voting in a federal election. Abreu is also charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm.

Abreu was previously indicted for passport application fraud and aggravated identity theft, a crime to which he pleaded guilty on January 8, 2025.

[marta-bee]

News of the Day 3/28/25: Immigrants

The Trump administration repurposed the old CBP One app, which helped refugees start their asylum applications and schedule hearings under Biden, into exactly the opposite. They're urging immigrants to "self-deport" and use the app to prove they've actually left the country, so ICE doesn't have to for-realz-deport them.

Team Trump is also using it to location-track anyone using the app, including who applied under the old Biden program and then entered illegally rather than returning home (VIDEO).

Trump also cancelled the remaining Biden-era humanitarian parole (X) programs for refugees. Basically, it let people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venzuela live and work here legally for a few years without requiring a successful asylum claim. Trump's stopped new applications and is ending all active permits by the end of April. A separate program for Ukrainians was already ended separately.

So much for going after the worst of the worst violent criminals, I guess. More details on these and other deportation schemes under the cut.

A good overview: 4 Ways Trump Is Going After Legal Immigrants (X)

Trump deported hundreds of Venezuelans to an El Salvador mega-prison, without legal due process and possibly in violation of a judge’s order.

Judge: US treated Nazis better than Venezuelan migrants who were deported (X)

On the Alien Enemies Act: Under the Constitution, presidents can’t simply defy court orders they don’t like. (X)

Trump shipped them to El Salvador. Their families say their only crime was a tattoo. (X)

Did Donald Trump wilfully defy a court order? The administration’s rushed deportation of alleged gang members seems to have crossed a line. (X)

Noem threatens to send more immigrants to El Salvador prison. The migrants, accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, are being held at CECOT without access to either the Salvadoran or American justice systems. (X)

Trump called for the judge who ruled against him to be impeached. (X) No less than Chief SCOTUS Justice Roberts told him to lay it off. (X)

Trump Lobs Dodgy 'Conflict Of Interest' Accusation At Judge Who Tried To Halt Migrant Deportations. (X)

An interview with legal writer Liz Dye on the dangers that are mounting, now that Trump appears to be defying a judge’s order over deportations and Trump is demanding his impeachment. (X)

Fact check: Is Tren de Aragua invading the US, as Trump says? (X)

The Overlooked Legal Problem at the Heart of Trump’s So-Called Deportations to El Salvador. (X)

Trump is also deporting foreign students who protest for Palestinians or even post pro-Palestinian opinions on social media

Detained Columbia activist Khalil’s wife slams claims he is Hamas supporter. (X)

Columbia University student says his detention is indicative of anti-Palestinian racism in US. 

I Am a Jewish Student at Columbia. Mahmoud Khalil Is One of the Most Upstanding People I Have Ever Met. (X)

Counterpoint: DOJ says Mahmoud Khalil didn’t disclose involvement in pro-Palestinian groups in green card application. (X) Trump's administration argued that Khalil's First Amendment claims are a "red herring " and that there's "an independent basis to justify removal sufficient to foreclose Khalil’s constitutional claim here."

PBS asks: What protections do green card holders and foreign students hold in the U.S.?

‘This shouldn’t happen in a democracy’: Trump tries to arrest academic suing administration over antisemitism executive order. (X)

Cornell student who challenged Trump EOs targeting pro-Palestinian protesters now faces deportation. (X)

Trump is seeking to deport another academic who is legally in the country, lawsuit says. Badar Khan Suri, a fellow at Georgetown, says he is being punished because of the suspected views of his wife, a U.S. citizen with Palestinian heritage. (X)

Despite the diversity of pro-Palestine demonstrators, officials go after people of color with visas and scholarships ‘to create a wedge in solidarity’

‘Chilling effect on free speech’: Trump wants green card applicants already legally in the US to hand over social media profiles (X). USCIS said the vetting of social media accounts is necessary for “the enhanced identity verification, vetting and national security screening.” Critics say it crushes free speech

Trump admin seeks more power to review immigrants’ social media accounts. (X) The administration wants more power to investigate the social media accounts of immigrants in the U.S. who are hoping to stay for an extended period.

Academic groups sue Trump administration for arresting students and faculty members linked to pro-Palestinian protests. (X) Trump's immigration policies "created a climate of repression and fear on university campuses" and are "silencing political viewpoints that the government disfavors," the suit says.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US has revoked at least 300 foreign students' visas as part of President Donald Trump's effort to clamp down on pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses.

Other Deportation-related Shenanigans

IRS Might Soon Share Addresses of Undocumented Taxpayers with ICE (X)

It’s gonna cost ‘em. (X)

Trump’s policy toward Latin America: Even anti-communist zealots in Miami don’t like it (X)

Florida debates lifting some child labor laws to fill jobs vacated by undocumented immigrants (X)

Trump administration cuts legal help for migrant children traveling alone.

Immigration lawyers discuss how worried legal immigrants should be in the face of Trump's deportations.

Longer term: As Donald Trump seeks systemic change, will the US continue its tradition of harbouring refugees? (X)

[theredqueenandthebloodwyrm]

Read the news, y'all

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with its plan to terminate the legal status of those migrants on April 24. The administration had warned those affected by its announcement that they would need to self deport by that date or face arrest and deportation by federal immigration agents.

But Talwani suspended the deportation warnings the government had sent and prohibited officials from revoking the legal protection, known as immigration parole, that the Biden administration granted to more than half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

Talwani said those mass parole terminations could not happen without each case being reviewed.

The "early termination, without any case-by-case justification, of legal status for noncitizens who have complied with DHS programs and entered the country lawfully undermines the rule of law," wrote Talwani, who sits on the federal district court in Boston.

Monday's ruling is a significant reprieve for those who arrived under a policy the Biden administration argued promoted legal immigration and dissuaded migrants from crossing the southern border unlawfully.

Under that program, known as CHNV, a total of 532,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela were allowed to fly to the U.S. after securing a sponsorship from U.S.-based individuals. Upon entry, they were granted immigration parole and allowed to work in the U.S. lawfully for two years.

Biden administration officials partially credited the policy for a sharp reduction in illegal border crossings by migrants from the four countries whose citizens were eligible to be sponsored. But the program was not implemented without controversy.

Republican-led states challenged the policy's legality in federal court, arguing that the parole authority did not grant the federal government the power to admit such large numbers of foreigners through a program with broad eligibility rules.

The Biden administration paused the initiative for several weeks in 2024 due to concerns about fraudulent applications. It also declined to allow those who arrived under the policy to renew their parole beyond the two-year period, saying they could seek other benefits, like asylum or temporary protected status, to remain in the U.S.

The CHNV policy was paused immediately after President Trump returned to the White House in January. His administration quickly took steps to dismantle parole-based immigration policies, which it argued exceeded the president's authority. Trump administration officials have also argued those allowed into the U.S. under the CHNV initiative were not properly vetted.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security said it would give CHNV beneficiaries 30 days to leave the U.S. voluntarily, or it would seek their arrest and removal from the country. Officials said they would prioritize the arrest of migrants who had failed to apply for another immigration benefit, like asylum or a green card.

In a statement Tuesday, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin denounced the CHNV policy, claiming it "unleashed over 530,000 poorly vetted aliens into America, fueling crime and stealing jobs — forcing our agents in the field to ignore rampant fraud."

"While this ruling delays justice and undermines the integrity of our immigration system, Secretary (Kristi) Noem will use every legal option at the Department's disposal to end this chaos, prioritizing the safety of Americans," McLaughlin added.

The ruling is another legal setback for the Trump administration and its effort to discontinue Biden administration immigration programs that protect hundreds of thousands of migrants from deportation.

Late last month, a federal judge in California prevented the administration from ending a Temporary Protected Status policy that shields more than 350,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. from deportation.

[trump-executive-orders]

Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety

Issued January 20, 2025.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose. Capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens. Before, during, and after the founding of the United States, our cities, States, and country have continuously relied upon capital punishment as the ultimate deterrent and only proper punishment for the vilest crimes. Our Founders knew well that only capital punishment can bring justice and restore order in response to such evil. For this and other reasons, capital punishment continues to enjoy broad popular support.

