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McKenzie Funk

@mckenziefunk.com
12K followers 224 following 61 posts

Reporter @propublica.org, author of The Hank Show and Windfall | Signal: mckenziefunk.01 | Other secure contacts: keybase.io/mckenziefunk

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Reposted by McKenzie Funk
Doug Bock Clark @dougbockclark.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
1/ This spring, while investigating the Trump administration’s efforts to influence the midterm elections, my reporting partner @jenafifield.bsky.social and I noticed something unprecedented, something very troubling… 🧵👇
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 15/05/2026
Seven months after @nicolefoy.bsky.social reported on the 170+ U.S. citizens (and counting) detained by immigration authorities, it keeps happening and happening and happening, even to the same people
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Nicole Foy @nicolefoy.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
I’m in D.C. again today as several U.S. Citizen families share their stories about their (often violent) arrests by immigration agents In this picture: Anabel Romero of Idaho speaking while her 14YO, 8YO & 6YO listen behind her. All are citizens detained during an FBI-ICE raid in Idaho last year
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Mica Rosenberg @micarosenberg.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
NEW: For the first time, ProPublica has been able to quantify how many U.S. citizen children have been directly affected by Trump’s immigration crackdown: more than 11,000 kids had a parent detained — and that’s an undercount. 1/ 🧵 www.propublica.org/article/trum...
propublica.org
Trump Has Detained the Parents of More Than 11,000 U.S. Citizen Kids
A ProPublica analysis of new ICE data shows that Trump has detained parents of U.S. citizen children at about twice the rate that Biden did, and moms have been deported four times as often.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 21/03/2026
THREAD: Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at the hospital when a tablet was brought to her bedside. On the screen was a Zoom call with a judge and several lawyers and doctors. She was in court, a nurse told her. The reason? For failing to agree to a C-section.
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 20/03/2026
An average of 600 kids and parents had been arriving at Dilley every month. But "in February, those so-called books-ins fell to 133. As of mid-March, they dropped again to just 54." Many moms and kids we wrote about are already out, including Edison, a Chicago 7th grader who got home Wednesday.
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Rob Davis @robwdavis.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
NEW: Nike says its factory workers should earn enough to pay their basic needs and have some money left over. In Indonesia, its factory workforce has shrunk where the minimum wage is considered enough to live on. And it has grown, dramatically, where the opposite is true.
propublica.org
Nike Is Moving Jobs to Low-Wage Regions of Indonesia
After moving manufacturing to the developing world to save on labor, Nike and other apparel brands are shifting employment in their Indonesian supply chain away from high-wage parts of the country and...
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Mica Rosenberg @micarosenberg.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Citing reporting by @propublica.org and others, nearly 4,000 doctors, nurses and health professionals sent a letter to DHS Sec Kristi Noem calling for the immediate release of all children currently in immigration detention. Full letter: tinyurl.com/yz2amueb 1/
tinyurl.com
End Child Detention Letter with signatures Feb 26 2026
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Nicole Foy @nicolefoy.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Hello! I’m the reporter who has been tracking citizens detained by immigration agents. And last night, I noticed something: A lot of them were at the State of the Union, including a number of whom I’ve written about. Their stories should be known:
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 26/02/2026
Amid what detainees say is a clampdown in Dilley, TX, including seizures of kids' drawings and crayons, Christian Hinojosa stuffed letters in her jacket to hide them from guards. She told @micarosenberg.bsky.social and me her story. We published the letters today. www.propublica.org/article/dill...
propublica.org
Seized Art, Eavesdropping Guards: Parents Describe a Clampdown at Dilley Detention Center as Kids Shared Their Stories
Detainees told ProPublica that art supplies have been removed in room searches, immigrants have lost access to Gmail and staff hover within earshot during video calls.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 13/02/2026
📽️ WATCH: We went inside the immigrant family detention center in Dilley, Texas. Listen to what kids told reporter @micarosenberg.bsky.social about their life in detention — and the things they’ve lost and left behind. Read more: propub.li/4toqME6
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Mica Rosenberg @micarosenberg.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Read our full story that details how we got inside the Dilley detention center for immigrant families here: www.propublica.org/article/life...
propublica.org
The Kids Trump Sent to ICE’s Dilley Detention Center
ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of...
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 09/02/2026
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
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Mica Rosenberg @micarosenberg.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
This is 18-mo-old Amalia waving to me when she was detained. She was hospitalized with a respiratory infection while at ICE’s Dilley facility for immigrant families. She’s one of dozens of detainees who I spoke to via video and phone calls, letters and an in-person visit. 🧵1/
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 15/01/2026
"No puedo respirar"—the same phrase @nicolefoy.bsky.social and I heard while reporting our recent @propublica.org story about immigration agents' use of banned chokeholds. These and other neck restraints have been prohibited since at least 2011 in detention facilities: www.ice.gov/doclib/deten...
ice.gov
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Nicole Foy @nicolefoy.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
I’m one of the ProPublica reporters who has been documenting the aggressive tactics federal agents are using against immigrants & U.S. citizens All eyes are on Minnesota right now, but I want to tell you about Arnoldo Bazan, a 16-YO citizen in Houston who was choked by immigration agents in October
A teenage boy with dark hair and a black and gold football jersey holds his helmet, standing on the side line of a green football field
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 15/01/2026
This is an outstanding and infuriating story, very well done, and well worth a read even with all else that’s going on.
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 14/01/2026
Breaking from CBS: the officer who killed Renee Good "suffered internal bleeding" Also from CBS, a few days ago: "but the direction of the tires appears to be facing away from the officer" www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ywL...
youtube.com
Retired ICE agent breaks down deadly Minneapolis shooting
YouTube video by CBS Evening News
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Guy Oron @guyoron.net · 12/12/2025
Thank you to my editors, fellow staff, vendors and volunteers, and most importantly, our readers. I couldn’t have done it without all of you. Read my full farewell letter here: www.realchangenews.org/news/2025/12...
realchangenews.org
Farewell for now
Guy Oron writes a heartfelt letter about his nearly four years working at Real Change, expressing gratitude to readers for their support and pride his impactful journalism.
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 26/11/2025
Incredible @matinastevis.bsky.social story about an asylum-seeker kept apart from her son and family as she ping-ponged back and forth between U.S. and Canadian immigration officials has a telling detail about ICE Air. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/w...
Screenshot of story text: 
“You need to go because you are American,” Rahel told him. “I will stay here because I am Eritrean.” She smiled weakly, trying to put on a brave face for him. “Remember, mommy is a fighter and she’s going to fight,” she said.

