iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 2h

some of the groups/efforts mentioned in the piece: www.mainesolidarity.org www.presentemaine.org and though i couldn't fit them into the story, many people rely on this account to learn about gofundmes: www.instagram.com/projectrelie...

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 5h

it's so much more common than we're even hearing. i'm sorry ❤️‍🩹

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 5h

just wanna re-up the part where I wrote that many immigrants in Maine have been sheltering in place since January for their own safety, with ICE still operating in the area. it is October.

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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

But it’s also true that these systems are just misogynistic. And we’re so busy holding victims to an impossibly high standard that we forget to ask the most basic questions about whether people like police did their jobs effectively.

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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

For my book, I interviewed victims, perpetrators, and school administrators. In some cases, I interviewed multiple people with different perspectives. In one case, a victim was determined “not credible” because she had deleted some of her texts with her abusive ex-boyfriend.

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 01/10/2026

“People are trying the best they can – learning and utilizing new skills, and responding to crises in community – and then there’s another one, and there’s another one, and there’s another one. “That is what the escalating violence is meant to do – it’s meant to exhaust us and confuse us.”

theguardian.com

ICE got ‘quieter’ – then killed a father in Maine. Now watch groups are shifting their tactics too

ICE-watchers get creative after the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, as Trump’s immigration crackdown takes a more secretive approach

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 01/10/2026

whether or not it stayed in the headlines, ICE's on-the-ground presence “shocked the whole system” (in one advocate's words), changing life for Maine communities. many immigrants have been effectively sheltering in place since Jan, relying on grocery drop-offs and volunteers to take kids to school.

theguardian.com

ICE got ‘quieter’ – then killed a father in Maine. Now watch groups are shifting their tactics too

ICE-watchers get creative after the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, as Trump’s immigration crackdown takes a more secretive approach

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 01/10/2026

during "Catch of the Day," ICE agents followed observers home to intimidate them, fired pepper balls at their cars and told residents they would be added to a “domestic terrorist” list. multiple ICE observers have since launched a federal class action lawsuit and other litigation against DHS.

theguardian.com

ICE got ‘quieter’ – then killed a father in Maine. Now watch groups are shifting their tactics too

ICE-watchers get creative after the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, as Trump’s immigration crackdown takes a more secretive approach

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 01/10/2026

as in so many parts of the country, the Mainers holding up immigrant communities need more people to join in — but people aren't talking about ICE as much. amid DHS's "quiet crackdown", ICE arrested more people in Maine between January and July 2026 than from 2024-2025 combined. @us.theguardian.com

theguardian.com

ICE got ‘quieter’ – then killed a father in Maine. Now watch groups are shifting their tactics too

ICE-watchers get creative after the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, as Trump’s immigration crackdown takes a more secretive approach

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 01/10/2026

in July an ICE agent killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. just 6 months prior, agents abducted 100 people in 3 days during "Catch of the Day" I joined Mainers monitoring an ICE facility despite harassment, making memorials, protesting Congress, and caring for their neighbors @us.theguardian.com

theguardian.com

ICE got ‘quieter’ – then killed a father in Maine. Now watch groups are shifting their tactics too

ICE-watchers get creative after the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, as Trump’s immigration crackdown takes a more secretive approach

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 01/10/2026

like others, i put myself on blast as a 20 year old in hopes it would help my school realize that i was as much as a person as my abuser, all over a year before me too happened, and again i believe the media, rape culture, and the "DEI" backlash that both parties participate in have worsened things

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 01/10/2026

it's really crazy because survivors doing story-sharing was meant as an organizing and community building tactic but in the digital era it's just grist for the media and/or harassment mill

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 30/09/2026

When federal agents fatally shot the US citizen protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis in January during the nation’s largest immigration-enforcement operation ever, it marked a turning point for the second Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. 🧵

Children look at posters honoring Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, who were fatally shot by federal immigration agents in separate incidents on January 24 and January 7, respectively, near the site of Pretti’s death, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 31, 2026.