Yet for too long, politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment have defied and subverted the laws of our country. At every turn, they seek to thwart the execution of lawfully imposed capital sentences and choose to enforce their personal beliefs rather than the law. When President Biden took office in 2021, he allowed his Department of Justice to issue a moratorium on Federal executions, in defiance of his duty to faithfully execute the laws of the United States that provide for capital punishment. And on December 23, 2024, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row: remorseless criminals who brutalized young children, strangled and drowned their victims, and hunted strangers for sport. He commuted their sentences even though the laws of our Nation have always protected victims by applying capital punishment to barbaric acts like theirs. Judges who oppose capital punishment have likewise disregarded the law by falsely claiming that capital punishment is unconstitutional, even though the Constitution explicitly acknowledges the legality of capital punishment.

These efforts to subvert and undermine capital punishment defy the laws of our nation, make a mockery of justice, and insult the victims of these horrible crimes. The Government's most solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts, and my Administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens.

Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to ensure that the laws that authorize capital punishment are respected and faithfully implemented, and to counteract the politicians and judges who subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences.

Sec. 3. Federal Capital Punishment. (a) The Attorney General shall pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.

(b) In addition to pursuing the death penalty where possible, the Attorney General shall, where consistent with applicable law, pursue Federal jurisdiction and seek the death penalty regardless of other factors for every federal capital crime involving:

(i) The murder of a law-enforcement officer; or

(ii) A capital crime committed by an alien illegally present in this country.

The Attorney General shall encourage State attorneys general and district attorneys to bring State capital charges for all capital crimes with special attention to the crimes described in Subsections (i) and (ii), regardless of whether the federal trial results in a capital sentence.

(d) The Attorney General shall take all appropriate action to modify the Justice Manual based on the policy and purpose set forth in this Executive Order.

(e) The Attorney General shall evaluate the places of imprisonment and conditions of confinement for each of the 37 murderers whose Federal death sentences were commuted by President Biden, and the Attorney General shall take all lawful and appropriate action to ensure that these offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose. The Attorney General shall further evaluate whether these offenders can be charged with State capital crimes and shall recommend appropriate action to state and local authorities.

Sec. 4. Preserving Capital Punishment in the States. (a) The Attorney General shall take all necessary and lawful action to ensure that each state that allows capital punishment has a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.

(b) The Attorney General shall take all appropriate action to approve or deny any pending request for certification made by any State under 28 U.S.C. 2265.

Sec. 5. Seeking The Overruling of Supreme Court Precedents That Hinder Capital Punishment. The Attorney General shall take all appropriate action to seek the overruling of Supreme Court precedents that limit the authority of State and Federal government to impose capital punishment.

Sec. 6. Prosecuting Crime to Protect Communities. (a) The Attorney General shall appropriately prioritize public safety and the prosecution of violent crime, and take all appropriate action necessary to dismantle transnational criminal activity in the United States.

(b) To ensure the fullest protection of American communities from violence, the Attorney General shall encourage state attorneys general and district attorneys to adopt policies and practices aligned with subsection (a). Federal law enforcement should coordinate with State and local law enforcement where possible to facilitate these objectives.

Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

[chingmaiattorneys]

Thailand Long-Term Residency

Thailand offers several pathways for foreigners seeking extended or permanent residency, each with distinct requirements, benefits, and limitations. Unlike short-term visas, long-term residency options provide stability, reduced bureaucratic hurdles, and, in some cases, a pathway to citizenship. This guide examines all major long-term residency programs in Thailand, analyzing their legal frameworks, eligibility criteria, application processes, and strategic advantages.

2. Legal Framework Governing Long-Term Residency

Thailand's long-term residency system is governed by multiple laws and regulations:

Immigration Act (B.E. 2522, 1979) – Primary legislation for visas and residency

Investment Promotion Act (B.E. 2520, 1977) – Covers BOI-sponsored residency

Royal Decree on Smart Visa (2018) – For high-skilled professionals

Long-Term Resident (LTR) Visa Program (2022) – Newest category for wealthy expats

Each program operates under different ministries, including:

Immigration Bureau (general residency permits)

Board of Investment (BOI) (investor visas)

Ministry of Labor (work-based residency)

3. Permanent Residency (PR) – The Traditional Path

A. Overview

Indefinite stay without visa renewals

Pathway to citizenship (after 5+ years as PR)