Rahel was moved from one place to the next until eventually she boarded a plane, its destination unclear. She realized that, if there were an emergency, she would not be able to reach the oxygen mask with her shackled hands.

She complained to an ICE officer.

“Nothing we can do,” she said he told her. “These are the rules.”

She couldn’t stop imagining that the cabin would experience air loss and she would die trying to reach her mask.

When the plane landed, Rahel saw that another detainee had begun menstruating and blood had seeped through her clothes and onto her seat. She would remain like this, blood drenching her clothes, as she moved from the plane to buses and walked in front of dozens of officers.

“How can this be happening in America?” Rahel thought.
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 24/11/2025
"A cracked windshield, a waiting officer, a forgotten document: The new family separations often start in the most mundane ways." From our story out today: www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
Article text: “In South Carolina, a Colombian family of five went to a government office for a fingerprinting appointment, only to have the parents detained while the children — ages 5, 11 and 15 — were sent into the shelter system for four months. In South Florida, a 17-year-old from Guatemala was taken into custody because officers couldn't make contact with his dad after a traffic stop; his dad is deaf. In Maryland, a 17-year-old from Mexico ended up in a shelter after making a wrong turn onto military property.”
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Mario Alejandro Ariza @marioarizabaez.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
1. This year traffic stops by Florida cops have led to at least two dozen immigrant kids being separated from their family or caregivers and placed in federal shelters. For one 15-year-old, it began with a cracked windshield.
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Mica Rosenberg @micarosenberg.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
NEW: Today we published a new investigation into something happening largely out of view: immigrant kids getting separated from their families and placed in federal shelters, in some cases after something as mundane as a traffic stop🧵 1/ www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
propublica.org
ICE Sent 600 Immigrant Kids to Detention in Federal Shelters This Year. It’s a New Record.
Under a zero tolerance policy, the first Trump administration separated immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. New data suggests separations are happening all over the count...
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Sharon Lerner @fastlerner.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Amazing research by @natlash.bsky.social on how the wind helped spread the bird flu virus around Ohio and beyond. Scary — and terrifically nerdy www.propublica.org/article/bird...
propublica.org
What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic
Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vacci...
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Anna Clark @annaleighclark.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
A Black Hawk helicopter. SWAT teams repelling to the roof. 300 agents. Flash-bang grenades. A TV crew. “It’s 20,000 of them running through my house like we got Saddam Hussein in the closet." For all that, fed prosecutors filed no criminal charges against anyone who was arrested. Stunning report.
propublica.org
“I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime
Authorities said Tren de Aragua “terrorists” had taken over the building. A ProPublica investigation found little evidence to back up the government’s claims. For the first time, the Venezuelans arres...
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 06/11/2025
War ravaged” Portland? @robwdavis.bsky.social , Steve Suo, and Joanna Shan watched hundreds and hundreds of videos to find out. (And the federal government, apparently, did not.)
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 31/10/2025
Veterans with cancer struggling to get VA benefits... because it's breast cancer... because they're men... because "gender ideology extremism" caused this cancer?
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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
So a few months ago, we detailed how immigration agents were breaking car windows to grab the people inside. Well, it turns out one agent just did that *with his gun* and mistakenly shot the person inside and a U.S. marshal. www.cnn.com/2025/10/21/u...
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 21/10/2025
Idaho's new "law runs against one of the hallmarks of modern public health: that a person’s full participation in society depends on their willingness to follow certain rules." By the great @audreydutton.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/idah...
propublica.org
Idaho Banned Vaccine Mandates. Activists Want to Make It a Model for the Country.
The Idaho Medical Freedom Act makes it illegal to require anyone to take a vaccine or receive “medical intervention.” Leslie Manookian, the activist behind the law, hopes to make it a “societal norm” ...
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 21/10/2025
Panicked kidnapping reports during immigration raids in Santa Ana: “He’s bleeding,” one 911 caller said. “They dumped him into a white van. It doesn’t say ICE”... Another: “Should we just run?” New story by @davidmcswane.bsky.social and @hannahallam.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/trum...
propublica.org
How Trump is Building a Violent, Shadowy Federal Police Force
Trump’s DHS appointees have dismantled civil rights guardrails, protected agents’ anonymity and encouraged them to wear masks, threatened groups that stood in their way, and overwhelmed legal challeng...
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Nicole Foy @nicolefoy.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
Hi, I'm the ProPublica reporter who's been tracking an unusual stat: U.S. citizens grabbed by immigration agents. I did it because the government isn’t. This is what I found.
White words on a black background read:

