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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
119K followers 1.1K following 18K posts

Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council. Commenting generally on immigration law and policy. Retweets =/= endorsements, views are my own.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 2h
What a shocking waste of time.
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Ted Hesson @tedhesson.bsky.social · 2h
ICE officers are now asking immigrants they arrest if they have ever voted illegally and whether they did so by mail or in person as part of a pre-election push to root out alleged voter fraud - which remains rare www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
washingtonpost.com
In run-up to election, ICE is asking detainees if they voted illegally
People who admit to voting illegally are then asked if it was by mail or in person.
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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 2h
Look, this is bad. Yes. But the Trump admin sent six (6) people to Maricopa and Pima. Where, by my count, there are 404 polling places, spread across 18,000 square miles (each county is ~9k sq mi). What they want is the FEAR to discourage the voting they can't actually prevent.
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Jessica Pishko @jesspish.bsky.social · 5h
“Intimidation and threats from the current administration have led funders who once saw themselves as allies to our movement to reassess political risk and pull back funding.” www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
seattletimes.com
WA immigrant support organization gutted by mass layoffs
The nonprofit laid off more than half its staff amid a unionization effort. Leadership blamed poor fundraising and a depleted budget.
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Charles Moore @charles-dc.bsky.social · 5h
These rules, and all the fines issued under them, are STAYED. That means that the government cannot enforce these fines while our case moves forward. www.publicjustice.net/federal-cour...
publicjustice.net
Federal Court Blocks Trump Administration’s Unlawful Civil Penalty Scheme Targeting Immigrant Families  - Public Justice
October 6, 2026  Contacts:  Public Justice, communications@publicjustice.net   The Legal Aid A federal court granted preliminary relief to immigrants challenging the Trump Administration's unprecedent...
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 9h
A few weeks ago, US Citizenship and Immigration Services released quarterly data on the legal immigration system through June. The data presents a stark picture of an agency going through a period of total dysfunction. As of June, net application backlogs have risen by 80% since Trump took office.
Chart showing total net USCIS immigration application backlog, from Q4 Fiscal Year 2023 through Q3 Fiscal Year 2026. The data shows backlogs were slowly dropping from net 4.3 million applications in Q4 FY 2023 to 3.8 million in Q3 FY 2024, after which applications began to rise again, increasingly every single month until Q3 FY 2026, where they stand at 7.7 million.
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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 10h
The 2nd birthright order isn’t significant bc of its legal impact as an order, but bc in it Trump personally explicitly endorsed a policy vision fundamentally opposed to 14A as interpreted by SCOTUS ICE actions destabilizing the meaning of US citizenship are consistent with Trump’s official policy
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Gabriel Malor @gabrielmalor.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Fed. judge accuses ICE agents of "apparently perjurious testimony," fabrication of evidence, false statements, fundamental misconceptions about ICE agents' authority, and more. Case involves the accidental arrest of a U.S. citizen who had to get stitches. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
So, the thought is that after issuing a fraudulent arrest warrant stating that petitioner’s information was part of the system when it was not and indicating that he could be biometrically identified even though they had not collected the information to make a positive match, Cuni attempted to reconcile these falsehoods by subsequently collecting the information, adding it to those systems and, after issuing the warrant, searching the databases again to “find” him.
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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Relative got a $500 check from US Treasury and a shocking letter full of lies signed by Trump and ending with "May God bless you". Basically a pre-electoral bribe. News reports say they're sending almost a million of these. Full text in alt below. (I told him to cash it quick before it bounces.)
Dear [name],

For years, the Biden Administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov. That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now, I am returning it to you!

With this Historic Action, my Administration is taking the surplus funds that accumulated from the Obamacare ''Premium Tax" and issuing a one-time $500 REFUND to Americans who use the HealthCare.gov platform to purchase their health insurance, but who do not receive Taxpayer Subsidies to help pay for their Coverage. You have paid into this flawed System, and now you are finally getting something back.