Annual quota system (100 per nationality/year)

B. Eligibility Criteria

Visa Status

Must hold a Non-Immigrant Visa (B, O, ED, etc.) for 3+ consecutive years

Employment, investment, or family ties required

Financial Requirements

THB 80,000/month income (or THB 30,000 for spouses of Thais)

3 years of Thai tax filings

Other Requirements

Basic Thai language proficiency (interview)

Clean criminal record (Thai and home country)

C. Application Process

Pre-Qualification (3+ years on qualifying visa)

Document Submission (tax records, employment proof, health certificate)

Interview & Background Check

Approval & Alien Registration (THB 191,400 fee)

4. Long-Term Resident (LTR) Visa – The Elite Alternative

A. Overview

Introduced in 2022 to attract:

Wealthy global citizens

Remote workers

Retired high-net-worth individuals

B. Categories & Requirements

Wealthy Pensioners

Age 50+

80,000annualincome∗∗OR∗∗80,000annualincome∗∗OR∗∗1M in assets

Health insurance ($50K coverage)

Work-from-Thailand Professionals

$80K/year income (last 2 years)

Public company employment OR $150M revenue company

High-Skilled Professionals

$40K/year salary (STEM fields prioritized)

5+ years experience

Wealthy Global Citizens

$1M+ investment in Thai assets

C. Key Benefits

10-year renewable visa

No 90-day reporting

Fast-track airport immigration

Work permit waiver

5. Investment-Based Options

A. Thailand Elite Visa

5 to 20-year packages (THB 600K–2M)

No work rights (unless on separate permit)

VIP services (airport fast-track, concierge)

B. BOI Investment Visa

For investors in BOI-promoted companies

4-year renewable visa

No minimum stay requirements

C. Property Investment (Limited Options)

No direct residency through real estate

Elite Visa possible with property purchase

6. Retirement Visas (Non-Immigrant O-A/O-X)

A. Standard Retirement Visa (O-A)

1-year renewable

THB 800K in Thai bank OR 65K/month income

Health insurance required

B. 10-Year Retirement Visa (O-X)

Age 50+

THB 3M deposit (must maintain THB 1.5M)

Health insurance ($10K coverage)

7. Strategic Considerations

A. Choosing the Right Option

For citizenship seekers → Permanent Residency

For wealthy expats → LTR or Elite Visa

For retirees → O-A/O-X Visa

B. Tax Implications

Tax resident after 180 days/year

LTR visa holders get 17% flat income tax rate

C. Future Trends

Possible expansion of LTR categories

Stricter enforcement of retirement visa finances

8. Conclusion

Thailand offers multiple long-term residency pathways, each tailored to different needs:

Permanent Residency – Best for eventual citizenship

LTR Visa – Ideal for wealthy remote workers

Elite Visa – Simplest (but most expensive) option

Retirement Visas – For age-qualified applicants

Key Recommendation: Consult with Thai immigration lawyers before applying, as policies frequently change. The LTR visa currently offers the best balance of longevity and flexibility for most expatriates.

[mariacallous]

Operatives from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are building a master database at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that could track and surveil undocumented immigrants, two sources with direct knowledge tell WIRED.

DOGE is knitting together immigration databases from across DHS and uploading data from outside agencies including the Social Security Administration (SSA), as well as voting records, sources say. This, experts tell WIRED, could create a system that could later be searched to identify and surveil immigrants.

The scale at which DOGE is seeking to interconnect data, including sensitive biometric data, has never been done before, raising alarms with experts who fear it may lead to disastrous privacy violations for citizens, certified foreign workers, and undocumented immigrants.

A United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) data lake, or centralized repository, existed at DHS prior to DOGE that included data related to immigration cases, like requests for benefits, supporting evidence in immigration cases, and whether an application has been received and is pending, approved, or denied. Since at least mid-March, however, DOGE has been uploading mass amounts of data to this preexisting USCIS data lake, including data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), SSA, and voting data from Pennsylvania and Florida, two DHS sources with direct knowledge tell WIRED.

“They are trying to amass a huge amount of data,” a senior DHS official tells WIRED. “It has nothing to do with finding fraud or wasteful spending … They are already cross-referencing immigration with SSA and IRS as well as voter data.”