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Immigration agents have the authority to detain whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. We found more than 50 Americans who were held after agents questioned their citizenship. They were almost all Latino.

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Agents also can arrest citizens who allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers. We compiled cases of about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, accused of assaulting or impeding officers. 

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Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer.
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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Let me help you with that, Speaker Johnson. This is what we documented. www.propublica.org/article/immi...
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 16/10/2025
Over on Twitter, DHS just questioned @nicolefoy.bsky.social's vital @propublica.org reporting on American citizens arrested by immigration agents, calling her story "fake news." But—whoops!—they conveniently forgot the link. Here it is. Check the receipts. www.propublica.org/article/immi...
Screenshot of an October 16, 2025 tweet by the Department of Homeland Security claiming that ProPublica's reporting that more than 170 U.S. citizens have been arrested by immigration authorities since January was "fake news" and that DHS enforcement operations are "HIGHLY TARGETED"
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 16/10/2025
The reality of Kavanaugh stops: American citizens dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot by immigration agents. Citizens held in the rain while in their underwear. A pregnant citizen's door blown off while Kristi Noem watched. Important story by @nicolefoy.bsky.social of @propublica.org
Screenshot of the article by Nicole Foy of ProPublica: 
"When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned.

“If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.”

But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.

About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones."
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Till Eckert @tilleckert.com · 06/10/2025
I recently reported on an ICE officer who was publicly reprimanded and “relieved of his duties” after shoving a woman to the ground in an NYC immigration court. Well, he’s back. DHS did not respond to a request for comment. Original story: www.propublica.org/article/ice-... Photos: Carol Guzy
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Till Eckert @tilleckert.com · 30/09/2025
1/ DEVELOPING: A journalist was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital following another incident with an ICE agent at 26 Federal Plaza, an immigration court in NYC. The last I heard, he was getting X-rays for his lower back.
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 30/09/2025
Trump texts OR governor Kotek on Sunday: "They attacked our ICE Patriots last night... I won’t let that happen in America!" Staffer texts Kotek after talking to police: "There was one misdemeanor arrest. Also a report of a laser pointer at a helicopter and that’s it.” www.opb.org/article/2025...
opb.org
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and President Donald Trump trade testy texts over troop deployment
Gov. Tina Kotek and an assistant to President Donald Trump exchanged tense texts throughout the weekend as it became clear the President planned to deploy 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to p...
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Cengiz Yar @cengizyar.com · 27/09/2025
“I didn’t think I’d come here to the United States and the same thing would happen to me.” www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
propublica.org
I Filmed the ICE Officer Who Shoved a Woman. It Felt Like the New Normal.
I arrived in the U.S. eight weeks ago to report on how the administration’s immigration crackdown was playing out from the front lines. What I saw Thursday was the culmination of ICE’s aggressive beha...
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Till Eckert @tilleckert.com · 26/09/2025
8/ If you have tips about new ICE enforcement tactics in courts, my colleagues and I want to hear from you. Reach out to me on Signal (tilleckert.90) or via propublica.org/tips.
propublica.org
How to Contact ProPublica or Send a Tip Securely — ProPublica
Our job is to hold people and institutions accountable. To do that, we need evidence.
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Tim Shorrock @timshorrock.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
For those folks posting about South Korea's angry response to Trump's ICE raid on Korean companies in Georgia, this interview & post from me helps explain why: in part, national PTSD from 40 years of military dictatorship. I've covered Korea since 1980. 🌺 timshorrock.substack.com/p/my-intervi...
timshorrock.substack.com
My interview with BBC about Trump's ICE raid on the Hyundai/LG plant in Georgia