REUTERS/Tim Evans

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Katie Drummond @katie-drummond.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Today, @wired.com is publishing Choke Points, an 18-month investigation into how Israel’s network of checkpoints, gates, and roadblocks is reshaping daily life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. A thread on the reporting, and what we found:

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 30/09/2026

the pic is of me! but i'm still in touch with many of them today :)

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 30/09/2026

there is a generation of current college students who didn’t realize that #MeToo didn’t end rape culture, in part because the adults around them ridiculed it for going “too far”; the generation in between was silenced and punished, while the schools let student turnover free them from accountability

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 30/09/2026

this picture is from 10 years ago in October. as students we took it upon ourselves to organize bystander intervention and consent workshops because our institutions let survivors down. it popped into my head this week considering how in some ways students today have worse material conditions

Lex in 2016 in college, holding a white board reading “it’s on us to end sexual violence because as a 2x survivor I am seeking justice by creating an accountable, healing and radically loving community”

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brittany spanos 🧿 @ohheybrittany.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

my latest cover story is on megan thee stallion for marie claire 🧡 we went deep on her health scare during moulin rouge, life after klay thompson and what to expect with her upcoming album ‘act iii’ read here: www.marieclaire.com/culture/mega...

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Chicago Reader @chicagoreader.com · 29/09/2026

Federal authorities tapped into a network of Flock automated license plate readers and surveillance cameras while trying to prosecute Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ruiz last year, according to court records reviewed by the Reader. 🧵

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 29/09/2026

on top of the emails showing Epstein directly supporting individual predatory professors, a professor who planned a "campus rape and consent" conference with the intention of undermining mid-2010s attempts at progress around Title IX requested funding for it from Epstein

chron.com

Former UT professor sought money from Jeffrey Epstein Foundation

He sought $10K-$20K to cover the costs of a campus rape policy event.

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 29/09/2026

Public backlash against ICE climaxed after the January 2026 fatal shootings of two US citizens in Minneapolis. Since then, stealthier arrest operations have fueled enforcement that is quieter but just as ruthless. The 24 hours between the mornings of July 13-14 stand out as exceptionally deadly. 🧵

Blood is seen on the pavement near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine.

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Bex 🖤🏴 @thinlyveiledtruth.cryptoanarchy.network · 28/09/2026

People are disappearing incredibly quickly. And part of the invisibility is that just when we need even more capacity for rapid response and patrols, public interest has turned away because people don't think it's a problem anymore. We're tired.

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Sandy Ernest Allen @sandyernestallen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Re-sharing (and shares welcomed!!!), my upcoming class for @shipmanagency.bsky.social … Starting this Saturday, on pitching, open to nonfiction writers of all kinds … Enroll today, if you are considering doing so, it’s last call … www.theshipmanagency.com/classes/craf...

theshipmanagency.com

Craft Seminar: The Art of the Pitch with Sandy Ernest Allen — The Shipman Agency

2 Sessions: Saturdays, October 3 + 10 1:00-3:00pm ET Sandy Ernest Allen Master the art of pitching with journalist and editor Sandy Ernest Allen. Sandy is a trans and queer freelance journalist, a...

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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

For every story like the Cornell gang rape, there are thousands more that couldn’t make it into the light. I wrote about a few dozen of them at one university in On the Wrong Side. The university’s treatment of survivors is eerily similar to what Jane Doe at Cornell experienced.

bookshop.org

On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence

"Bedera dispels deeply ingrained campus rape myths and puts the innate violence of the campus sexual assault reporting process into focus."--Jezebel"The book's grim conclusions are tempered with a hop...

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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

And that brings us to present day. The most reliable way for a campus sexual assault story to make it into a newspaper is for the survivor to file a lawsuit against their school. And the two main vehicles survivors used to do that have been closed for years.