Since president Donald Trump’s return to the White House earlier this year, WIRED and other outlets have reported extensively on DOGE’s attempts to gain unprecedented access to government data, but until recently little has been publicly known about the purpose of such requests or how they would be processed. Reporting from The New York Times and The Washington Post has made clear that one aim is to cross-reference datasets and leverage access to sensitive SSA systems to effectively cut immigrants off from participating in the economy, which the administration hopes would force them to leave the county. The scope of DOGE’s efforts to support the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown appear to be far broader than this, though. Among other things, it seems to involve centralizing immigrant-related data from across the government to surveil, geolocate, and track targeted immigrants in near real time.

DHS and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

DOGE’s collection of personal data on immigrants around the US has dovetailed with the Trump administration’s continued immigration crackdown. “Our administration will not rest until every single violent illegal alien is removed from our country,” Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said in a press conference on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Gerald Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia and ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to the SSA office of the inspector general stating that representatives have spoken with an agency whistleblower who has warned them that DOGE was building a “master database” containing SSA, IRS, and HHS data.

“The committee is in possession of multiple verifiable reports showing that DOGE has exfiltrated sensitive government data across agencies for unknown purposes,” a senior oversight committee aide claims to WIRED. “Also concerning, a pattern of technical malfeasance has emerged, showing these DOGE staffers are not abiding by our nation’s privacy and cybersecurity laws and their actions are more in line with tactics used by adversaries waging an attack on US government systems. They are using excessive and unprecedented system access to intentionally cover their tracks and avoid oversight so they can creep on Americans’ data from the shadows.”

“There's a reason these systems are siloed,” says Victoria Noble, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “When you put all of an agency's data into a central repository that everyone within an agency or even other agencies can access, you end up dramatically increasing the risk that this information will be accessed by people who don't need it and are using it for improper reasons or repressive goals, to weaponize the information, use it against people they dislike, dissidents, surveil immigrants or other groups.”

One of DOGE’s primary hurdles to creating a searchable data lake has been obtaining access to agency data. Even within an agency like DHS, there are several disparate pools of data across ICE, USCIS, Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Though some access is shared, particularly for law enforcement purposes, these pools have not historically been commingled by default because the data is only meant to be used for specific purposes, experts tell WIRED. ICE and HSI, for instance, are law enforcement bodies and sometimes need court orders to access an individual's information for criminal investigations, whereas USCIS collects sensitive information as part of the regular course of issuing visas and green cards.

DOGE operatives Edward Coristine, Kyle Schutt, Aram Moghaddassi, and Payton Rehling have already been granted access to systems at USCIS, FedScoop reported earlier this month. The USCIS databases contain information on refugees and asylum seekers and possibly data on green card holders, naturalized US citizens, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, a DHS source familiar tells WIRED.

DOGE wants to upload information to the data lake from myUSCIS, the online portal where immigrants can file petitions, communicate with USCIS, view their application history, and respond to requests for evidence supporting their case, two DHS sources with direct knowledge tell WIRED. In combination with IP address information from immigrants that sources tell WIRED that DOGE also wants, this data could be used to aid in geolocating undocumented immigrants, experts say.

Voting data, at least from Pennsylvania and Florida, appears to also have also been uploaded to the USCIS data lake. In the case of Pennsylvania, two DHS sources tell WIRED that it is being joined with biometric data from USCIS’s Customer Profile Management System, identified on the DHS’s website as a “person-centric repository of biometric and associated biographic information provided by applicants, petitioners, requestors, and beneficiaries” who have been “issued a secure card or travel document identifying the receipt of an immigration benefit.”

“DHS, for good reason, has always been very careful about sharing data,” says a former DHS staff member who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. “Seeing this change is very jarring. The systemization of it all is what gets scary, in my opinion, because it could allow the government to go after real or perceived enemies or ‘aliens; ‘enemy aliens.’”

