Another roundup on the roundups

A second helping of news highlights on how the ICE deportation squads have been behaving.

Since my first roundup of stories about immigration, deportation and citizenship a couple of weeks ago there have been many more stories worth noting. Among them:

* Following the Los Angeles ICE protests the U.S. Department of Justice charged at least 26 people with crimes including “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers. But many of these cases have been withdrawn, sometimes re-filed as misdemeanors following withdrawal of felony charges, and evidence has cast doubt on agents’ statements or interpretations of videos in some of the cases. “One indictment named the wrong defendant.” [The Guardian] With details about controversial acting U.S. attorney Bill Essayli, who also gets discussed in this Paul Horwitz post on regrettable appointments to interim U.S. attorney positions.

* Democratic lawmakers at both state and federal levels have introduced legislation to require law enforcers in most situations to be plainly identifiable, that is to say, not wear masks. Good, and good. Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, both Oregon Democrats, have introduced the Preventing Authoritarian Policing Tactics on America's Streets Act, which would limit the deployment of federal law enforcement officers or armed forces to a city unless the aid is requested by both the mayor and governor. [press release].

“‘Even God cannot hear us here’: What I witnessed inside an ICE women’s prison” [Tufts Daily, by arrested graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk]

* I would say we're turning into a papers-please society, except that apparently they'll beat you down even if you offer to show papers. "Pina says he tried explaining to the agents that he is American, but they ignored him. "'I told them where I was born, I had an ID, I had a social, I had a birth certificate,' he said. 'None of the ICE agents that were on scene, they didn't care.'" [ABC7 on Ontario, Calif. grocery store raid]

Yes, it keeps happening (and happening and happening) to U.S. citizens: citizen gassed and held for three days in Ventura County raids “said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention.” [Associated Press] "They said that I do not have rights, that my constitutional rights don't matter at a port of entry and that I should stop talking about rights," says U.S. citizen and Winooski, Vt. superintendent of schools Wilmer Chavarria, who in January was quoted being critical of immigration policy [MyNBC5] “You’ve got no rights here,” teenage citizen told before officers banter about having used a stun gun on his fellow car passenger and about “shooting some of them” [The Guardian]

* Also, there’s a law on the books requiring that ICE allow members of Congress access to immigrant detention facilities, but Democratic members say the agency is stonewalling their visits in various ways, so they’re suing. [New York Times]

* ICE lawyers are succeeding in hiding their names in immigration court [The Intercept]

* Tough reading, from the author of a global history of concentration camps: the role mosquitoes have played in detention camps around the world. They can supply a method of physical injury and torment that omits the sort of laying on of hands that might expose managers to investigation [Andrea Pitzer Bluesky thread] “Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns.” More Florida: “Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates ‘like dogs’, according to a report” [Guardian] Yet more Florida: “Woman who died of heart disease in ICE custody reportedly told son she wasn't allowed to see doctor for chest pains” [C.J. Ciamarella, Reason]

* Venezuelans sent to CECOT are talking about the months of abuse they endured, including torture and beatings [ProPublica, Washington Post, followup, NPR, The Atlantic (“No one was supposed to leave alive”), Mother Jones (“We got a beating for breakfast. We got a beating for lunch. We got a beating for dinner.”)] Among the released were autism awareness tattoo guy Neri Alvarado Borges and Mom and Dad tattoo guy Andry Hernandez Romero [Reuters, The Advocate]. Those sent in the other direction, from Venezuela to the U.S., include the perpetrator of a triple homicide in Madrid [El Pais]

* ICE denies that it’s disappearing people, but who are these “dozens of additional, unaccounted for passengers” on deportation flights? [404 Media]

* Donald Trump likes to shoot off his mouth about arresting big city mayors over so-called sanctuary policies that withhold cooperation with federal immigration police. So it’s worth remembering that courts have repeatedly rejected his administration’s positions on this, most recently on July 25 when federal district court Judge Lindsay Jenkins issued a ruling rejecting the administration's lawsuit against Illinois [Ilya Somin]

* “Trump Administration Orders Massive Expansion of GPS Ankle Monitors for Immigrants” [Austin Kocher on Washington Post report]

* Brutality as policy: ProPublica has identified “nearly 50 documented instances of immigration agents breaking vehicle windows” since Trump took office in January, up from “just eight in the previous decade.” Many occurred in eastern Massachusetts after border czar Tom Homan publicly vowed to bring “hell” to the Boston area. Looks a lot like a policy.

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash