July 20, 1967 The first Black Power conference was held in Newark, New Jersey, calling on black people in the U.S. “to unite, to recognize their heritage and to build a sense of community.” Read more
July 20, 1971 The first labor contract in the history of the federal government was signed by postal worker unions and the newly re-organized U.S. Postal Service. This contract was made possible by the postal strike of March 1970, in which 200,000 postal workers walked off the job, defying federal law. Prior to that, postal worker salaries started at $6,200 a year, and many postal workers were eligible for food stamps. The strike was not organized by a national union; it started when rank-and-file workers walked off the job in New York City and it spread to other parts of the country. The strike led to federal legislation that allowed postal unions to negotiate a contract with postal management (previously, postal salaries were set by Congress), with provisions for arbitration if no agreement were reached.Since that time, postal unions have successfully negotiated or arbitrated wages and benefits that provide a secure standard of living for their members. Read about the history of the APWU (American Postal Workers Union)
In my recent post about participating in a French journalism festival, I mentioned that the publisher of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo appeared on one of the cartoonists’ panel discussions. Due to the high security around him, his participation wasn’t advertised and had, at least to my count, five armed bodyguards who followed him around constantly. Those murders at the offices of Charlie Hebdo were 10 years ago and this man still has to have around the clock protection.
I drew and wrote quite a bit about the issue of free speech during that time and it still infuriates me that some people feel they have the right to threaten (and even kill) cartoonists just because they feel offended. While most of the world were in solidarity after the massacre, the discussion in the U.S. turned to questions about limiting speech…coming even from the so-called liberals in the media.
And now we have another editorial cartoonist receiving death threats because of a cartoon he drew about the Texas floods. Right wing commentators and even several news outlets are describing the cartoon by Adam Zyglis as “mocking” the flood survivors, which of course it is not. It is a legitimate comment about the Republican hypocrisy of attacking government programs except when natural disasters affect them.
Margaret Sullivan has a good piece about how social media, the “right-wing outrage machine” (although I’d argue the left also engages in this), and ignorance of an editorial cartoon’s purpose all figure into these potentially dangerous situations.
(my graphic essay after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre)
(snip-go see it on Substack; just click through. The comic turns quite small with a copy/paste, and enlarging it makes it blurry. -A.)
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Fed TACO by Clay Jones
If Fed Chair Jerome Powell gets a hankering for Tacos today, we know why Read on Substack
Donald Trump hates Jerome Powell, which puts Powell in a non-exclusive club. Donald Trump hates a lot of people. Am I on that list?
Jerome Powell, of course, is the Chair of the Federal Reserve. Last night, TACO met with about a dozen House Republicans and asked their opinions on whether or not he should fire Powell. Trump even showed them a letter he wrote firing Powell. He just hasn’t sent it yet.
Asked today by the press in the Oval Office about this letter and the imminent firing of Powell, Trump said it’s very unlikely.
Did Trump just TACO Jerome Powell? Trump earned the nickname TACO from his tariff threats, where he threatens to place tariffs on nations, then backs off, and threatens again, then backs off. Wall Street has started to ignore Trump’s tariff threats, which created “Trump Always Chickens Out.” It’s the acronym for TACO.
Calling Trump TACO upsets him greatly, but he’s still chickening out with the tariffs.
Speaking of tariffs, in June, our nation had its first surplus in nine years. Wow! The surplus is $27 billion, though the national debt is still over $36 trillion (year to date is over $1 trillion). MAGAts are celebrating this, praising Trump, and calling him a genius for this surplus they think was paid by other nations, forgetting that tariffs are taxes. Trump raised taxes on Americans, and it’s the American taxpayer from where this $27 billion surplus came from.
Republicans, do not ever play a shell game because you will lose. On the other hand, I just created a new game, Republican. Come play with me. (snip-MORE)
Margolis & Cox by Clay Jones
(Note from A.-this one’s long, but I left it whole so we can check our comics sources. The names are interesting, though I’ve seen some of the work, and wondered about it. -A.)
I’m gonna get in trouble again, but it’s good trouble Read on Substack
There’s a duo who create cartoons together, which is my first issue with these guys.
Though there’s no set rule for it, political cartooning is supposed to be a solo craft. I don’t even take ideas from readers. Here, we have a writer feeding ideas to an artist, and they’re terrible ideas. The cartoons are worse than the vitriolic bigotry shit out by Gary Varvel, Steve Kelley, and Mike Lester (if you think I just pissed some cartoonists off, I’m just getting warmed up, baby). At least those dudes can suck on their own. But the MargoCox goons work for Townhall, a very racist right-wing propaganda outlet. Based on that alone, no legitimate news publication should be publishing their cartoons/propaganda, and no syndicate should be distributing them. Unfortunately, Politico publishes them as they’re syndicated by Cagle Cartoons, owned by Daryl Cagle.