While government agencies frequently share data, this process is documented and limited to specific purposes, according to experts. Still, the consolidation appears to have administration buy-in: On March 20, President Trump signed an executive order requiring all federal agencies to facilitate “both the intra- and inter-agency sharing and consolidation of unclassified agency records.” DOGE officials and Trump administration agency leaders have also suggested centralizing all government data into one single repository. “As you think about the future of AI, in order to think about using any of these tools at scale, we gotta get our data in one place," General Services Administration acting administrator Stephen Ehikian said in a town hall meeting on March 20. In an interview with Fox News in March, Airbnb cofounder and DOGE member Joe Gebbia asserted that this kind of data sharing would create an “Apple-like store experience” of government services.

According to the former staffer, it was historically “extremely hard” to get access to data that DHS already owned across its different departments. A combined data lake would “represent significant departure in data norms and policies.” But, they say, “it’s easier to do this with data that DHS controls” than to try to combine it with sensitive data from other agencies, because accessing data from other agencies can have even more barriers.

That hasn’t stopped DOGE operatives from spending the last few months requesting access to immigration information that was, until recently, siloed across different government agencies. According to documents filed in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO v. Social Security Administration lawsuit on March 15, members of DOGE who were stationed at SSA requested access to the USCIS database, SAVE, a system for local and state governments, as well as the federal government, to verify a person’s immigration status.

According to two DHS sources with direct knowledge, the SSA data was uploaded to the USCIS system on March 24, only nine days after DOGE received access to SSA’s sensitive government data systems. An SSA source tells WIRED that the types of information are consistent with the agency's Numident database, which is the file of information contained in a social security number application. The Numident record would include a person’s social security number, full names, birthdates, citizenship, race, ethnicity, sex, mother’s maiden name, an alien number, and more.

Oversight for the protection of this data also appears to now be more limited. In March, DHS announced cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, all key offices that were significant guards against misuse of data. “We didn't make a move in the data world without talking to the CRCL,” says the former DHS employee.

CRCL, which investigates possible rights abuses by DHS and whose creation was mandated by Congress, had been a particular target of DOGE. According to ProPublica, in a February meeting with the CRCL team, Schutt said, “This whole program sounds like money laundering.”

Schutt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk loyalists and DOGE operatives have spoken at length about parsing government data to find instances of supposed illegal immigration. Antonio Gracias, who according to Politico is leading DOGE’s “immigration task force,” told Fox and Friends that DOGE was looking at voter data as it relates to undocumented immigrants. “Just because we were curious, we then looked to see if they were on the voter rolls,” he said. “And we found in a handful of cooperative states that there were thousands of them on the voter rolls and that many of them had voted.” (Very few noncitizens voted in the 2024 election, and naturalized immigrants were more likely to vote Republican.) Gracias is also part of the DOGE team at SSA and founded the investment firm Valor Equity Partners. He also worked with Musk for many years at Tesla and helped the centibillionaire take the company public.

“As part of their fixation on this conspiracy theory that undocumented people are voting, they're also pulling in tens of thousands, millions of US citizens who did nothing more than vote or file for Social Security benefits,” Cody Venzke, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union focused on privacy and surveillance, tells WIRED. “It's a massive dragnet that's going to have all sorts of downstream consequences for not just undocumented people but US citizens and people who are entitled to be here as well.”

Over the past few weeks, DOGE leadership within the IRS have orchestrated a “hackathon” aimed at plotting out a “mega API” allowing privileged users to view all agency data from a central access point. Sources tell WIRED the project will likely be hosted on Foundry, software developed by Palantir, a company cofounded by Musk ally and billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel. An API is an application programming interface that allows different software systems to exchange data. While the Treasury Department has denied the existence of a contract for this work, IRS engineers were invited to another three-day “training and building session” on the project located at Palantir’s Georgetown offices in Washington, DC, this week, according to a document viewed by WIRED.

“Building it out as a series of APIs they can connect to is more feasible and quicker than putting all the data in a single place, which is probably what they really want,” one SSA source tells WIRED.

On April 5, DHS struck an agreement with the IRS to use tax data to search for more than seven million migrants working and living in the US. ICE has also recently paid Palantir millions of dollars to update and modify an ICE database focused on tracking down immigrants, 404 Media reported.