Healthcare Dollars should benefit Patients, not Insurance Companies or Government Bureaucrats. Since returning to office, I have fought to lower Healthcare Costs, increase Accountability, and Put Patients First. Through TrumpRx, we are delivering massive discounts on Household Prescription Drugs, and my Most-Favored-Nation Pricing Agreements have already saved Americans more than 1 Billion Dollars on much-needed Medications. We also secured an unprecedented 50 Billion Dollar investment to transform Rural Healthcare, expanded access to Health Saving Accounts for millions of people on Obamacare, and restored Pnce Transparency, all while roofing out the Waste, Fraud, and abuse across our Healthcare System.

I am proud to return your money to you, and I will never stop fighting to put the American People FIRST, restore Affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the Cost of Healthcare.

May God bless you, and may He continue to bless the United States of America!

Sincerely,

[signed] 

DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
If you're in these states, *TODAY* is deadline to register to vote. Arizona, Arkansas Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas. Even if you think you've registered: doesn't hurt to check! And there's a lot happening across them. A thread with stakes on each. ⬇️
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
As the Trump admin is calling in thousands of people here for years who are protected from persecution in their home country, Tom Homan is on TV saying people who want to avoid being sent to Africa can just "self-deport." So it's accept persecution or be deported to a third country.

CBS News
@CBSNews
Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, said people in the U.S. illegally can avoid being sent to “third countries” in Africa and other places around the world by self-deporting to their home countries.

“There’s your quick answer. If you self-deport … you're 100% likely to go to your home country,” Homan told CBS News’ 
@camiloreports
.

This past week, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to continue its third-country deportation effort.

Underneath is a video.

7:35 PM · Oct 4, 2026
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Gwynne Hogan @gwynnefitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The latest ICE arrest wave targets ppl with "withholding of removal," a status that means an immigration deemed they'd be in danger if deported to their home countries. The Trump admin is now pushing to deport them to third countries. www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/10/05/t...
thecityreporter.nyc
'But I'm Not From Ghana': ICE Targets Longtime New Yorkers for Third-Country Deportation
Immigrants with protected status who've lived in the city for decades are finding themselves swept up, shackled and threatened with expulsion.
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Max Granger @maxgranger.info · 05/10/2026
They cut down the "grandmother" tree.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Even a significant portion of Republicans are like “uhhh yeah that’s sketchy”
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Luis A. Mendez @mendezmovierpt.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Gallup's PID survey is one of the most respected and predictive surveys in the polling world. It showed a close environment before the 2024 and 2022 elections. It showed a Dem edge in 2020 and 2018...It is D+11 going into 2026. Largest lead for Dems since Obama came into office with a ~68% rating.
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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"‘But I’m Not From Ghana’: ICE Targets Longtime New Yorkers for Third-Country Deportation" -- www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/10/05/t...
thecityreporter.nyc
'But I'm Not From Ghana': ICE Targets Longtime New Yorkers for Third-Country Deportation
Immigrants with protected status who've lived in the city for decades are finding themselves swept up, shackled and threatened with expulsion.
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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
ICE has disclosed another detainee who died We know: -After 17yrs, he'd only ever been busted for... *an expired car tag.* He was in a camp run by for-profit w/ history medical neglect An American died at one of its jails *after strep-throat.* austinkocher.substack.com/p/julian-cur...
austinkocher.substack.com
Julian Curo-Churata Is the 37th Person to Die in ICE Custody This Fiscal Year, Capping Off the Agency’s Deadliest Year on Record
According to ICE, 47-year-old Peruvian national Julian Curo-Churata died in Louisiana on Tuesday, September 29.
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Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This is happening all over rural America. We need to wake up, people. There's no Greg Bovino in his Nazi coat to blow whistles it. It's daily Gestapo-type terror, aided by the banality of evil local cops www.sltrib.com/news/2026/10...
sltrib.com
ICE enforcement in a small Utah town sent a community into fear. Local police played a key role.
ICE enforcement in a small central Utah town has residents afraid to leave home, avoiding main roads and keeping their children home from school, one resident said.
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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It is no small thing for Alito to publicly rule out overturning Obergefell. The justices have sent other signals that they’re not interested, but this one closes the door.
cbsnews.com
The Alito Court: A rare interview with the influential Supreme Court justice
Justice Samuel Alito discussed his opinion in the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the leaked draft and its aftermath, same-sex marriage rights and why he's not retiring yet.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Brazil's version of the 2024 election.
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The Bolsonaro wing is also crushing it for congress and the state elections.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"With nearly 85% of votes reported, Flavio led Lula with 48.47% of the votes to the president’s 43.49%. A candidate must pass 50% in order to win outright...surveys in the run up to the election had forecast Lula leading the first-round vote by around 3...points." www.cnbc.com/2026/10/04/b...
cnbc.com
Brazil election headed to runoff, projection shows, as Bolsonaro lead narrows
Flavio Bolsonaro led Brazil’s first-round presidential vote as more than half the ballots were counted, with Datafolha projecting a runoff.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This feels like genuine heresy.
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David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Unbelievably depressing... the kind of result that drains you of all hope for the future
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 04/10/2026
also thanks jd vance and christopher rufo
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 04/10/2026
remarkable piece of journalism. really worth reading.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
An extraordinary story, and I hope you read it.
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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 04/10/2026
A Haitian man legally immigrated to Ohio, then was given an ankle monitor bc Trump withdrew his status. He threw himself in front of truck. The trucker, who voted for Trump, is haunted. “Pierre was doing what he was supposed to do. We did not do right by him.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
theatlantic.com
A Reckoning in Springfield
A truck driver out on his route confronts what the country has become.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Dug into this and her name seems to be Zhao Jing. She’s being held at Adelanto. A habeas lawsuit was filed at 11:05 AM Pacific today. On X, a user said Ms. Zhao had taught her son. As to why ICE arrested her, no idea. Most likely she’s a pending asylum applicant who got stuck in backlogs for years.
ICE detainee locator screenshot

 Search Results: 1
JING ZHAO
Country of Birth : China, Peoples Republic of Status: In ICE Custody
State: CA
Current Detention Facility: ADELANTO ICE
PROCESSING CENTERScreenshot of PACER filing:

Notice of Electronic Filing
The following transaction was entered by Bayburtski, Hohannes on 10/4/2026 at 11:05 AM PDT

Case Name:
Case Number:
Filer:
Document Number: 1
Zhao v. janecha et al
5:26-cv-05854
Jing Zhao
Docket Text:
PETITION for Writ of Habeas Corpus by a Person in Federal Custody by Petitioner Jing Zhao.常國棟GORDON/滅共..
20h
• •o
Translated from Chinese


Her name is Zhao Jing, and my heart broke when I heard her shout "Jing Zhao." Because I saw terror, helplessness, and despair on her face, which shattered me. I never imagined I'd see her in such a way. I still have her contact information; I have her email records. She was once my eldest son's early intervention teacher, with extremely fluent English close to native speaker level, and a senior staff member at that institution—a team-leading Supervisor. She's even from the same hometown as me. For someone in her situation, do you have any advice?郑存柱 @cunzhuzheng.2h
X
S Translated from Chinese
Recent Progress:
Last night, a friend of this lady reached out to me, asking for my help. Early this morning, I got in touch with Ms. Zhao by phone. After our conversation, I obtained her specific details. That friend had helped top up her phone credit. Since her father doesn't know how to answer calls from the immigration detention center, I also found a kind-hearted friend to go to her residence, visit her elderly father, and promptly check on his health condition.
I immediately drafted a writ of habeas corpus, handed it to the lawyer for review, and have now uploaded it to the federal court for official filing.
I hope she can redain her freedom soon.
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Sameer Ashar @sameer-ashar.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This is my nephew, please forward to your networks, esp any University of Maryland students.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Yeah, famously, eggheads and poindexters and nerds have never asked “is this true.”
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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The richest man in the world is agreeing with some explicitly crazy sexist shit about how only high-testosterone men should vote (no women, no “low-t” men).
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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 04/10/2026
What’s the evidence on rent control? I charted the findings from 112 studies: Great for rent-controlled tenants ✅ But: Pushes up rents for other people ❌ Pushes down new housing construction ❌ Pushes down building quality ❌
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
If you're in these 3 states, *TODAY* is deadline to register to vote. Alaska Rhode Island South Carolina Even if you think you've registered: doesn't hurt to check everything is in order. Do it now. And there's a lot to vote for across them. A thread with stakes on each. ⬇️
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The world’s richest man says he’ll rename his company because a doddering and incredibly unpopular man did a social media poll.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
What a lie. Some of these people are being imprisoned indefinitely in squalid condition in African prisons. Others report being beaten and arbitrarily deported in violation of international law back to their home countries, where they face persecution or torture.
The indefinite nature of their confinement has taken a severe toll. In October 2025, a Cuban man who was on the July flight went on a hunger strike for a month-until he started showing signs of organ failure —to protest the conditions of his detention, including his ongoing confinement and lack of access to legal counsel.
Terrified of being imprisoned in Eswatini forever, another man repeatedly told his attorney that the prison there never lets people go. One man told his attorney that he feels like a caged animal with no end in sight. The prison does not have air conditioning, making the hot, humid summer months especially uncomfortable for the men.
Food is insufficient, medication is scarce, and requests often go unmet or are belatedly met.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Trump-appointed head of DOJ's civil rights office wondering why the most powerful women in Washington are primarily on the left when the current vogue in right wing politics is debating the merits of the 19th Amendment
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Olivia Just Wants Tech To Be Fun Again @kingdomfantasy6.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This is what I'm talking about when I bring up that genAI bots are making it impossible for an open web to actually exist. It becomes expensive, a pain, and domain providers like cloudflare are profiting off both the people making bots and the people who don't have the tech skills to fight them off
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
If you’re not on X you won’t appreciate the extent to which virulent racism against Indians has become THE rallying call of the far right.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I kind of really want to see this because it seems so aggressively unpleasant on purpose?
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Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In a filing yesterday in Kennedy Center case, Rep Beatty says defendants have “categorically refused" to provide ordered discovery on Trump’s threats to close or demolish the Center if his name doesn’t go back on the façade. … 1/2 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Perhaps most starkly, Defendants have categorically refused to respond to admissions regarding Plaintiff's Supplemental Authority, which addressed two separate threats by Chairman Trump to close or demolish the Kennedy Center if he was not adequately recognized.
Defendants objected and withheld a response on the basis that such information is outside the scope of discovery, despite this Court expressly authorizing discovery by minute order into that precise topic. On Defendants' telling, although "the information requested" is the " 'subject' of Plaintiff's Notice of Supplemental Authority and facially within the Court's minute order," it is not "related to the 'substance, justification, mechanics, and process' of the Board at its August and September meetings." This directly violates the Court's minute order which made crystal clear that this is a topic for discovery.
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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Hypothetical: a president publicly discloses a private cell phone number to encourage millions to intimidate and disturb a legislator to pass a bill. It meets the criteria for state criminal harassment. Immune under Trump v. United States? Or official conduct that can overcome the presumption?
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
GOP ads right now are all about attacking trans people. Over, and over, and over. I was a gay teen in 2004 watching the Bush campaign try to win on attacking gay marriage, but the resort to this hate drive in campaign ads feels so dialed up now. I can’t imagine being an lgbt kid watching tv today.
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Nikki McCann Ramírez @nikkimcr.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Trump straight up doxxed Senator Tom Cotton this morning
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 03/10/2026
this is very funny
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Judge Sara Hill, N.D. Oklahoma, issued this decision on Thursday —>
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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is why I get pissed off when anyone accuses me of being an elitist when I say young people should go to college if they can. I say that because my dad was a local lineman and contractor who did heavy physical labor for years and has had chronic back pain since his early 30s
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 03/10/2026
The Holei Sea Arch at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park collapsed into the ocean around the same time a tropical storm hit the Big Island in September, the National Park Service said.
nyti.ms
The Holei Sea Arch, a Centuries-Old Hawaii Wonder, Crumbles Into the Pacific
A tropical storm was moving through the area when the 90-foot lava rock formation disintegrated, the National Park Service said.
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
You don't get to claim you are treating anything with "seriousness" after you assert that "narco-terrorist cartels are our hemisphere's ISIS." The further beclowning of US counterterrorism.
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 02/10/2026
Scoop: At a secret meeting this summer, an aide to Stephen Miller laid out Trump administration's plan to make it easier for states to round up and institutionalize mentally ill homeless people — by pushing a drastic policy change that would weaken the rights of millions of disabled Americans.
nbcnews.com
How Trump’s homelessness crackdown became a sweeping retreat from disability rights
After issuing a memo making it easier to institutionalize homeless people, the Justice Department began abandoning cases protecting disabled people’s right to live in the community.
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