In the past, Cagle was also the syndicate for the “anonymous” cartoonist, who was Canadian Cameron Cardow, a racist conspiracy theorist pretending to be an American in fear for his life from liberals, wokeness, and trans people. Politico published his work, too, no matter that it violated every journalism ethics policy in existence. Instead of the racist Cameron, why couldn’t Canada just send us more black squirrels?
I’m pretty sure the first syndicate that will distribute AI-created “cartoons” will be Cagle, and Politico will be waiting to publish them. I’m shocked Cagle isn’t selling lying racist antisemitic conspiracy theorist MAGAt Ben Garrison’s cartoons. He draws Trump with muscles. Take note, MargoCox.
But MargoCox has been producing horrible cartoons, many typical of other conservative cartoons with bigotry and lies, but also boring and bad writing for the most part. They’re a two-man trope machine. Last week, they produced something extremely racist.
If Margo wrote it, then Cox should have refused to draw it. I don’t know these guys, but I’m going to have to assume they’re both equally racist bags of dicks (and after a brand new encounter with them today, I’m not assuming anymore). As for Cagle Cartoons, the syndicate should have said no. Daryl Cagle should have refused to have his name on it.
I took issue with this, so I tweeted and posted this to Facebook (which at this time has 156 comments) on Sunday.
I hate posting the cartoon here, but you have to see it to understand the extent of the racism. It’s like old-timey minstrel shit. I got a reply from Margocox, but it was just a nonsensical GIF.
To me, it comes off as “neener neener, I owned you by being racist. Tee-hee.” If I’m wrong, feel free to inform me what this shit is. I think the guys are proud to be racist. Later, they posted another gif, but this time to my Facebook page.
I did not hear from Daryl Cagle…or did I?
I got a message from a friend late Sunday night who works for Cagle. He said he had to call “bullshit” on my post about Cagle and MargoCox. He said that the cartoon duo worked for Townhall and not Cagle, which I thought I had been clear about. I know how a syndicate works. I own a syndicate.
He said that this specific cartoon hadn’t been sent to Cagle for syndication yet and was not in their database, and that he couldn’t even find it. He demanded to know where I found the cartoon. I told him…
How could I find the cartoon, and he couldn’t?
He explained that it was on Cagle’s website, but NOT on the syndicate website. Yeah, I’m confused. It’s sitting right there, on Cagle’s site with Cagle’s name on it. What up with that? But then he did a whatabout (which should be only a MAGAt technique, but it’s what he did) and said I never go after another syndicate for this kind of stuff, but I do, and I have called out other racist, gaslighting, conspiracy theorist cartoonists in the past. He’s known me for decades, so this can’t be the first time he’s seen me call out cartoonists. In fact, he’s secretly messaged me in the past to feed me dirt on other cartoonists, hoping I would publish it (other cartoonists do this too).
But as for the cartoon NOT being on the syndication site, it is, and presented here with the pricing list.
Cagle is definitely selling this racist cartoon.
I asked my friend, who may not be my friend anymore, if Cagle had sent him to talk to me. It took him a while to reply. Are you familiar with messenger services where you can see that the other person is replying, or trying to…and you see the dots while they’re typing, then they stop, start again, stop, start again, all because the person is trying to formulate how he wants to say something. There was a lot of that.
But he finally got his denial through, saying he hadn’t talked to Cagle about it. I replied, “He’s talking to you right now, isn’t he?” I never got another reply to the conversation he initiated. That was two days ago.
Today, Margolis & Cox came after me, not by defending themselves from accusations of racism, but by attacking my art skills, as if that has anything to do with their racism.
Only right-wing MAGAt trolls attack my drawing ability because it changes the subject and tries to put the onus on me. It’s also stupid criticism when it takes two of them to produce the rancid, bigoted tropes they crap out. I replied, saying that it doesn’t matter how well you draw if the ideas are shit. And their racist ideas are shit.
Of course, I was accused of trying to cancel them, and they’re right. I’m trying to cancel racism. They, with Daryl Cagle’s help, are advancing racism. In addition to racism, you should see all the homophobic crap they’re selling. Homophobic cartoons like this, and this, and this. Also, fellas…don’t talk about my art until you figure out how doors work.
I don’t know which one was coming at me, Margo or Cox, but it demanded that I defend myself from their attacks on my art (roll your eyes) and said there was nothing racist about drawing a black woman as a clown, except these art critics didn’t draw her as a clown. All they did was give her giant lips.
They said I was a “mediocre” cartoonist, jealous of them, and that being “printed” means they don’t “suck.” It’s like talking to very racist and stupid children. I really don’t like to boast about my success, and I don’t think I am that successful, but guys…I’m published more than the two of you put together, and I have more awards at this time than you will ever see, unless the Daily Stormer gives out cartoon awards.