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Will Craft @wcraft.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This story was a big collaboration between graphics, data, photo, and immigration. A story with bylines across 4 desks, which I think shows the seriousness with which The Guardian takes covering this

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026

For every arrest that breaks through into public view, countless others happen quickly, before anyone can notice. Now ICE is anywhere and everywhere, embedded in all corners of everyday life.

theguardian.com

Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever

After public backlash, the Trump administration changed its tactics from ‘siege’ to ‘soft feet’. Now, ICE is everywhere

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026

But an increasing proportion of arrests have been made by local law enforcement in partnership with ICE, via 287(g) agreements. In many regions, it can be difficult to know when local officers are conducting routine policework or immigration enforcement. In many cases, they are doing both.

A chart showing immigration arrests by local police, which have increased steadily since ICE's new enforcement strategy began in April 2026, reaching its highest amount above 200 arrests per day in late June 2026.

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026

The biggest category of arrests this summer were people on probation, picked up by immigration officers at their work, or who were arrested in communities across the country.

A chart showing immigration arrests by immigration enforcement in communities, where arrests peaked in late June 2026 at over 1,000 per day.

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026

As has long been the case, ICE works with jails and prisons to take custody of immigrants after they have been booked in. Since Trump took office last year, only 46% of detainees have been previously convicted of crimes.

A chart showing immigration arrests by transfer from jail or prison, with daily arrests peaking over 600 in July 2026.

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026

And it's clear that ICE is using both familiar and novel tactics to maximize arrests, from jail transfers to so-called 287(g) agreements that deputize local police forces to carry out immigration enforcement on ICE’s behalf.

A chart that breaks down the trend of immigration arrests into four categories:

- Immigration enforcement in communities
- Transfer from jail or prison
- Local police
- Other

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026

ICE is now lying in wait outside convenience stores, or at busy intersections. Agents are arresting people at international airports. Local police and sheriffs, deputized by the federal government, are detaining immigrants during traffic stops. ICE is now detaining more immigrants than ever before.

A chart that shows a timeline of ICE immigration enforcement against different significant events (Los Angeles raids, Minneapolis and Chicago raids), with a line in late March 2026 that says "New enforcement strategy begins" before a peak of over 1,500 daily arrests in July 2026.

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026

Gone are the mass raids and militarized metro operations. Gone are the pomp and pageantry. But ICE arrests have hit record levels. ICE operations are no longer concentrated in large American cities. Immigration enforcement officials are also working in suburban and rural areas, all across the US.

A map of the United States that shows immigration arrests per 100,000 people since ICE's new enforcement strategy began under DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin.

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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 28/09/2026

At the height of the ICE raids earlier this year, agents in armored military vehicles rolled through residential neighborhoods. Masked agents patrolled public parks and stationed themselves outside elementary schools; squadrons of ICE agents snatched pedestrians off the streets. 🧵

Federal agents line up in front of community members at the scene where federal agents fatally shot a man while trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 24, 2026.

REUTERS/Tim Evans

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The Xylom @thexylom.com · 28/09/2026

A group led by formerly incarcerated women spent years advocating for those trapped inside prison walls during Texas’ hot summers. This week, a federal judge ruled that the state must air-condition all Texas prisons by the end of 2029. This story was first published by @19thnews.org.

thexylom.com

The ‘Lionesses’ Who Sued To Get Air Conditioning in Every Texas Prison — And Won

A group led by formerly incarcerated women spent years advocating for those trapped inside prison walls during Texas’ hot summers.

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Kylie Cheung @kylietcheung.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I can't recommend @nbedera.bsky.social's book 'On the Wrong Side' enough. I interviewed her in 2024, this part really stuck with me. Rapists often don't just not face consequences but reap benefits bc the school is so sorry for even investigating them/afraid of seeming 'biased':

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 28/09/2026

I am being extremely well behaved and relegating my full thoughts about this to my book proposal

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 25/09/2026

honestly really impressive this eboard was able to run this without cornell locking them out of their office/dorm rooms

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