I spoke to the Beeb's Business Report this morning about the South Korean response to the raid and the anger ICE has generated. They wanted to emphasize what the Koreans did wrong, but I persevered.
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Anna Clark @annaleighclark.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
The Midwest newsroom at @propublica.org is amazing. Fantastically talented, hard-working, good-hearted people who do this work for all the right reasons. And so much fun to be around. I love being part of it. Come join us! This is a **solid-gold journalism job opportunity.**
job-boards.greenhouse.io
Reporter, Midwest
Regions
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ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 16/09/2025
We ❤️ @ire.org! @propublica.org employees wore buttons & flyered at the IRE gala to rally support for our fight for a fair contract. The future of investigative journalism depends on protecting the workers who make it possible. You can help by signing our petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...
People wearing union shirts stand outside a red carpet at the entrance of an event as people walk in.People wearing union shirts and stickers smile and hand out ProPublica Guild buttons.Five people sit at a table for an event wearing stickers and buttons supporting the ProPublica Guild.Two people walking into an event wear stickers in support of the ProPublica Guild.
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Eva Holland @evaholland.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Something good: a new, nonprofit newsroom run by some wonderful, experienced folks (core crew from Outside mag's glory days) dedicated to journalism about American public lands! Looks like the plan is to collaborate a fair bit with other outlets.
republic.land
RE:PUBLIC
INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM FOR PUBLIC LANDS.
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Jessica Lussenhop @jlussenhop.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Good morning friends, I've got some ✨ news ✨ www.propublica.org/atpropublica...
propublica.org
Jessica Lussenhop to Host Forthcoming ProPublica Weekly Podcast
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
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Wallace House Center for Journalists @umwallacehouse.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Next Week! We can't wait to welcome @npr.org’s Andrea Hsu to deliver the 38th Graham Hovey Lecture. The event is named in honor of the late Graham Hovey, director of the fellowship program from 1980 to 1986 and NYT journalist. RSVP: loom.ly/xX4qF08
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Martha Bellisle @marthabellisle.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Lawyers for one of the wildland firefighters arrested by Border Patrol are demanding he be released, saying his detention was illegal and that he was on track for a special visa that was still being processed. apnews.com/article/immi...
apnews.com
Lawyers demand Border Patrol release firefighter arrested while battling Washington wildfire
Lawyers are demanding the release of a longtime Oregon resident arrested by Border Patrol while fighting a Washington state wildfire.
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The Seattle Times @seattletimes.com · 28/08/2025
Federal agents showed up northeast of Lake Cushman to check identification of crew members fighting Washington's largest active wildfire.
seattletimes.com
Federal agents arrest firefighters working on WA wildfire
Federal agents showed up northeast of Lake Cushman to check identification of crew members fighting Washington's largest active wildfire.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 17/08/2025
📽️ WATCH: Student Kenneth Santizo captured ICE and FBI officers stopping a family on their way to church in the Boston suburbs. Agents broke the window, forced Daniel Flores-Martinez to his knees and slammed him to the ground while his children and his wife, a U.S. citizen, sobbed in the car.
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 11/08/2025
After a catastrophic rookie season, then years of lobbying by its politically connected owner, he icebreaker Aiviq—now the Storis—was commissioned as a Coast Guard vessel in Juneau, AK on Sunday. Great report from the scene by @alaska.bsky.social: alaskabeacon.com/2025/08/10/u...
alaskabeacon.com
U.S. Coast Guard adds icebreaker to fleet for first time in 25 years | Alaska Beacon
The U.S. Coast Guard commissioned its first additional polar icebreaker in 25 years in Juneau on Sunday, marking what officials called a new era in Arctic activity for the United States.
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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 07/08/2025
THREAD: All over the country, immigration officers are smashing car windows to get at the people inside. As we began tracking incidents, my @propublica.org colleague @nicolefoy.bsky.social and I had two questions: First, is this legal? Second, is it, well, normal? Was this happening before? 1/
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