And you can’t brag about being syndicated when your cartoons are sold by the same guy who sells Gary McCoy and the “Anonymous” cartoonist.
This went on for a while with them, and I quickly learned it was pointless to talk to the moron twins because they’re like insecure and immature little boys… little stupid racist boys. If someone were able to make them listen to why their cartoon is racist, they wouldn’t have the intellectual bandwidth combined to comprehend. They’re too stupid to be drawing political cartoons, and much too stupid to be syndicated. But I’ve also learned over the years that Cagle will syndicate anyone if it’ll get him a nickel. He exercises zero civic responsibility.
Syndicates need to be responsible for the stuff they put out. If they can’t, then they shouldn’t sell it. When I asked Cagle a couple of years ago on Twitter to justify syndicating the anonymous cartoonist, his answer was, “I don’t see a problem with it,” which is not an answer.
Now, he’s not replying to this. Why not? Because he can’t justify it. His only reason for carrying this shit is that it might sell. But he needs to explain why he sells racist cartoons. This is beyond a different viewpoint or a counterpoint. He can’t argue it’s not racist, because it is, and the comments from his employee indicate that they know it’s racist. Why was he so upset in the first place? Because I “accused” Cagle of selling a racist cartoon, which I have proven they are doing.
One of Cagle’s cartoonists, Gary McCoy, has had multiple newspapers apologize to their readers for his racist cartoons, with one paper even pulling cartoons altogether over it. This happens with Gary’s work TIME after TIME after TIMEafterTIME, and Cagle continues to sell his racist cartoons. I don’t understand why Cagle continues to carry McCoy despite his racism, because McCoy’s cartoons suck. They can’t be bringing in that much revenue, can they?
What I propose, since Daryl Cagle refuses responsibility for selling racism, is that all of his cartoonists, the ones whose work he syndicates, need to tell him he needs to stop.
A few cartoonists commented on my initial post about MargoCox, outraged over their racism. A few of those are Lalo Alcaraz, Chris Britt, Marc Murphy, John Kovalic, Kevin Necessary, Bob Krieger, Phil Hands, Gary Huck, and Steve Brodner. Other cartoonists need to step up, even those syndicated by Cagle, and denounce racism in political cartooning.
Guys, you are in the business of publishing your opinions…publish your opinion on this. Speak up, or at least speak to Daryl. Tell him to cut out the bullshit. This should go double for the good cartoonists who are in Cagle’s stable. I’m looking at you, some of whom are my friends who I respect greatly, Pat Bagley, Adam Zyglis, Ed Wexler, Michael de Adder, Rick McKee, Bill Day, Jeff Koterba, John Cole, and Alexandra Bowman. For the love of god, for the love of this industry, say something.
I’m asking my colleagues to stand up against racism in our industry, because we know Daryl never will.
A friend of mine, who is a Black woman, said about this, “It’s sad but the good thing as Black women is that we are used to this type of hate to the point where we expect it, and since we have so much experience with it, we are able to rise above it because that’s the only other choice that we have.”
One last note: MargoCox told me that calling them out “will not end well for me.”
The comments will be open for everyone on this blog, because the accused and the ones I’ve called out deserve the opportunity to reply.
The Young GOPer Behind “Alligator Alcatraz” Is the Dark Future of MAGA
James Uthmeier is the real brains behind this notorious migrant detention camp in the Everglades. The more barbarities that emerge, the brighter his star will no doubt shine.
The other day, Stephen Miller went on Fox News and offered a plea that got surprisingly little attention given its highly toxic and unnerving implications. Miller urged politicians in GOP-run states to build their own versions of “Alligator Alcatraz,” the state-run immigration detention facility that officials just opened in the Florida Everglades.
“We want every governor of a red state, and if you are watching tonight: pick up the phone, call DHS, work with us to build facilities in your state,” Miller said, in a reference to the Department of Homeland Security. Critically, Miller added, such states could then work with the federal government by supplying much-needed detention beds, helping President Trump “get the illegals out.”
Keep all that in mind as we introduce you to one James Uthmeier.
Uthmeier, the attorney general of Florida and a longtime ally of Governor Ron DeSantis, is widely described in the state as the brains behind “Alligator Alcatraz.” Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics, sums him up this way: “In Uthmeier, DeSantis found his own Stephen Miller.”
Uthmeier is indeed a homegrown Florida version of Miller: Only 37 years old, he brings great precociousness to the jailing of migrants. Like Miller, he is obscure and little-known relative to the influence he’s amassing. Also like Miller, he is fluent in MAGA’s reliance on the spectacle of inhumanity and barbarism.