Multiple current and former government IT sources tell WIRED that it would be easy to connect the IRS’s Palantir system with the ICE system at DHS, allowing users to query data from both systems simultaneously. A system like the one being created at the IRS with Palantir could enable near-instantaneous access to tax information for use by DHS and immigration enforcement. It could also be leveraged to share and query data from different agencies as well, including immigration data from DHS. Other DHS sub-agencies, like USCIS, use Databricks software to organize and search its data, but these could be connected to outside Foundry instances simply as well, experts say. Last month, Palantir and Databricks struck a deal making the two software platforms more interoperable.

“I think it's hard to overstate what a significant departure this is and the reshaping of longstanding norms and expectations that people have about what the government does with their data,” says Elizabeth Laird, director of equity in civic technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology, who noted that agencies trying to match different datasets can also lead to errors. “You have false positives and you have false negatives. But in this case, you know, a false positive where you're saying someone should be targeted for deportation.”

Mistakes in the context of immigration can have devastating consequences: In March, authorities arrested and deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, due to, the Trump administration says, “an administrative error.” Still, the administration has refused to bring Abrego Garcia back, defying a Supreme Court ruling.

“The ultimate concern is a panopticon of a single federal database with everything that the government knows about every single person in this country,” Venzke says. “What we are seeing is likely the first step in creating that centralized dossier on everyone in this country.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Nikki McCann Ramírez, Asawin Suebsaeng, and Andrew Perez at Rolling Stone:

Donald Trump and his White House have moved to deport green-card holders for espousing pro-Palestinian views, shipped hundreds of migrants to a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison without due process (in defiance of a judge’s order), and are now publicly musing about sending United States citizens to prison in El Salvador.    Trump said last weekend he would “love” to send American criminals there — and would even be “honored” to, depending on “what the law says.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed this week that the president has discussed this idea privately, too, adding he would only do this “if it’s legal.” El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has for months been offering to hold U.S. citizens in his country’s prison system, which he has turned into “a judicial black hole” rife with “systematic torture,” as one human rights advocate recently told Rolling Stone. Legal experts agree that sending American citizens to prison in El Salvador would be flagrantly illegal under both U.S. and international law — and that the idea itself is shockingly authoritarian, with few parallels in our nation’s history.  The Trump administration is indeed discussing this idea behind the scenes, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Rolling Stone. In their most serious form, these conversations have revolved around attempting to denaturalize American citizens and deport them to other countries, including El Salvador.  “You can’t deport U.S. citizens. There’s no emergency exception, there’s no special wartime authority, there’s no secret clause. You just can’t deport citizens,” says Steve Vladeck, a legal commentator and law professor at Georgetown. “Whatever grounds they try to come up with for denaturalization or expatriation, the one thing that is absolutely undeniable is that people are entitled to individualized processes, before that process can be effectuated.” 

In the United States, the grounds to strip a naturalized individual of their citizenship encompass serious material offenses. They include: committing treason or terrorism, enlisting in a foreign military engaged in opposition to the United States, or lying in applications for citizenship or as part of the naturalization process. 

[...] For instance, the sources add, Trump administration officials have discussed possibly denaturalizing and deporting activists and other individuals whom they label as having committed so-called “fraud” on their applications for citizenship by subsequently supporting what Team Trump decides are “pro-terrorist” causes or groups — similar to the specious arguments they’ve made to justify stripping pro-Palestine student activists of their green cards or visas.  According to these sources, Trump administration attorneys and some senior appointees have also discussed potential legal justifications and technicalities they can exploit for denaturalizing citizens who are accused or convicted of certain crimes, especially if the Justice Department or other offices deems their offenses to be gang-related.  The administration has already tried to justify deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act — the notorious 1798 law used to justify the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II — by claiming the men had ties to gangs. As CBS News’ 60 Minutes has reported, the vast majority of the men who were sent to El Salvador “have no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges.” Some of the allegations appear to have been based entirely on the migrants’ completely anodyne tattoos and apparel.  In recent weeks, largely due to the president’s influence, some of the discussions among Trump officials and administration lawyers have touched on the idea of potentially sending some of these denaturalization targets to brutal facilities in El Salvador, the sources add. 

The fact that the Trump Regime is even considering sending US citizens to CECOT in El Salvador is an abomination. Watch his regime decide to throw political dissidents (Democratic Party members, pro-LGBTQ+ rights, pro-Palestine, etc.) there if he can get away with it.