@jherrerx
Freelance reporter, un tipo chido I cover the border and other bad news. I write about how changing demography impacts individual lives, in particular in Latino communities. Work in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Texas Monthly
Really grateful for @gabydvj.bsky.social's in-depth reporting, especially crucial in finding the continuity amidst the new chaos and cruelty, and clearly showcasing the lines between what people can do for each other on their own, and what government needs to do.
www.theverge.com/policy/87710...
lizzie johnson @lizziejohnsonnn · 49m I was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone. I have no words. I'm devastated. Quote lizzie johnson @lizziejohnsonnn · Jan 25 Waking up without power, heat, or running water. (Again.) But the work here in Kyiv continues. Warming up in the car, writing in pencil — pen ink freezes — by headlamp.
INBOX: Washington Post Ukraine Correspondent Lizzie Johnson announces that she has been laid off in the middle of a below-freezing war zone without power, heat, or running water.
Again, this is FALSE. Administrative warrants are NOT signed by an immigration judge (or any judge at all). They are generated and signed by ICE officers themselves with no external oversight whatsoever.
Here is a blank sample warrant. Note who signs off on it; an "immigration officer."
In Minneapolis, for every story detailing the fallout of the federal crackdown, there are as many stories of people like Bri, a mom donating breastmilk for babies whose mothers are detained by ICE.
Bri's story:
19thnews.org/2026/02/minn...
“If (Taylor Rehmet) were to lose by six points, that’d be worth talking about,” one political expert told me ahead of last night's race. “And if Rehmet were to win? You’d say, ‘Holy shit.’”
Rehmet won by 14 points.
The southern frontier is quiet enough that Border Patrol agents have time to go brutalize Minnesotans.
But people are still crossing.
Who are they? I found out in a peculiar way—by getting briefly confused for a smuggler and stopped on the Rio Grande: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
Five presidents in five years. High-profile firings and cancellations. Crackdowns on dissent. Inside state leaders’ efforts to remake Texas A&M University.
The number of people seeking refuge has cratered close to zero. But hundreds of people are still attempting to smuggle across the border every single day. As one former govt official told me, it’s a type of migration “we’re likely always going to have"
The southern frontier is quiet enough that Border Patrol agents have time to go brutalize Minnesotans.
But people are still crossing.
Who are they? I found out in a peculiar way—by getting briefly confused for a smuggler and stopped on the Rio Grande: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.
This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
In 2023 NYT laid out Trump’s mass deportation plan: detain immense numbers of people in such miserable conditions that they’re compelled to stop fighting their cases & agree to leave.
They’re still getting to “immense numbers.” But the core concept is working for them. mailchi.mp/43a225b48ded...
SCOOP: 404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for ELITE, a tool Palantir made for ICE which brings up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address.
The full user guide here:
From the compa @jherrerx.bsky.social for @texasmonthly.bsky.social: "In the year since Trump has taken back the White House, border crossings have not stopped. What’s changed are the types of border crossings the Border Patrol is seeing."
Trump is dispatching Border Czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to "manage operations on the ground."
In case you missed it, here's our investigation into Homan and his relationships with government contractors/consultants cashing in on the deportation business:
The people building the houses should be able to buy the houses.
After hearing about @gallego.senate.gov new housing plan to build 8 million new units, @chuckrocha.bsky.social & @mikemadrid.bsky.social discuss could why housing is THE fight for Latino Voters
Full episode here:
youtu.be/KoPgbC3KJQI
I do wonder if this was the administration's logic in getting Bovino so much air-time, making him so prominent—they get a less-than-consequential fall-guy for when BP and ICE take things too far
It’s always funny when palantir employees discover that they work at palantir
Wrote about the observers. The people standing by and filming and the risk they are taking to let the world see what is happening. It's crucial and its the only way to combat the lies and blatant propaganda. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
Oh damn, oh shoot, others are doing unto me as I hath done unto others
smiling portrait of Liam, age 5, in a school picture
witness photo, courtesy of the school district, showing Liam outside his front door with a masked agent by his side.
Liam is one of four Columbia Heights, MN school district students who have been taken by ICE in the last two weeks, the school district said. Liam's teacher: “He is so kind and loving, and his classmates miss him. He ... just brightens the room. All I want is for him to be back here and safe.”
Sure it was ICE? Not CBP?
1. ICE has STOPPED PAYING for medical treatment for its 73,000 detainees
ICE has not paid its bills to 3rd party providers since OCTOBER and the situation will likely persist for MONTHS, a Popular Information investigation reveals
Meanwhile, critically ill ICE detainees are not receiving care
🧵
I'll point out that @mprnews.org has covered the fraud ad nauseum. We all know about it (thanks to public radio). No one is pro-fraud. It's bad. State and federal prosecutors have been prosecuting it. Both the governor and the AG have been investing heavily in fraud detection. There's no cover up.
A treaty between the U.S. and Mexico aims to manage resources that flow between nations. What happens when the water dries up?
“These are just bandaids. They’re just buying time—for what, I don’t know,”
I cannot emphasize enough how serious the water supply issue is in the North American west, and it just keeps getting worse.
This is a news dispatch, to help folks understand the stakes as Trump pushes Mexican President Sheinbaum to send billions of gallons north.
Subscribe to @texasmonthly.bsky.social, and keep an eye out for some huge stories we have coming soon on the future of the once-mighty Rio Grande. 3/3
Here are the stakes:
The Rio Grande starts in CO, but often doesn't make it past El Paso.
Which means most of the water in the lower Rio—from Presidio to Brownsville—comes from Mexico.
...and TX cities like Laredo rely on the Rio for ALL their water. 2/3
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
I've traveled through the Rio Grande watershed, from up on the continental divide in Colorado down through the basin in Mexico, where rivers flow north, providing the water for millions of Texans.
The US wants more water from MX. But at the end of the day, we're both fucked. 1/3
NOW— Mass ICE arrests happened/are happening at the Manhattan immigration court at 290 Broadway on the 20th floor.
I was just outside the building and an observer came out crying, confirmed they witnessed people getting detained outside courtrooms while families watched and wept.