“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” Uthmeier said of “Alligator Alcatraz” in a slick video he recently narrated about the complex, which featured heavy-metal guitar riffs right out of a combat-cosplay video game. “People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”
Any migrant who dares escape just might get devoured alive by an animal—one animal eating another. Dehumanization is so thrilling!
The real-world “Alligator Alcatraz” is already gaining notoriety for its very real cruelties. After Democratic lawmakers visited over the weekend, they sharply denounced the scenes they’d witnessed of migrants packed into cages under inhumane conditions. Meanwhile, detainees and family members have sounded alarms about worm-infested food and blistering heat. And the Miami Heraldreports that an unnervingly large percentage of the detainees lack criminal convictions.
But Uthmeier is getting feted on Fox News and other right wing media for this new experiment in spite of such notorieties—or perhaps because of them. There’s good reason to think more red state politicians will seek to create their own versions of “Alligator Alcatraz” or get in on this action in other ways—and that more young Republican politicians will see it as a path to MAGA renown and glory.
For one thing, the money is now there. Buried in the big budget bill that Trump recently signed is a little-noticed provision that immigration advocates increasingly fear could fund more complexes like this one. It makes $3.5 billion available to “eligible states” and their agencies for numerous immigration-related purposes, including the “temporary detention of aliens.”
When Miller told GOP politicians to follow Uthmeier by collaborating with federal officials to develop new versions of “Alligator Alcatraz,” he was probably talking about this slush fund. State officials can try to tap into it for building out such facilities. “For Republican states across the country that want to copy the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ model, this bill will give them that money,” immigration analyst Austin Kocher tells me.
What’s more, red state politicians are paying attention. Fox News contacted numerous gubernatorial offices to ask if they intend to take up Miller’s invitation. The responses were positive, with many eagerly touting plans for detention complexes. While it’s unclear if these will resemble “Alligator Alcatraz,” the underlying impulse is clear: Many red states want to expand state-run detention efforts. And again: The money is there.
This is a bad development. “Alligator Alcatraz” should not be the model for the future of migrant detention in much of the United States.
Here’s why. The facility is funded and operated by the state of Florida, but the state can use it to detain undocumented people under a federal program that allows ICE to authorize local law enforcement to carry out immigration crackdowns. That puts “Alligator Alcatraz” in a grey area: Local law enforcement agencies are using it to carry out Trump’s immigration detention agenda even as ICE does not run the facility.
Lauren-Brooke Eisen of the Brennan Center, who specializes in criminal justice, points to a toxic combination built into the idea of more versions of this arrangement. ICE detention is subject to federal oversight. But huge influxes of federal money for migrant detention—as in Trump’s new bill—could create new incentives for states to ramp up their own detention efforts. Yet because “Alligator Alcatraz” is a new experiment, she says, it’s unclear what sort of federal oversight future imitation efforts would receive, even if they get some federal money.
“What will access to counsel look like for detainees?” Eisen asks. “What will access to family members look like? It’s difficult to imagine state-run facilities where conditions and due process are prioritized.”
Illustrating the point, when a reporter recently asked ICE for comment on what’s going on inside “Alligator Alcatraz,” ICE said, well, it isn’t their facility. In other words, the federal government is not responsible for what happens inside those walls—even as Miller and Trump call on other states to build more of them.
Which brings us back to Uthmeier and the future of MAGA.
It’s easy to see Uthmeier and his “Alligator Alcatraz” becoming a model for other young Republicans seeking a route into MAGA celebrity. Consider his career trajectory: It’s fairly conventional establishment-Republican stuff. A native of Destin, a small beach city in the deep red Florida panhandle, he earned a law degree from Georgetown and then worked for the Commerce Department in the first Trump administration—and then for the ultra-establishment D.C. law firm Jones Day.
Uthmeier has also made appearances at the conservative Federalist Ssociety, which is as establishment-conservative as it gets. He joined DeSantis’s first administration as a senior legal adviser, and then got appointed as attorney general when the slot was vacated by the appointment of former AG Ashley Moody to now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Senate seat.
All in all, it’s in some ways a conventional path to GOP success. In fact, Uthmeier actually has a track record of criticizing Trump in the past on things like Covid-19 and abortion. But J.D. Vance survived such heresies, and now, in the party that Trump remade, Uthmeier apparently recognizes that “Alligator Alcatraz” is his big ticket. It’s a reminder that in today’s GOP, the MAGA and older-line Republican establishments are bleeding into one another—and that getting attached to such an idea is a path to national MAGA stardom.
Put another way, in the cut-throat world of the MAGA attention economy, association with things like “Alligator Alcatraz” can carry enormous weight. It’s hard for people who don’t swim in MAGA’s rancid information currents to grasp, but when Trump recently toured the facility with DeSantis, it was a huge MAGA propaganda coup for the Florida governor (yes, he apparently still harbors national ambitions).
Indeed, one person who very much noticed this was apparently Uthmeier himself. According to one Florida operative in touch with Uthmeier’s staff, there’s considerable sensitivity in his inner circle over who is getting credit for “Alligator Alcatraz,” with some worrying that Uthmeier isn’t reaping enough of it.
Uthmeier needn’t worry, however. When Trump toured the facility, he said of Uthmeier: “That guy’s got a future.” In this, the MAGA God King himself gave a big boost to Uthmeier’s 2026 electoral bid to keep his appointed AG role, which will be a platform for even higher ambitions. And if more barbarities emerge from “Alligator Alcatraz,” as they surely will, his MAGA future will only get that much brighter.
Immigrants without criminal backgrounds have been among the fastest-growing groups of ICE detainees. Less than a third of ICE detainees, 28.5%, are convicted criminals, according to the data. Another quarter have pending criminal charges and the rest have no criminal histories.
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Immigrants being detained in federal holding rooms in Lower Manhattan have complained of being unable to bathe or change clothes, cramped conditions, sometimes being provided just one meal a day, and sleeping on concrete benches or the floor.
Some immigrants staying at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding rooms at 26 Federal Plaza also report stays lasting days at a time — as many as 10 days in one case referenced in a court filing.
“ There’s no room to sit down – standing room only,” said Rebecca Rubin, an immigration attorney for the New York Legal Assistance Group, who has had at least three clients detained in the cells.
The allegations came in court papers filed by lawyers representing immigrants held at the Lower Manhattan facility and in interviews with immigrants who said they were detained there.
Congressmembers, who for weeks have been refused entry at the site on the ground that the facilities are not “detention centers” but rather off-limits “processing centers,” have also raised concerns.
“Do not go treating people subhumanly — treating immigrants, simply because they are not born here — as if they are second class, as if they are not human,” Rep. Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, told reporters Tuesday in a press conference outside the facility. “That is not what this country’s about.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement, dismissed the complaints in their entirety: “Any claim that there is overcrowding or subprime conditions is categorically false. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”
She added: “As we arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens and public safety threats from the U.S., ICE has worked diligently to obtain greater necessary detention space while avoiding overcrowding.”
In a previous statement, McLaughlin said, “26 Federal Plaza is not a detention center. It is a Federal building with an ICE law enforcement office inside of it.”
The holding areas are guarded rooms on the 10th floor of the federal government office building, just steps away from state and federal courthouses and City Hall. Those being detained include immigrants taken into custody after immigration court hearings in the same building.
The rooms used to be temporary holding areas where immigrant detainees were held for a few hours before being transferred to larger, more permanent and resourced detention centers, according to local immigration attorneys. But the lawyers said in recent months, detainees have been sleeping overnight in overcrowded facilities, some for days.
“In the past… it was sort of understood that (detainees) weren’t going to be spending any sort of meaningful time there,” said Harold Solis, co-legal director of Make the Road New York, the local chapter of the national immigrants’ rights advocacy group. “This is definitely a different reality that people are experiencing there.”
S. Michael Musa-Obregon, a New York-based immigration attorney, added, “It used to be a holding pen, like a central booking. Now it’s becoming a temporary jail.”
Several members of New York’s congressional delegation, including Reps. Nydia Velázquez, Adriano Espaillat, Jerry Nadler and Goldman, all Democrats, have tried in recent weeks to inspect the holding areas but were denied entry.
Federal law allows lawmakers to inspect detention facilities, with no notice needed. But in a conversation with Nadler and Goldman, ICE Deputy Field Office Director William Joyce said the site was a temporary “processing center,” not a detention facility and not subject to inspection.
In the June 18 exchange with the two lawmakers, recorded by Gothamist in a hallway at 26 Federal Plaza, Joyce said the holding areas were “approaching capacity.”
He added that detainees were being held overnight, but that claims of migrants staying for a week or more were “an exaggeration.”
‘These conditions are inhumane’
Immigration lawyers contend, based on ICE’s public detainee tracking system, that a detainee named Joselyn Chipantiza-Sisalema had been detained inside the facility for 10 days.
Make the Road NY filed a lawsuit on July 3 against the federal government, advocating for her release.
Lawyers for Chipantiza-Sisalema, a 20-year-old high school student, wrote in a court filing, “She has told her parents that her conditions of confinement are extremely distressing: she is sleeping on the floor, she is in the same clothes she was detained in and the food she is provided is inadequate.”
Chipantiza-Sisalema wasn’t allowed to call or visit with a lawyer, she wasn’t allowed to call anyone but her parents and she had spoken with her family only three times, for a minute each time, according to the court filing.
Chipantiza-Sisalema was transferred to another detention facility on Friday, according to Solis.
“These conditions are inhumane as individuals detained do not have access to beds, regular meals, or communication with loved ones or counsel,” lawyers wrote in Chipantiza-Sisalema’s case. “Detainees also report that they are not able to bathe or change clothes; that the temperature can be extremely hot or cold; and that medical care is not provided.”
Another detainee, Derlis Snaider Chusin Toaquiza, a 19-year-old high school student, was fed one to two meals a day and “forced to sleep sitting up for lack of space,” his attorneys wrote in a lawsuit demanding his release from ICE detention. Toaquiza was held for two days in a small room with over 60 people, according to the filing.
“The room was so crowded that he could not lie down and he had to sleep sitting up,” the filing said.
Enrique, 52-year-old former detainee from Peru who asked not to share his last name for fear of retaliation against his family still living in the United States, said he slept in a holding cell at 26 Federal Plaza for six days in late June.
Enrique said that when he first entered the roughly 5 by 10 meter room, there were about 30 people. Guards gave him an aluminum blanket to stay warm.
By the time he was transferred to another detention center, six days later, he said there were 100 people and not enough blankets to go around.
“We were on top of each other,” Massamba Gueye, a 29-year-old detainee from Senegal, told Gothamist. He said he was detained with about 30 men in a room for one night in early June. Gueye said while he was there, another man fainted, hit his head and started bleeding — but guards didn’t respond.
“Nobody was bothered to even try to help him,” Gueye, who has since been transferred to another ICE facility, said in a phone interview.
‘They’re killing us. My liver is killing me.’
Immigrants detained at 26 Federal Plaza and their relatives also complain about lack of medical care.
Samara Simone de la Cruz Gooden, 22, said her husband Joan Paul Alcivar de la Cruz, a 27-year-old from Ecuador, was detained at 26 Federal Plaza for at least four to five days in late June. Gooden said most of her husband’s liver had been removed before his detention and he requires a special diet, which he didn’t receive while staying in the holding cell.
“He broke down,” Gooden said. “He was like, ‘They’re killing us. My liver is killing me. I’m pooping out a lot of blood. I’m so scared.’”
De la Cruz didn’t receive any medical help while he was detained at 26 Federal Plaza, Gooden said. Eventually, he was rushed to the hospital, she said, where she wasn’t allowed to speak with him.
De la Cruz was eventually transferred to a facility in Louisiana, where he is currently being held. Attorneys at the New York Legal Assistance Group have filed a lawsuit advocating for his release.
Concerns have arisen about ICE detaining immigrants for days in short-term holding facilities elsewhere across the country.
A lawsuit filed last week in California claims that ICE is holding immigrants in another “processing center” in a basement in downtown Los Angeles — in what the lawsuit describes as “dungeon-like facilities,” with overcrowded, windowless rooms holding dozens of detainees.
Some rooms are so cramped that detainees can’t sit or lie down for hours at a time, the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit also alleges that detainees lack necessary food, medical care and access to legal counsel. New York Attorney General Letitia James and attorneys general for 17 states filed a brief in support of that lawsuit.
More detention space is coming
On Tuesday, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Goldman observed immigration court hearings and arrests inside 26 Federal Plaza.
While speaking to members of the press outside afterward, Goldman shared testimonies of migrants he said had been detained inside, who complained of overcrowded conditions and insufficient food and water.
Lander and Williams urged New Yorkers and elected officials to visit the building and observe immigration court hearings and subsequent ICE arrests. Lander was arrested last month while escorting a man away from his immigration court hearing.
Under President Donald Trump, ICE has ramped up immigration arrests, while at once contending with a shortage of detention space. As of the end of June, nearly 58,000 people were being held in ICE detention centers, according to the latest agency data — far exceeding ICE’s current detention capacity of 41,000 beds.
Immigrants without criminal backgrounds have been among the fastest-growing groups of ICE detainees. Less than a third of ICE detainees, 28.5%, are convicted criminals, according to the data. Another quarter have pending criminal charges and the rest have no criminal histories.
Trump’s signature “big, beautiful” domestic policy bill, recently signed into law, includes about $170 billion to support the administration’s immigration crackdown. That includes about $45 billion for immigration detention centers, which the American Immigration Council estimates will allow ICE to expand its detention capacity to 116,000 beds.
Jessica Gould contributed reporting.
This story was updated with comment from the Department of Homeland Security.
Here is the reason for the post. The Department of Justice announced Thursday that its Civil Rights Division is investigating the state of Minnesota for possible hiring discrimination. What the current US government is trying to roll back all gains by minority groups since the 1960s. They started by making teaching the history of oppression of black people an attack on white people by making CRT a boogie man. Then came woke as the villain and save the children from the gays or anyone with a different lifestyle from the straight cis majority. Now it is DEI. The right has hammered on DEI even though most on the MAGA side couldn’t tell you what it means. The media on the right has tried to say any black person or any woman hired is not qualified and only got the job because they were a quota DEI hire. They see a black pilot and think DEI as in not qualified to fly better get off the plane as Charlie Kirk said on his show. They are trying to make the US a white straight cis ethnostate in the model of Russia with the white males clearly in charge. We must not let them destroy the melting pot mixture of different people and cultures that have made the US such a grand country. Plus the AG Bondi claims DEI is illegal but no law was passed by the congress? tRump seems to think if he says it or if he signs an executive order that makes it law. He is not a dictator yet. Hugs
The investigation represents one in a series of clashes between the state and Trump’s DOJ.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (left) and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (right) await the arrival of then-Vice President Kamala Harris at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on March 14, 2024. | Stephen Maturen/AFP via Getty Images
The Department of Justice announced Thursday that its Civil Rights Division is investigating the state of Minnesota for possible hiring discrimination, setting up another clash between the Trump administration and the state’s Democratic leadership.
The investigation hinges on a policy issued earlier this month by the Minnesota Department of Human Services mandating that hiring supervisors provide a “hiring justification when seeking to hire a non-underrepresented candidate,” according to a Thursday letter sent to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison from Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s DOJ has pursued an aggressive crackdown on states and universities that engage in affirmative action policies, opening similar investigations into Rhode Island and the University of California.
“Minnesotans deserve to have their state government employees hired based on merit, not based on illegal DEI,” Bondi said in a statement.
The statute specifies that the justifications are required for “nonaffirmative action hires,” the Minnesota Department of Human Services said in a statement defending its policy.
“The Minnesota Department of Human Services follows all state and federal hiring laws,” it said. “Justification of non-affirmative action hires for some vacancies has been required by state law since 1987.”
The White House has repeatedly clashed with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has sharply criticized the president since running for vice president on the Democratic ticket in 2024. Ellison has also filed multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration seeking to block several of its policies, and the DOJ sued Minnesota last month to stop the state from providing in-state tuition for some undocumented students.
Trump also refused to call Walz after two Minnesota state lawmakers were shot in May, calling the governor “so whacked out.”
Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Ellison’s office declined to comment.
That pesky thing called the US CONSTITUTION says that the people have a right to protest the government. The last ten or more years the federal government has been trying to restrain the rights of the people to protest or have their voices heard. This is another example. Hugs
DHS is urging law enforcement to treat even skateboarding and livestreaming as signs of violent intent during a protest, turning everyday behavior into a pretext for police action.
The Department of Homeland Security is urging local police to consider a wide range of protest activity as violent tactics, including mundane acts like riding a bike or livestreaming a police encounter, WIRED has learned.
Threat bulletins issued during last month’s “No Kings” protests warn that the US government’s aggressive immigration raids are almost certain to accelerate domestic unrest, with DHS saying there’s a “high likeliness” more Americans will soon turn against the agency, which could trigger confrontations near federal sites.
Blaming intense media coverage and backlash to the US military deployment in Los Angeles, DHS expects the demonstrations to “continue and grow across the nation” as protesters focused on other issues shift to immigration, following a broad “embracement of anti-ICE messaging.”
The bulletins—first obtained by the national security nonprofit Property of the People through public records requests—warn that officers could face assaults with fireworks and improvised weapons: paint-filled fire extinguishers, smoke grenades, and projectiles like bottles and rocks.
At the same time, the guidance urges officers to consider a range of nonviolent behavior and common protest gear—like masks, flashlights, and cameras—as potential precursors to violence, telling officers to prepare “from the point of view of an adversary.”
Protesters on bicycles, skateboards, or even “on foot” are framed as potential “scouts” conducting reconnaissance or searching for “items to be used as weapons.” Livestreaming is listed alongside “doxxing” as a “tactic” for “threatening” police. Online posters are cast as ideological recruiters—or as participants in “surveillance sharing.”
One list of “violent tactics” shared by the Los Angeles–based Joint Regional Intelligence Center—part of a post-9/11 fusion network—includes both protesters’ attempts to avoid identification and efforts to identify police. The memo also alleges that face recognition, normally a tool of law enforcement, was used against officers.
Vera Eidelman, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, says the government has no business treating constitutionally protected activities—like observing or documenting police—as threats.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
“Exercising those rights shouldn’t be justification for adverse action or suspicion by the government,” Eidelman says. Labeling something as harmless as skateboarding at a protest as a violent threat is “disturbing and dangerous,” she adds, and could “easily lead to excessive force against people who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.”
“The DHS report repeatedly conflates basic protest, organizing, and journalism with terroristic violence, thereby justifying ever more authoritarian measures by law enforcement,” says Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People. “It should be sobering, if unsurprising, that the Trump regime’s response to mass criticism of its police state tactics is to escalate those tactics.”
Fusion centers like JRIC play a central role in how police understand protest movements. The intelligence they produce is rapidly disseminated and draws heavily on open-source data. It often reflects broad, risk-averse assumptions and includes fragmentary and unverified information. In the absence of concrete threats, bulletins often turn to ideological language and social media activity as evidence of emerging risks, even when tied to lawful expression.
DHS’s risk-based approach reflects a broader shift in US law enforcement shaped by post-9/11 security priorities—one that elevates perceived intent over demonstrable wrongdoing and uses behavior cues, affiliations, and other potentially predictive indicators to justify early intervention and expanded surveillance.
A year ago, DHS warned that immigration-related grievances were driving a spike in threats against judges, migrants, and law enforcement, predicting that new laws and high-profile crackdowns would further radicalize individuals. In February, another fusion center reported renewed calls for violence against police and government officials, citing backlash to perceived federal overreach and identifying then-upcoming protests and court rulings as likely triggers.
At times, the sprawling predictions may appear prescient, echoing real-world flashpoints: In Alvarado, Texas, an alleged coordinated ambush at a detention center this week drew ICE agents out with fireworks before gunfire erupted on July 4, leaving a police officer shot in the neck. (Nearly a dozen arrests have been made, at least 10 on charges of attempted murder.)
In advance of protests, agencies increasingly rely on intelligence forecasting to identify groups seen as ideologically subversive or tactically unpredictable. Demonstrators labeled “transgressive” may be monitored, detained without charges, or met with force.
Social movement scholars widely recognize the introduction of preemptive protest policing as a departure from late-20th century approaches that prioritized de-escalation, communication, and facilitation. In its place, authorities have increasingly emphasized control of demonstrations through early intervention, surveillance, and disruption—monitoring organizers, restricting public space, and responding proactively based on perceived risks rather than actual conduct.
Infrastructure initially designed to combat terrorism now often serves to monitor street-level protests, with virtual investigations units targeting demonstrators for scrutiny based on online expression. Fusion centers, funded through DHS grants, have increasingly issued bulletins flagging protest slogans, references to police brutality, and solidarity events as signs of possible violence—disseminating these assessments to law enforcement absent clear evidence of criminal intent.
Surveillance of protesters has included the construction of dossiers (known as “baseball cards”) with analysts using high-tech tools to compile subjects’ social media posts, affiliations, personal networks, and public statements critical of government policy.
Obtained exclusively by WIRED, a DHS dossier on Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia graduate student and anti-war activist, shows that analysts drew information from Canary Mission, a shadowy blacklist that anonymously profiles critics of Israeli military action and supporters of Palestinian rights.
In federal court Wednesday, a senior DHS official acknowledged that material from Canary Mission had been used to compile more than 100 dossiers on students and scholars, despite the site’s ideological slant, mysterious funding, and unverifiable sourcing.
Threat bulletins can also prime officers to anticipate conflict, shaping their posture and decisions on the ground. In the wake of violent 2020 protests, the San Jose Police Department in California cited the “numerous intelligence bulletins” it received from its local regional fusion center, DHS, and the FBI, among others, as central to understanding “the mindset of the officers in the days leading up to and throughout the civil unrest.”
Specific bulletins cited by the SJPD—whose protest response prompted a $620,000 settlement this month—framed the demonstrations as possible cover for “domestic terrorists,” warned of opportunistic attacks on law enforcement and promoted an “unconfirmed report” of U-Haul vans purportedly being used to ferry weapons and explosives.
Subsequent reporting in the wake of BlueLeaks—a 269-gigabyte dump of internal police documents obtained by a source identifying as the hacktivist group Anonymous and published by transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets—found federal bulletins riddled with unverified claims, vague threat language, and outright misinformation, including alerts about a parody website that supposedly paid protesters and accepted bitcoin to set cars on fire, despite a clear banner labeling the site “FAKE.”
Threat alerts—unclassified and routinely accessible to the press—can help law enforcement shape public perception of protests before they begin, laying the groundwork to legitimize aggressive police responses. Unverified DHS warnings about domestic terrorists infiltrating demonstrations in 2020, publicly echoed by the agency’s acting secretary on Twitter, were widely circulated and amplified in media coverage.
Americans are generally opposed to aggressive protest crackdowns, but when they do support them, fear is often the driving force. Experimental research suggests that support for the use of coercive tactics hinges less on what protesters actually do than on how they’re portrayed—by officials, the media, and through racial and ideological frames.
Dell Cameron is an investigative reporter from Texas covering privacy and national security. He’s the recipient of multiple Society of Professional Journalists awards and is co-recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting. Previously, he was a senior reporter at Gizmodo and a staff writer for the Daily … Read More
